Outline: A Novel | 
pickThis book had peaked my curiosity last year, and I had the chance to read it this weekend. The book is a series of ordinary encounters and observations. Not much happens, but much is revealed of humanity, life, and relationships. And I loved the fluidity of Rachel Cusk's writing. Definitely plan to continue with the trilogy!
pickI greatly enjoyed this book. It's a book of meandering thoughts; no plot to speak of, but I love how fluid it was and how it took me from one place, one character, one story to another. I understand how this book isn't for everyone, and how each person will read it differently. I'll continue on with the next books in the trilogy.
On to this; mixed reviews so let's see where I fall. Should I order the next books now? I'm trying to practice self control by not doing so. I think I ought to see first if I like this one.
3 orders from online thrift stores arrived today! I love book mail. 🤩
pickI haven‘t read a book that felt so vivid and showed a true depiction of humanity in a long time. Outline was simple and beautifully written and is a new favorite! Someone had recommended it to me when I asked whether you‘d read a book that didn‘t contain a relationship—not love but any kind of relationship—but I disagree: This book was full of people telling their stories in an attempt at being understood by each other and themselves. Beautiful!
so-soI won a signed copy of the last book in this series so of course I had to go and buy the first two. (It drives me crazy that the second one is different!!)
The book is pretty much made up of different conversations. Although some parts were interesting, I found my mind wandering. 3 ⭐️ I‘m not rushing to read the other two.
Books read in February 2019.
Five-star reads include House of Impossible Beauties, Outline, Fired Up, My Brother's Husband, and Double Awesome Chinese Food.
Happy Galentine's Day to you, too, @Caroline2 , and thank you! I'm curious about the marmite nature of this one (I've not read her before) and wonder what I will make of it.
How lovely is that card, too? Here's an idea for the wonderful #jbuk Littens: the first person to guess correctly how many of the books depicted I've read wins a prize! Comment below if you want to play. One guess each! 😉
(#jbuk members only, because of postage costs)
pickI really enjoyed this novel where nothing much happens but much is revealed through the nuance of conversation and connection.
pickThis is a hard one to review....it‘s brilliant, yet kinda boring! Profound and thought provoking yet superficial and irritating. I wanted to bail but I also wanted more. I loved it, I hated it. Maybe I need to sleep on this? 🤔
pickAh, I was so seduced by the way Cusk‘s nearly unnamed main character acts as a vessel for her encounters. Though she isn't fleshed out in page space, the way she re-tells the reader what her friends & acquaintances have just told her provided enough of a voyeuristic lens for me to understand & enjoy Faye too. There IS a subtle thread of plot that leads from the first chapter to the last, this could also be read as a collection of short stories.
pickThis novel has no plot. It is nothing more than a series of encounters. A novelist travels to Athens to teach a writing course. She meets various people, some strangers, some friends, and they tell her stories from their lives. Along the way she shares a few telling details of her own. It may sound unpromising, but I found it fascinating.
Has this on my shelf forever, going to take a chance and read it.
October was the month of the epic and/or intense read for me. Although slow, it was full of excellent reads. Outline was definitely the stand out, and a top quality buddy read at that! The new Kingsolver and Zusak‘s were absolute treats. I was a fan of the two polarising Booker shortlisted novels I read. Our #indiebuddyread was perturbing but thought provoking. November is set to be the #readharder catch up month!
pickOutline is essentially plotless. It‘s not a novel about events, or even particular characters. Even the narrator herself is barely seen, only in the reflection of those she interacts with.
Significantly, Cusk‘s novel, in being about no one, or no thing in particular, is really about all of us. In reading this, we are all outlines, waiting to be filled by the reflections of others, the things that we engage with, which allow us to see ourselves.
Chapter 6. The observations in this are so astute.
This book!
👌🏻
pick#backpackEurope travelogue *fictional*
Country 18: Greece is stunning. I loved seeing the Parthenon (LANDMARK) and the Acropolis in Athens (Greek mythology/history is fun!). I also toured the islands of Santorini and Mykonos and ate so much good food (pita and hummus, yogurt and honey and more)!
This book is also stunning. A woman goes to Greece and has conversations. Meditative, philosophical, thoughtful. Like a concise Karl Ove Knausgaard. 5/5
I want to read this but I‘m going to have to get over my resentment of sans serif fonts. Really - Arial? It‘s making me cast judgment before I‘ve read it...
so-soAlthough this wasn‘t one of my favorite books, I did find many quotes that I felt were very relatable. Not so sure that I‘ll finish the other 2 books in this series.
pickCusk's novel in ten conversations, what Maureen Corrigan calls autobiographies in miniature, features an outline of a narrative. Meditations on perception & love (containing the best passages on marriage I've recently read), Cusk calls to mind Ali Smith in the way the domestic & intimate intersect with the cultural & political. The speakers are frequently disillusioned, yet none seem to feel hopeless. Rather they are speaking out of experience.
pickA quick nap detoured me from from #24in48 progress but I was glad to be refreshed enough to enjoy the stunning writing and philosophical observations in this exceptional novel. Rachel Cusk‘s insight and analysis of human suffering and frailty is spectacular. What a tour de force 5/5 @24in48 this one will be hard to top!
It‘s not the ocean, but I‘ll take it. Gonna attempt to read this first before kudos has to go back to the library. Two books in five days? Sounds like a challenge for this slow reader.
pickA good read! Will definitely carry on reading the other books in this series. A really intriguing and clever approach by Rachel Cusk.
pickI cannot decide what why I think of this book. It feels like an emotionless intellectual exercise in which every character describes feelings and never feels anything at all. And yet. And yet. I find it a somehow compelling narrative just the same. In the end because of its brevity I‘m declaring it a pick.
pickI read this yesterday, and I hardly ever finish a book in one day. This novel is hard to summarize since it's about more than the story's outline. A female author travels to Athen to learn aspiring would-be authors to write. And while she's there she talks with people and the novel centers around these conversations and her thoughts during them. I'll definitely read the next novel in this trilogy.
Day 6 of the #Riotgrams Challenge: duologies, trilogies, & more! Rachel Cusk‘s Outline trilogy is perfection and the final book came out yesterday, so it is complete. Read it and weep, babies. ❤️🕊🎶
I just received the Advanced Reader Copy of the third in this series, so it was time for me to finally pick this up. I have been holding this off for the “perfect” time to read it. I‘m only a few pages in and I love the tone so far.
pickI loved this so much!!! And, yet, to describe it, it doesn‘t seem like anything I would choose. But, this is fabulous and subtle and so very brilliant. The reader gets snippets of life from students, colleagues and passing strangers of the protagonist. These small stories create the outline of the title. The protagonist is known only in negative space, in her reactions to others. I‘ll be grabbing the second book in this series ASAP! #audiobook
I stumbled across literary-map.com that helps you find authors similar to the one you love ( or want to avoid!) Type in the name as I did for Rachel Cusk and presto!
bailedNope, can‘t do it. Too much description, not enough story.
bailedI found a few quotable quotes...
I was no longer interested in literature as a form of snobbery or even of self-definition–I had no desire to prove that one book was better than another: in fact, if I read something I admired I found myself increasingly disinclined to mention it at all. What I knew personally to be true had come to seem unrelated to the process of persuading others. I did not, any longer, want to persuade anyone of anything.
pickTo be honest, it was quite brilliant but it wasn‘t something I was dying to read. I really did appreciate what was being done here and found several scenes throughout the book beautiful. That being said, I think this is something you have to work for and at this point in my life I read for stress relief and as an escape. I think I would appreciate this much more if my life were less chaotic. Nonetheless, pick and recommended!
pickA character in the novel talks about the way we try to sum everything up in just a word and she wonders what the point is, if it is all so easily summed up. It's a great point, so I won't attempt to do that to Rachel Cusk here. The narrative gives us the outline of a protagonist. We don't get to know her through her own point of view, but rather we know her by the way she relates to others. I have never read anything like it and I loved it!
My current reads and my next up reads. Makes me happy and nervous all at once. Can I get them all done?? #librarybooks #stack #tbr
..pups woke me up early so coffee and an audiobook to start this rainy day
