When one of corporate London's transient typists unexpectedly crosses Ralph Loman's path, her disruptive beauty ignites a brief blaze of excitement in his troubled heart. But Francine Snaith is ravenous for attention, driven by a thirst for conquest, and when Ralph tries politely to extricate himself he finds he is bound in chains of consequence from which it seems there is no escape. 'Brilliantly perceptive...a ruthlessly honest dissection of modern sensibilities...It says much for her growing skills as a novelist that she is able to make something like a work of art out of her drawerful of our daily junk' - "The Times". 'Breathtaking, fascinating and believable..."The Temporary" would be worth reading for its self-regarding, utterly thoughtless anti-heroine alone, yet Cusk's interpretation of menial office existence and her understanding of its psychology is also piercing' - "Financial Times". 'This is the story of a Julie Burchill heroine in a Julian Barnes world...Cusk has earned all her eulogies. She is a writer of great promise' - "Literary Review". '"Temporary", a category of both employment and lifestyle, is such an apt metaphor of Nineties existence that Cusk deserves special praise just for thinking of it...She writes with nervy precision about the vagaries of minor ambitions and desires' - "Guardian". 'An exquisitely written gem of a book' - "Vogue".
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
what a writer,
By Kate Smart "Private" (Private) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Temporary (Hardcover)
There were times, when reading this novel, where I found myself staring at a sentence so perfectly and interestingly structured, that I couldn't go on reading. I would read the sentence again and again, feeling a mixture of awe and complete despair that I'll never write as well.This book kept me riveted, not so much by the plot, as by the writing itself. It is writing for readers who love words and the way they can fit together to express something that is so familiar and yet never properly articulated. Rachel Cusk has an astonishing talent and she's only 36. She has a great future ahead of her. The story is about a young lonely woman, and a young lonely man, who are somehow thrown together in a world that is disorienting, and alienating. At times it is painful, other times it is so funny that you cannot help laughing out loud. The main characters, Francine and Ralph, are a match made in hell. She is vain and petty and superficial. He has resigned himself to a life of familiarity. Their relationship is fascinating and depressing and often hilarious all at once. You feel genuine compassion for these two; neither is bad nor good. And you want a happy ending for them both because they are suffering. Unfortunately, the ending bothered me and left me uneasy. But it's a good story and it is written in language that requires a certain amount of penetration; it is not a book that you read with the stereo on. I highly recommend it and will add Rachel Cusk to my list of admired writers.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By Laura (Washington D.C.) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Temporary (Hardcover)
I do not understand why this book is out-of-print, when Rachel Cusk's first novel won an award, and her third is doing so well. I have not yet read The Country Life, but Saving Agnes seemed like a mere preliminary exercise to gear up for the writing of the masterpiece that is The Temporary. Just as I could not understand what was so outstanding about Saving Agnes (although I did enjoy it), I could not understand why this wonderful book has been overlooked. Aside from the sophisticated, intricate writing, the kind that may not have been successfully executed since Jane Austen, Rachel Cusk's insights into human behavior are dizzying. She uses unique, unexpected metaphors to describe, and almost every paragraph includes a disturbing glimpse into the human psyche. In my opinion, The Temporary is a psychological thriller, and the genius of it is that Cusk has created a sympathetic character whose behavior we sometimes question, and an unlikable character for whom we come to have compassion. At least that's how it worked for me. The fact that the ending left me mildly baffled only increased the novel's success. It ends with a cliffhanger, which in hindsight is almost the only way the author could end this book without disappointing, b/c I wanted to feel that the characters go on and are not trapped in their happy/unhappy/anticlimactic fates. Anyway, I cannot say enough good things about this story of a temporary, her hapless victim, and the womanizer who brings the whole thing to a head in one of the most chilling scenes I have ever read. Go to the out-of-print section and get it!
2.0 out of 5 stars
Rachel Cusk: Becoming a Writer,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Temporary (Paperback)
With her first novel, Saving Agnes, Rachel Cusk laid the foundation for her writing. The Temporary is her second novel. It was published in 1995, two years after her first. And I see improvement. The author is using fewer words, and in places, she goes deep. Overall, though, the writing is uneven. Here is a highlight:
"He groped for a date and remembered then that it was still only February. The year stretched before him in all its unavoidable detail, the hundreds of days and thousands of hours which he would endure as if something more lay at their end than mere repetition. He wished that he could be tricked, as others seemed to be, by the close of each week, seeing in their false endings the immience of some sort of conclusion, like a soap opera. He wondered why he had never fallen into step with this pattern of days, comprehended in the helpful clarity of a week's tiny eras-birth, growth, productivity, decline, dormancy, regeneration, played out beneath the celestial presence of longer phases of weather-a system that might ease the slow construction of his life." I'm off to read her next novel.
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