Saving Agnes: A Novel [Paperback]

Rachel Cusk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2001

Winner of the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel

Agnes Day is mildly discontent. As a child, she never wanted to be an Agnes—she wanted to be a pleasing Grace. Alas, she remained the terminally middle class, hopelessly romantic Agnes. Now she's living with her two best friends in London and working at a trade magazine. Life and love seem to go on without her. Not only does she not know how to get back into the game, she isn't even sure what the game is. But she gives a good performance—until she learns that her roommates and her boyfriend are keeping secrets from her, and that her boss is quitting and leaving her in charge. In great despair, she decides to make it her business to set things straight. Saving Agnes is a perceptive, fresh, and honest novel that has delighted readers and critics on both sides of the Atlantic.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After the critical success of The Country Life, Cusk's American audience should relish the opportunity to read her Whitbread Prize-winning debut novel, first published in Britain in 1993. Here, too, a na?ve young woman is the heroine of a compelling and eloquent tale about her devastating first love affair, and her emergence, newly independent, into the adult world. Agnes Day lives in London with her friends Nina and Merlin, buddies since Oxford, and works at a magazine called Diplomat's Week. Agnes hates her name, and the ordinariness of her life. Longing for love, she thinks she has found her opportunity in John, a handsome, somewhat mysterious man whose suave nonchalance is matched by his subtle perversity. As in The Country Life, Cusk reveals bits and pieces of the affair through Agnes's memories, a device that allows her to show how scenes from their relationship come back to haunt Agnes after the breakup. Hidden to the reader, as it was to Agnes, is a crucial secret about John that her friends kept from her. Cusk writes witty and winding sentences that are a joy to read, once one gets past the first chapters of the novel, where they are frustratingly unrelieved by plot. However, as the complications of the storyAthe affair, the dramas at the magazine, the roommate problemsAassume clear focus, the narrative becomes engrossing. Quirky but appealing characters and wry social commentary enliven the narrative, and Cusk's use of telling detail is exquisite and sometimes diabolical. The dialogue is often hilarious, illuminating even minor characters with pithy ?lan. Readers will find themselves plugging for the hapless but increasingly feisty AgnesAand savoring Cusk's rich explorations into the life of a young woman whose view of the world is never rosy, but who, in the book's closing scenes, comes to understand that future happiness can lurk in an event as ordinary as a bus ride.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The hearty welcome American readers gave The Country Life has prompted this U.S. publication of Cusk's 1993 Whitbread First Novel Award winnerAa decision certain to please many on this side of the Atlantic. In this modern-day satire of a Bunyanesque journey, Cusk places heroine Agnes Day, fresh from university studies, in the thick of London life and the working world, accompanied by housemates Nina and Merlin. Although her salvation is illusive, coming, finally, in the form of self-understanding, it is the pilgrimage itself, portrayed with a blend of introspective intensity, darkly comic situations, and a striking use of language, that is most satisfying. With such a tour-de-force of style and content, one is left to wonder whether Jane Austen herself could find room for improvement if she were writing today. Highly recommended.ANancy McNicol, Hagaman Memorial Lib., East Haven, CT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (January 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031227193X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312271930
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,542,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading. . ., February 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Saving Agnes (Hardcover)

I read the book all the way through in one day, and I liked it. I like books about young people fresh out of college confronting the working world. A few pages into the book I was reminded of Jane Austen whom I had just recently reread; I was reminded of how certain of Jane Austen's prose can be unwieldy and take some minutes to comprehend (or not). It's unusual these days for prose construction to be so logical and complex. I derived a purely intellectual pleasure from reading that kind of prose. I partly attribute the prose style to the author being British. I just can't see an American writing in this way. I liked the fact that the book did not depend on plot. (Sometimes, I wish plot could be thrown out the window.) The conclusion tries too much to be conclusive, but it doesn't really get in the way of enjoying the book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book deserves some credit!, May 27, 2003

By 

"blackstillwater" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Saving Agnes: A Novel (Paperback)

I am surprised that there have been so many 2 star reviews, and they leave me wondering if these readers have actually read the entire book. The first part of the book was admittedly rather dry, and I was tempted to chuck it aside. But I hanged on because of Ms Cusk's beautiful prose. And I'm really glad I did. She really has a way with words, and many a time, she just wowed me with the way she expresses complex emotions so fluidly. The second half (starting from the working day description if my memory has not failed me) is brilliant. I couldn't put it down. This book doesn't engage the reader with much action, but rather, with what goes on in Agnes's mind. Thus, if you are looking for an action-filled plot, this book may not entertain you. But if you enjoy observing human emotions and behaviour, as well as life's little ironies and nuances, pick this up right away!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars britkit, February 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Saving Agnes: A Novel (Paperback)

A brilliant, startlingly well written, tears down yer face funny debut. Rachel perfectly captures what is like to be set adrift in a big city with the feeling that life and love are somehow eluding your world, and to have the aching suspicion that you are somehow too nondescript for the wonderful and spectacular things others seem to attract so easily.