Customer Reviews

Arlington Park: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Or whinge, as the British would say. These irritable housewives, who could be combined into two or even one character(s), seem to have never loved either their husbands or their kids. In love's place is a simmering rage whose source is murky. They seem to have chosen this suburban life for themselves and yet blame the rest of the family for it. Some might see feminists. I saw self-absorbed shrews.

Not nearly as enjoyable as Cusk's previous work, THE LUCKY ONES. The women in ARLINGTON PARK are lucky their husbands put up with them.

Where is Rachel Cusk's editor? Once again, she has written a book that leaves the reader exasperated. Instead of developing a story around the lives of one or two women, she instead features so many characters that they literally blur into one. I have never read a story where all the characters seem so alike; every one of these women is miserable, disillusioned, fed-up with motherhood, and disdainful of her husband. It was like one woman by 10 different names.

I don't know what Rachel Cusk is trying to say; I honestly felt bewildered by it all. It is very difficult to continue reading a book when you cannot stand a single character; these women were repulsive to me - thoughtless, insensitive, unloving. It's one thing to be drained by motherhood and domesticity; that isn't the issue. These women read as though they would have been despicable regardless; as single women, married women, mothers; it doesn't matter. They just aren't nice people.

It makes me wonder if Rachel Cusk is clinically depressed; the photo she chose for the back jacket is shockingly bad: lank greasy hair, dull facial expression. She's a talented writer - I hope she gets a really good editor.

The first chapter of Arlington Park describes the night a rainstorm came to an upper-middle class British suburb; "All night the rain fell on Arlington Park....The rain fell on the tortuous medieval streets....It fell on the hospital...It fell on multi-storey car parks...." Very nice for atmosphere but shamelessly lifted from the opening of Charles Dickens' Bleak House. The rest of the novel continues in this vain with Rachel Cusk borrowing from the ideas of other writers before her and giving them little or no credit.

Her idea, to explore the internal lives of several women on this particular day is good except the women she creates are all bitter, cold, loveless people who have it all and still complain. We first meet Juliet, a school teacher with a husband, two children, a nice house and yet she inexplicably feels she's been "murdered" by her husband. Why? He doesn't stop her from working. He pitches in with the kids. How does he murder her? We never know. Yet this angry worldview is something that Juliet feels duty-bound to pass onto her students. Other characters are even less sympathetic; Amanda is a compulsively neat housewife who tells her preschool age son to "shut up" when he asks questions and when she does give him an explanation we're told "she wanted to hammer him over the head with it". Later, when another child gets magic marker on her sofa her reaction is equally violent: "'I could kill you!' she whispered. 'I could kill you!' She threw him back down on the cushions" How on earth are we supposed to sympathize with this woman? Or other "protagonists" are equally unlikeable. Each is discontent and expects the world to bend over backwards to accomodate her.

I'm giving this book 2 stars for some nice prose here and there. When she's not lifting her phrasing from other writers Rachel Cusk crafts her prose nicely. Still this book isn't enoyable or particularly enlightening.

I recently read "The Country Life" and immediately decided it was one of the most clever, funny books I had read in a long time. I passed it on to many friends. I also went out and bought other Rachel Cusk books and looked forward to more of her wry wit, strange characters and lengthy, but satisfying writing style. What happened between "The Country Life" and this book? Although also skillfully written, this book has a leaden, morose feeling that is never offset enough by humor or hope. The plot ties together the lives of several upper middle class young mothers living in Arlington Park, England. The book opens with a torrential rain, and from there has these ladies driving around in hatchbacks, going to malls, showing off their kitchens, and fuming over stained sofas. Not stuff that puts you the edge of your seat. And that's OK. But the problem is, not only is the setting of these ladies lives mundane in this book, it is a backdrop to extremely sad and bewildered conversations and thoughts. I am not suggesting that everything needs to be funny or sunny, but this book is SO gray (from the rain to the lives of the characters) that as you go from one chapter to then next you keep hoping for the silver lining. The gray life and the poignant conversation would have made a satisfying short story or novella, but as you plod through farther into this book it becomes overbearing. Boring settings for characters + depressing narrative = gets old fast. Written well or not. I got 75% through and when it had not appeared I did something I hate doing - I stopped reading it before finishing. If you are a die hard Cusk fan, check this out, but if you are not, or if you can't relate to, or don't find suburban motherhood angst interesting, you may want to read some of her other works. Rachel Cusk is a very gifted writer. I look forward to reading more of her work, and hope to enjoy it more than this book.

Is there anything about day to day life that Rachel Cusk does not find disdainful? Give me a break, no one can be this unhappy! If Arlington Park is truly this dreary, the characters should move.
It actually is possible to be a mother and a wife and feel happiness and love.
Bitter, negative, rambling....

"Arlington Park" is basically "Becoming a Mother" as fiction. The dangerous and difficult aspects of motherhood are here in all their grittiness. When Cusk writes about the time in a woman's life just before she gives birth: "It was how she sometimes thought it might be to approach death. Everything grew very slightly remote: the fit of life loosened, as though it were a skin preparing itself to be shed" Those of us who have been there know exactly what she means. Cusk is introspective and honest about motherhood and family life. An excellent read for anyone who can and wishes to think critically about marriage and family life.

One of a few books I could not finish. There is no solid plot; a lot of detailed descriptions of scenes where not a whole lot is happening. The characters are all pretty pathetic and their anguish was contrived... I couldn't tell where the writer was going, and frankly, I didn't care after a while.

Too many books to read and not enough time. Kicking myself for buying this book at a store without reading reviews people have posted first. Waste of a couple of days.

Rachel Cusk writes very well. Her prose is poetic, flowing, witty and lyrical. Her latest novel, Arlington Park, is a cynical analysis of domestic life and how small seemingly mundane things signify larger issues at hand. One example is how Solly, a housewife in suburban England, feels particularly oppressed by her husband surname:

[quote]
'Solly Curly?' she said.
'Kerr-Leigh', Solly automatically amended.
It had required a certain bravado, all those years before, to insist
that her name be hyphenated with Martin's rather than replaced by it.
That was what she thought marriage should be: a state of hyphenation.
Yet most of the people they knew pronounced it as the woman had just
done, as one word with the emphasis on the first syllable. That syllable
was Martin's: it seemed a particularly insidious form of discrimination. [end quote]

Since each chapter is narrated from a different character's perspective Arlington Park reads very much like a collection of short stories, loosely strung together by themes of domestic oppression, self-denial, marital boredom and a general sense of resignation. Juliet feels 'murdered' by her husband, Amanda is irritated by her children, Maisie feels imprisoned by her life... the list goes on.

Although Rachel Cusk is a formidable wordsmith, the storyline is at times bogged down by the sheer load of lyrical detail. As a reader, you wish for some progression, some events to sweep down and propel the story along. Perhaps this overriding sense of 'stagnation' is precisely what the author is trying to achieve.

At the end of the day, Arlington Park is a well-written if not entirely satisfying read. However, if you're easily seduced by great prose give this one a try.

Rachel Cusk is a brilliant writer. Every observation of hers seems so true, is written with such poetry & ease... this a book I'll be rereading for sure. The plot isn't that compelling, but by page one you realize you're in the hands of a true master. I love this book & highly recommend it to anyone who wants stark honesty when it comes to marriage, motherhood & friendship.

Arlington Park is well written and digs deep into truth. It's about women-real and flawed. It's about marriage. It's about not only the lives we plan to live and choose to live, but the lives we end up living. In an article written in 2005, Cusk said, "I remain fascinated by where you go as a woman once you are a mother, and if you ever come back." Arlington Park was one of the best books I read in 2008, and a new addition to my all-time favorite books. It was so good, in fact, that I read it again in December--twice in one year.

The first sentence: "All night the rain fell on Arlington Park." The falling of rain appears like a refrain throughout the book. The rain falls on everyone in Arlington Park. It falls on all of us.

The novel is divided into ten unmarked sections: 1-the rain fell; 2-Juliet; 3-Amanda; 4-Christine, Maisie and Stephanie at the mall; 5-Solly; 6-in the park/the rain had stopped; 7-Juliet; 8-Maisie; 9-Christine; and 10-party at Christine's with Juliet, Maisie, and Maggie.

The first time I read it, I was so taken with Juliet that I didn't want to leave her to switch to Amanda. This time, it did not feel like a brusque change, but felt right. Because it's not just about one of us; it's about all of us.

Here's a little flavor of what you have to look forward to:
-Juliet about a recording of a song by Ravel: "The sound of it brought tears to Juliet's eyes. It was the voice, that woman's voice, so solitary and powerful, so-transcendent. It made Juliet think she could transcend it all, this little house with its stained carpets, its shopping, its flawed people, transcend the grey, rain-sodden distances of Arlington Park; transcend, even her own body, where bitterness lay like lead in the veins. She could open somewhere like a flower...open out all the petals packed inside her."
-Solly about her inability to communicate with a Japanese student renting out their extra room: "...she became aware of how much of her lay shrouded in this inarticulable darkness."
-Solly: "Suddenly she saw her life as a breeding ground, a community under a rock...There was a lack of light, a lack of higher purpose to it all. How could she have forgotten to find out what else there was? How could she have stayed there, under her rock, down in the mulch, and forgotten to take a look outside and see what was going on? All at once she didn't know what she'd been thinking of."