The Bradshaw Variations: A Novel [Hardcover]

Rachel Cusk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2010

Since quitting work to look after his eight-year-old daughter, Alexa, Thomas Bradshaw has found solace and grace in his daily piano study. His pursuit of a more artistic way of life shocks and irritates his parents and in-laws. Why has he swapped roles with Tonie Swann, his intense, intellectual wife, who has accepted a demanding full-time job? How can this be good for Alexa?

Tonie is increasingly seduced away from domestic life by the harder, headier world of work, where long-forgotten memories of ambition are awakened. She soon finds herself outside their tight family circle, alive to previously unimaginable possibilities. Over the course of a year full of crisis and revelation, we follow the fortunes of Tonie, Thomas, and his brothers and their families: Howard, the successful, indulgent brother, and his gregarious wife, Claudia; and Leo, lacking in confidence and propped up by Susie, his sharp-tongued, heavy-drinking wife. At the head of the family, the aging Bradshaw parents descend on their children to question and undermine them.

The Bradshaw Variations reveals how our choices, our loves, and the family life we build will always be an echo—a variation—of a theme played out in our own childhood. This masterful and often shockingly funny novel, Rachel Cusk’s seventh, shows a prizewinning writer at the height of her powers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Bradshaw family of suburban London is discontent. Thomas Bradshaw has taken a sabbatical from his job to learn to play the piano; his wife, Tonie, has become head of a university English department; their eight-year-old daughter, Alexa, watches as father and mother begin to suffocate under the failure of their expectations. The Bradshaws' brothers, sisters, parents, and in-laws, though sometimes faintly amusing, are no better off. Sister-in-law Claudia, a painter, never paints, blaming her nonproductivity on husband Howard, Thomas's older brother. Little brother Leo and his uneducated wife, Susie, drink too much—public knowledge because their children tattle on them—and the older generation of parents disapproves of them all. Cusk (Arlington Park) dissects her characters with a surgical precision, and all can be diagnosed with the same bourgeois malady: acute but indeterminate angst about the nature of existence. Cusk is a gifted writer who has a knack for razor-sharp characterizations, but the lack of plot—everyone is sad, little is done—is a serious detriment. (Apr.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine

Cusk's searing, incisive novels have earned comparisons to Virginia Woolf's for their astute recreations of women's inner lives as they collide with society's expectations. Unfortunately, most critics concluded that Cusk's seventh novel does not live up to the sum of its parts. Despite vivid characters, crisp prose, and sharp psychological insights, the plot lacks tension, while subplots and minor characters drop from the narrative without explanation, and the Bradshaws seem strangely unconvincing. "Really," argues the Boston Globe, "how deeply can we care about a family whose defining characteristic is a lack of warmth toward one another?" Despite these shortcomings, Cusk's fans may pick up The Bradshaw Variations for her eloquence and wry humor. Others may wish to steer clear of her latest.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (March 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374100810
• ISBN-13: 978-0374100810
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I REALLY WANTED TO LIKE THIS NOVEL...., April 11, 2010

By 

ireadabookaday - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Bradshaw Variations: A Novel (Hardcover)

Something of a disappointment from Rachel Cusk, whose books I usually admire. Every character in this book seems to be suffering the same malaise, and the author's style does as well, which makes for dull reading. The point of the novel seems to be that no one can really know another person, but isn't that what we, the readers, want from this sort of novel? To understand the characters? This is an almost plot-free novel, so the characters are really all we have. When the plot reaches its peak, it feels out of keeping with the rest of the book and tacked-on. There are some finely observed moments, and the writing is competent, but it all adds up to nothing memorable. Try this author's "Saving Agnes" instead.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not so varied, April 6, 2010

By 

reader 451 - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bradshaw Variations: A Novel (Hardcover)

The Bradshaw Variations pursues an analogy with piano, but a better parallel would be with painting. With portraiture, or still life. Told in the present, it is a succession of commentaries on the everyday. It revolves around the extended Bradshaw family, three couples plus their children and elderly parents, all living somewhere around London. Each and collectively, the characters follow their routines, tube-tested and analysed by Rachel Cusk in every detail.

A two-star rating is perhaps a little grudging. The Variations do contain the odd nugget. Yet many of its observations are either commonplace or, as one pauses, not that perceptive. `At times I just wanted to punch the air in a frenzy of delighted recognition,' says the critic's quote on the jacket. I didn't want to punch anything, except myself for having bought the book, after a while. Ms Cusk might have pursued the interesting premise that Thomas Bradshaw has decided to become a househusband, while his wife Tonie has returned to work. Thomas plays the piano. His sister-in-law complains she never has time to paint. Work, leisure, creativity, structure: Ms Cusk, as a writer, might have made interesting points about them, but the premise is not developed.

Yet the problem is not so much that the Variations' approach is not interesting, it is that they only stick to a single note. The ending is a cop-out, as if something racy somehow had to be found for the conclusion. Ms Cusk's style is agreeable, but the commentary runs out of breath. And what starts out as wistful ends up becoming dull. For Variations, this is not that varied.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Of Mild to Moderate Interest, October 21, 2010

By 

Cary B. Barad (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bradshaw Variations: A Novel (Hardcover)

A series of interconnected vignettes dealing with the introspections and family relationships of a modern day British household along with many of their relatives, neighbors and friends. Written with obvious care, feeling and empathy, this is a slim volume but, unfortunately, not a particularly interesting one. On a 5-point scale, I give it a "3" for generating a mild to moderate level of interest.