Customer Reviews

The Country Life: A Novel

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Country Life is one of the best books I've read all year. I knew I was in for a treat after reading the first few pages in which Rachel Cusk deftly tips off readers about her narrator, Stella, by allowing us to read three rather unhinged letters of Stella's. (You can read those letters in the excerpt on this page to see for yourself.) Stella is the queen of poor judgement and a wonderfully unreliable narrator. Cusk relates the tale of Stella's numerous misjudgments, lapses, and bouts of rage with great skill--creating an uncomfortable and thoroughly foreign little world for her protagonist to blunder through. I recommend this book to anyone who likes British satire, high literacy, and a well-shaped and original plot. Why isn't this book more popular in the U.S.?

. . . cause I've read some of the reviews below, and I see what they mean about Cusk's sort of blousy, self-conscious, detail-infuriating style--but so what. It's perfectly tuned to this character--it's her voice, after all--and her moronic escapades are wrought with such sympathy and interest that I found myself covering my mouth with my hand as I watched her blunder about, burst through hedgerows, sunburn herself into tears, lie about knowing how to drive and then doing it anyway. These things sound funny, but there's a disturbing edge to this novel that will make you nervous and intrigued by this character, and render you willing to follow her around the countryside, filled with barbs and doofs and demented delight. Give it a chance.

Once upon a time I was compelled to read the so-called 'Great Books' for my degree, and now I have read 'The Country Life' , and I tell you it is in the same class with the best of the old Greeks, with Racine and with Augustine and with Tolstoy, whoever! With a feeling like proclaiming about falling in love, I paraded 'The Country Life' around to my sister, to anyone whom I thought cared as I did that literature ought to be good and fresh and fun along with gut-wrenching and smart and new and yet, universal. My sister immediately pronounced it perfect for her reading group - Oprah's grim sob-fest shame-inducing books really do look like superficial, titillating tabloids in comparison. Finally, someone a bit more hip but no less perspicacious than Jane Austen has seen, and noted down, and made fine art out of the intensity of life's banal minutae, and understood that the horrors and soaring joys of that banality stand tall beside or even above the generic melodramas of war and tragedy as Things Which Are Impotant To Us All. How else does one define a great book, if not that it addresses such universal issues, that it finds a sameness inside any context? The context's pleasingness, freshness, and enjoyability are the final refinements that make this literature turn into art. I immediately sought further works of Ms Cusk and found them only at last on Amazon.com.uk and both (The Temporary, and Saving Agnes) have filled me with something like Doris Lessing's term 'We Feeling'. I especially recommend 'The Temporary'; as the sympathetic protagonist therein is male and achingly, superbly, portrayed by a female author. Ralph, I'm here for you, man, I totally understand your situation. Never in my life have I read a narrative that surprised me and pleased me so much by evincing my own worst and best imaginings - that life is meaningless and terrifying but at the same time accidentally also incredibly wonderful, like when you find an author like this, and she seemed to have held my hand while I read about my own feelings, and she painted them in such a lovely way, and she introduced me to disparate and likable characters who felt what I had thought was so abnormal, but the author made them so unilaterally real. Thank you, Rachel Cusk. Agnes Day (in 'Saving Agnes) has now replaced Pierre from 'War and Peace' as my hero. But Ralph comes in second; 'The Country Life' is a book that I will place on my bookshelf, in my sight, to comfort me with its very presence.

I obtained a copy of this book after reading the Voice Literary Supplement's glowing albeit brief review--it was one of their 25 favorite books of the year. And I was glad to discover that the novel is well worth pursuing. Cusk's protagonist Stella Benson is hilarious in her awkwardness; the storytelling is absolutely spellbinding and highly literate. Cusk's situations drew me in, her characters intrigued me, and her protagonist's misfortunes were so tactile that I became nervous and uncomfortable for her (in the best possible way, of course.) I devoured this novel--it ranks among my favorite books of the year as well!

I, too, like the classical writers, as one rather pretentious reviewer indicated below, comparing some tried-and-true old frumps to the deliciously contemporary Rachel Cusk.

This is a novel with CHARM and WIT and experiential consciousness-raising about disabilities. It's a love story, really, between Stella and Martin, who learn so much from each other.

But I absolutely adored all the other characters - every single one: the self-absorbed Pamela, her equally spacey house-husband and country squire Piers, their narcissistic, gorgeous son, Toby and their petulant daughter Caroline. Not to mention the strange-looking and randy Mr. Trimmer.

What I particularly loved is that nothing ever turns out to be what Stella expects. Just when she thinks Martin's gossipy, bossy teacher is a lonely old-maid she finds out that the woman is actually a married swinger! Just when she thinks Pamela is snobbish, Pamela turns out to be broad-minded. Just when she thinks the old "creature" at the post-office is about to do her in, he/she/whatever heals Stella's sunburn and makes her happy again.

The characters are at once dysfunctional and adorable - like most people. It's the rare author who can convey this universal contradiction. Jane Austen did it and it was this compassion for the human condition that made her one of our greatest writers.

I just wish this book had gone on and on forever. I want sequels! I want a movie! I want a PBS adaptation! Thanks to the author for one of the more pleasant weeks of my life.

Not for the Thomas Harris crowd.You have to get used to six line sentences that you have to reread to get the point, but when you do it's worth it. I agree that, to some extent, the author is showing off. As well as the obvious Cold Comfort Farm there are a lot of other literary references in there, such as The Franchise Affair" and Farqhar's "The Country Wife." One reviewer said it contains the most amazing single line in all fiction. I assume he means the one that begins "Here's your coffee..."

There is little that will prepare you for this perfectly written novel. No amount of praise can express the depth of feeling, saddness and humor that runs throughout this work. It is the best 1st person novel I've read since Nabokov. This young writer is clearly possessed of a subtle genius that will astound you at every turn of every phrase.

The Country Life is a light, breezy novel for those in search of something a little different. We meet Stella Benson as she is about to take a new job, away from her native London. She narrates her story in an interesting way. We have virtually no background information on her, only what she chooses to tell us. We are kept guessing for a while about what her job is, what she is running from, why. Every 40 pages or so, she slips one of her secrets in, sometimes drawn out through conversation with the other characters. I really liked that technique. She talks to us as if we are her best friends, yet hides important things from us. Our perspective on her story is constantly shifting. You imagine her reasons are thus and so, yet they turn out not to be. Stella's navigation through her new life is quite amusing and entertaining. Stella tries to figure out what makes the people in her new world tick, just as we are trying to figure her out. It's a great, fun book, an entertaining read.

Reading about Stella's mistakes made me feel better about some of the stuff I've done. I came away thinking, gee, the stuff she does makes my blunders look good! The part where Stella learns to drive is absolutely hilarious. It's a good read if you're looking for something not too serious and not too deep. There is a little bit of mystery about Stella's past but it adds to the story, in my opinion. The only caution I have is, make sure you have a nice, handy dictionary close by. Some of the words Ms Cusk uses are not part our every day vocabulary. I had trouble and I have a degree in English.

Beware: open "The Country Life," and you'll forget you're reading a novel. Indeed, you'll forget you're even reading, as Stella Benson tells what happens upon arriving at an English country farm as a companion for the Maddens' wheelchair-bound son. Astute but highly prone to mishaps, she makes a most appealing heroine. Introduced to the volatile Patricia, distracted Piers, and prickly teenage Martin Madden, as well as oddly-sorted locals (from the post office operator to Mr. Trimmer in the upper field), we find ourselves, like Stella, full of perplexed questions that cannot be asked flat out.

As for why she fled her London life, Stella doles out facts on a just-in-time basis, pulling us on with the suspense every good tale needs. What was she in her former life? What happened in Rome? Why did she kiss Edward goodbye and who is he, anyway? Rachel Cusk charms us into caring about all these real, odd-edged people. Can Stella make enough accommodations with the Maddens and with her past to succeed with "The Country Life"?