Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Aftermath - Rachel Cusk

Subtitle: On marriage and separation

A slim autobiographical novel that looked interesting on the library "new releases" shelf, the author had previously written on Motherhood to some acclaim.

She reflects on her feelings and experiences after separating from her husband and sharing their two young daughters.  Some quotes reveal her thoughts:

"My mother may have been my place of birth, but my adopted nationality was my father's.  I got into Oxford, my sister to Cambridge, immigrants to the new country of sexual equality achieving assimilation thorough the second generation."

"What I lived as feminism were in fact the male values my parent, among others, well-meaningly bequeathed to me."

She describes a contributing factor to the failure of her marriage to be her experience of trying to be feminine and yet equal.

I enjoyed some of her writing, she has "a nice turn of phrase" as some writers are described.  The story overall though is whiny and too revealing and the book ends with a strange short story that I frankly didn't get, it was probably intended as a allegory.  I am embarrassed for her daughters to read it when they grow older.

Published:  2012   Read:  November 2012   Genre: Autobiography

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