Coventry by Rachel Cusk 2019

Cusk is one of England’s most accomplished novelists of today.  Her Outline trilogy was brilliant and a favorite read from the last few years.

In this collection, she shows that she is also a deep thinker about contemporary social issues and a discerning critic of art and literature, both contemporary and early 20th C novels.  Like all of my favorite essayists, I can dream about an afternoon spent at a coffee house sitting with Cusk and talking about books, family, life….

The eponymous essay addresses some of her major themes, the place of narrative, story, and truth in our lives and in writing and the impact of family.  Cusk was ‘sent to Coventry’, i.e. frozen out, by her parents when she was an adult and took that occasion to finalize a rift with them that has been brewing for years.  That led to a deep examination of her own parenting, how it clashed with her career and how it was complicated with unconscious issues as her daughters reached adolescence (lions unleashed).  The specific and complex challenges of women juggling career, marriage, parenting, writing, living are a central theme for this fine writer.

Worth reading for many reasons, Cusk is an important commentator on the world of today and how we navigate it.