Brilliantly aware without being indulgent or preachy, this novel has the intense beauty of form that has marked Cusk’s trilogy from the beginning, and the final installment does not disappoint. Set against the political backdrop of Brexit, Cusk’s dramatization of the ongoing struggle for feminine identity in a traditional and patriarchal world is burdensome and bleak, even as rare moments of tenderness shine through. Cusk starkly contrasts Faye’s new personal evolution with the anonymous, dispirited writer we met at the series’ start, but she is surrounded by repeating tales of bitter divorces, physical tragedies, and career strains. Those who interview her have come with their impressions already formed, or with so much of their own lives to convey, Faye’s story-her remarriage, the nature of her recent work, the new security in her relationships with her sons-remains hidden, waiting for readers to discover it between the lines. There she describes settings and conversations in great detail, but as the conference draws to a close, we find that once again she herself has had little to say. Rachel Cusk, the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of Outline and Transit, completes the transcendent literary trilogy with Kudos, a novel of unsettling power. In this final book in the Outline trilogy ( Outline, 2015 Transit, 2017), Cusk’s seemingly invisible protagonist, Faye, is attending a literary conference in Germany.
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