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Has anyone read A Life's Work by Rachel Cusk?


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One of the opening lines in her latest book is


"Recently my husband and I separated, and over the course of a few weeks the life we'd made broke apart, like a jigsaw dismantled into a heap of broken-edged pieces."



And I decided that my eyes couldn'ttake much more. That is one CLUMSY, ugly and unwieldy sentence

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Going against the grain but...I liked it! I thought she evoked the utter strangeness of new motherhood very well: not knowing what to do; not quite believing one's new life, the shock of being being divorced from the wordly world. Deep joy and immense tedium. I also liked the "becoming a mother" idea - that this exhausting, alarming, wild experience is profoundly changing. One has a baby but one becomes a mother. She obviously had quite a time of it - and there are extremes of feeling in the book - but I'd say most mothers I've met could identify with a number of its themes, even if they experienced them on a less intense level. Give it a go!
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Sophiec - of course you are welcome to borrow, I will bring it tomorrow, but knowing you and your general enjoyment of motherhood I don't know how much you are going to get out of it! I agree with others, I read a few pages and found it bleak and not something I could identify with either. My poor husband really thought he had found a great book for me and I think that's the only reason I kept hold of it ;) bless him and his good intentions.


Agree also, nothing like the wonderful work of Naomi Stadlen.


xx

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Radhabee - your comment hadn't come up when I read this thread earlier, we cross-posted! I wouldn't have worded it quite like that if I'd seen yours!


As I say I only read a short amount before bailing (as I have a massive pile of unread books, mainly child/baby/motherhood-related, by my bedside, I have to be ruthless!) and I didn't enjoy what I saw.

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