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3.5 

Second Place

By Rachel Cusk
Second Place by Rachel Cusk digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

A haunting fable of art, family, and fate from the author of the Outline trilogy.

A woman invites a famous artist to use her guesthouse in the remote coastal landscape where she lives with her family. Powerfully drawn to his paintings, she believes his vision might penetrate the mystery at the center of her life. But as a long, dry summer sets in, his provocative presence itself becomes an enigma—and disrupts the calm of her secluded household.

Second Place, Rachel Cusk’s electrifying new novel, is a study of female fate and male privilege, the geometries of human relationships, and the moral questions that animate our lives. It reminds us of art’s capacity to uplift—and to destroy.

991 Reviews

3.5
Thinking Face“Cusk strikes again with her deeply philosophical and gorgeous writing style. Second Place is a fascinating exploration of how we often delude ourselves by romanticising things that we know very little about, inevitably leading to our downfall. It is also a great reflection on the complexity of motherhood and the fear of ageing and becoming “less beautiful.” So many great lines in this book, my copy is heavily annotated! However, I have brought my rating down to three stars for a few reasons: - L’s character was extremely vague - maybe that’s the point of the book but I didn’t enjoy it that much. His behaviour seems extremely random and unexplained and at the end of the book I felt quite unsatisfied. - In fact, the only characters with depth seemed to be the women- the protagonist, Justine and Brett. - The story addresses Jeffers every paragraph but we never find out who he is and why the protagonist is retelling this story to him. It feels like a pointless addition to the story that eventually got a bit annoying”
Thinking Face“Extra star for the writing style alone.”

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