Rachel Cusk returns since her acclaimed Outline trilogy with a novel about what it means to define relationships between art, gender, beauty, and life. In its own way, Cusk creates a more tangible ecosystem of thought by establishing a clear sense of plot, perhaps, to some, unlike the characteristics of the Outline trilogy. We mysteriously follow characters "L" and "M" as binaries on a spectrum of thought in relation to gender and power specifically. In concern to how one attaches to concepts inviting subjectivity, such as art, both L and M's encounters with each other are graceful, pensive, and thought-provoking through Cusk's crisp and cut-to-the-chase writing. Second Place is a nostalgic journey for fans of the Outline trilogy, while also cementing itself as a standalone in the scope of contemporary novels emphasizing exploration of the self, which Cusk enthusiastically endorses through her characters' own plight that--while they struggle--they never feel submissive to existential dread, rather, they feel enlightened toward clinging to a sense of connection in the most genuine and compassionate way.

Second Place takes the visit of D.H Lawrence to the artist colony of Mabel Dodge Luhan as inspiration and tells the story of artist L.'s visit to M's cottage on her property. It is the relationships between the characters and M's internal thoughts that drive the novel.

Rachel Cusk is such a skilled writer, and the writing in Second Place feels completely effortless and timeless. I think she could write an ingredient list and somehow make it well written.. Despite its short length, Second Place is full of ideas, observations, and ruminations - so many that it will certainly warrant multiple re-readings. There is so much to chew on in Second Place that I am sure different passages would appeal to different readers - I was particularly drawn to the passages on womanhood, motherhood, and mother daughter relationships. I really enjoyed this quiet, slow novel.

M is a middle-aged writer of modest talent. She is introspective and deeply thoughtful, but also terribly insecure about who she is and what her place is in the world. As she was recovering from an abusive marriage some years ago, she was strongly affected by viewing the paintings of L. Now remarried to her second husband, M decides to invite L to stay and work in the guest house that she and Tony have on their homestead in a remote coastal community. M is hopeful that a visit from L will boost her flagging self-esteem and provide her with the answers to the nagging questions about what is lacking in her life. After initially refusing the invitation, L suddenly appears one day, but with his glamorous and much younger girlfriend in tow. Their unexpected arrival requires M’s daughter and her boyfriend to vacate the guest house—or ‘second place’ as M calls it—which adds considerable tension to the situation. Clearly, this visit is not going to be the spiritual renewal that M was hoping for.

So goes the basic story of Second Place, Rachel Cusk’s sparkling novel of male-female relationships, the role that art plays in nurturing our lives, the fraught way in which mothers and daughters interact, the cruelties that we sometimes inflict on one another, and a whole lot more. Written as a long letter to a poet friend, the book reads as a lengthy therapy session in which M. works out her frustrations and disappointments with pretty much every aspect of her existence, but most of all her disillusionment with the man L actually is and how little solace he ultimately provides. Although the story itself is well plotted, the work really shines as a character study of at least two complex and very flawed people. And then, of course, there is Cusk’s prose, which is always closely observed and occasionally quite remarkable, starting with the delicious double entendre of the title: the guest house itself becomes an imposing presence in the tale and M clearly feels herself to be in second place as both an artist and a woman.

While Second Place struck me as being wholly original, it actually has an interesting heritage. As the author explains in a brief Afterword, the story was inspired by Lorenzo in Taos, art patron Mabel Dodge Luhan’s memoir of a tense visit that writer D. H. Lawrence and his wife made to her New Mexico estate in 1932 (which explains the M and the L as character names, by the way). Regardless of that connection, this was an emotionally evocative and highly satisfying book to read. It is not a long story in terms of page count, but the philosophical complexity that Cusk creates with her language demands a great deal of attention from the reader; I found myself highlighting many passages throughout the book containing some sentences that were simply stunning. All the more remarkable is how much I enjoyed this novel without actually liking any of the characters (except perhaps for Tony)! That must certainly be one way to define great writing.

“Change is also loss, and in the sense a parent can lose a child every day, until you realise that you’d better stop predicting what they’re going to become and concentrate on what is right in front of you.”

Second Place is specific and vague in equal measure in the way a dream feels so real in the moment but when you wake up half the details and faces are gone. I will almost certainly reread this weird beautiful dreamlike escape.

Much like Cusk’s other work, Second Place is quietly profound in it’s simplicity while also full of depth and heart. I will be thinking about this story and it’s beautiful language for a long time.

5 "murky, malevolent, minor, malignant" stars !!

Thank you to Netgalley ; Farrar, Strauss and Giroux and most of all Ms. Cusk for an e-copy of this book that is to be released May 2021. I am providing an honest review.

Some of you know that Ms. Cusk's Outline Trilogy is one of my most treasured reads of the past few years. She wrote a series of books of such carefully constructed wisdoms and observations that were at times pristine, other times profound and sometimes earth shatteringly funny. Despite some very sad truths there is always a quality of light that permeates and purifies.

In this book Ms. Cusk explores the shadow (s). Ms. Cusk has lost her distance, her logical faculties and becomes mired in the emotions as well as the everyday evils of the artist, the privileged, the lost and the malevolence and selfishness of self-centered delusions.

How many of us can look the devil in the face ? Very few of us will. We will avoid him. We will pretend he is not there. We excuse him on the grounds of past traumata, we turn the mirror slightly so that we see the reflection of those we loathe or those we yearn for rather than see the devil that has infiltrated our own beings and the cruelties we inflict on all that we meet.

This is a dark look at the narcissism of artists, mothers, writers, children and lovers. A battle of wills couched in desire, disgust and competition. The villainy of victimhood, the tyranny of oppression all hidden behind false noble aspirations rather than the true goal of victory and annihilation.

This is a domestic dark psychodrama of the highest caliber.

Ms. Cusk you fuckin slay me !

I find it takes a long time for the full meaning of any book by Rachel Cusk to sink in. But if the mark of a good read is it staying with you then this fits the bill. Cusk's female characters spend time and look deeply into their thoughts and motivations, this time evil being one of the main themes of contemplation. Initially I did not like the main character at all but her growing acceptance of her daughter and her increasing appreciation of Tony drew me in. I will be thinking about this one for awhile.

All I want to do anymore is read Rachel Cusk novels. It’s hard for me to find something new to read after finishing one of her books, since other fiction tends to feel artificial in comparison. I wasn’t sure if I’d love Second Place (of which I was lucky enough to get a review copy from Netgalley and FSG) as much as the Outline trilogy, since Cusk isn't revolutionizing a form in the same way here. It’s a fairly traditional epistle, but this form actually allows her a similar freedom to the one she innovated for Outline. We’re not bogged down in the disillusioning question of whose thoughts these are and why they’re being shared, although the narrator’s relationship to her addressee never becomes fully clear (I think he might be a biographer?). It ends up not really mattering, though, since the main purpose of the form is to make clear that the narrator is in fact writing these words, which sets Second Place up as a book about art and artifice. And long as these topics are being explored directly by a mind as great as Cusk’s, I find it impossible to get bogged down in the artifice of her fiction in the same way I do with authors writing more traditional narrative.

As with most Cusk titles, Second Place takes on multiple meanings. For one, there’s the narrator, M’s, feeling of being in a “second place” position in the world, especially in comparison to an artist like L, who comes to stay in her guest house during the pandemic. (I think this is also be the first Covid era novel, I’ve read, and Cusk handles it gracefully by not going into lengthy description of what we have all just lived through: “The events of that winter are familiar to everyone, and so I needn’t go over them,” the narrator says at one point, and what a relief this is! I wonder if it’s also the explanation behind why there isn’t as much artistic record of past plagues as one would expect.) M alludes a couple times to a former writing career (her “little books,” L at one point dismissively calls them) but she is apparently not writing anymore, except of course, for the letter that is this book, which makes it clear she IS still a writer. But she does not view herself in the same tier of artists as L, who has devoted himself entirely to his work, while most of M’s recent creative energies have gone into raising her daughter and building a stable, comfortable life with her second husband Tony on a beautiful marsh.

At the same time, M does not feel like she occupies a “first place” position within her own household, either. Tony is occupied by the demands of the land, and her young adult daughter, Justine, has set out on her own life, although she and her hilariously insipid boyfriend have temporarily returned to the M’s home for the pandemic. In one bizarre passage, M writes about how insulted she is that both Tony and Justine want a dog, since this proves they want to be loved in a different way than M loves them, that her love and loyalty haven’t been enough. The neurosis here is believable and familiar; these are the musings of a woman who has been forced to devote too much of her creative energy to motherhood, who then finds herself at a loss when her maternal role is no longer essential. M has less insight into this part of herself than Cusk does, and this tension sets up the main conflict within the novel.

Finally, the “second place” is art itself: on a literal level, the guesthouse in which L considerably overstays his welcome, but also the life he lives, free of family ties and responsibilities to others. And ultimately, Second Place reveals the desirability of such a life to be highly questionable, despite how much M may romanticize it. My favorite scene in the novel is a reparative one between M and Tony, whose relationship is damaged by L’s presence, but not to the extent that one may expect. Tony is an incredibly stable figure, who M admits does not fulfill her every need, but ultimately Second Place makes a sweet and romantic argument for this kind of bond, even if the question about how a writer who’s also a woman and a mother can find the freedom she needs within it remains unanswered.

Fantastic. Like the Outline trilogy, Rachel Cusk’s upcoming novel Second Place is a philosophical, richly textured meditation on themes of will, morality, reality and unreality, and destiny, and the ways in which these intersect with gender roles, artmaking, and motherhood.

Where Second Place diverges from the Outline trilogy, I found, is in tone and affect. There is something mysterious, uncanny, almost sinister here that runs as a current under the surface. The effect is a tension—bordering on suspense—that is really attractive in terms of narrative and pacing.

Highly recommended! Thank you to FSG and NetGalley!

SECOND PLACE by Rachel Cusk is a great novel! The main character, M, tells her friend, Jeffers, about the time L, a painter, stayed with her. It took a bit to get used to the writing style but once I got into this story I couldn’t put it down! The writing was very evocative and I felt like M was very open and honest about her feelings and dealings with L. There were several moments and situations in the book that were relatable as a woman. The themes of femininity, jealousy, relationships and speaking your truth were evident. I’m even more excited to read her Outline trilogy now!
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Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux via NetGalley for my advance review copy!

Stunning.

I don’t think I’ve read a book that’s made me feel like this before, where you fight the first few sentences in the novel and then immediately sink into the story. I knew I was reading something by a master writer on the first page. I reread paragraph after paragraph because they were so beautiful and well crafted. I have highlights on every page, eventually stopping myself so I could go on reading. It’s a deceptively short book, with meditative writing on art, reality, gendered roles, parenthood, freedom, fulfillment, femininity, beauty and criticism. I’m in awe of how Cusk is able to put into words emotions and questions a person may have, I feel like she looked into my soul. I know this is a book I will repeatedly come back to.

Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.

Reading “Second Place” I was reinforced in my view that Rachel Cusk’s fictions are not just meant to be read; they are meant to be experienced. Regardless of how purely relevant characters may be, what they are experiencing are deep, troubling, plausible, and worth wondering deeply about.

“Second Place” is Cusk’s first fictional effort after her prized “Outline/Transit/Kudos” trilogy. It is in several ways more approachable. It is a chamber piece with six/seven highly interesting characters who find themselves intimately engaged in remote physical isolation. It explores adults in various stages of inner life. Paths cross in predictable and unpredictable ways. As soon as you feel that you are on top of it and know what’s next to come, you are crossed up. It is best to let the prose just wash over you.

Cusk’s technical skills are always remarkable to behold. Sentences are a joy and demand frequent re-reading. Her approach to narration in “Second Place” is wonderful. The narration is First Person, but it is structured as a missive to a 3rd person. It is an unusual technique that is a wonderful fit.
And then it is centered on the nature of art, the artist, creativity, and the psyche in all its turbulence. It doesn’t get better than “Second Place”.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the dARC.

Following her brilliant, angular Outline trilogy, Rachel Cusk returns with a novel at first glance less cerebral. "Second Place: A Novel" even has a plot, a straightforward one at that, but in place of a nonlinear narrative, Cusk delves deep with prose, imagery, and inner turmoils. On an idyllic, unnamed coastline, a smart but seemingly downtrodden woman in her forties, lives with her second husband (the first one was a domineering disaster) in seclusion. But deep down, her unhappiness prompts her to invite a megastar painter, renowned for his capriciousness, to sojourn at their "second place," a nearby cottage. When he arrives with a woman, and our hero's daughter moves in with her lover, the stage is set for conflict and existential angst, all filtered through the notion that great art, or a great artist, can clarify the soul's longings. The plot is, in the end, slight, but scene after scene is rendered lively and emotional by the author's unerring, fulsome yet precise style. If you're a Rachel Cusk fan, as I am, Second Place is a must-read. For others, it might seem unambitious, but I would counsel you to persevere. A minor-key treat.

Rachel Cusk is on my shortlist of writers whose books I read the moment they are published. For readers like me who first encountered Cusk's writing through her "Outline" trilogy, her latest novel will seem like a bit of a departure in that it is more narrative and plot-driven than those earlier books. Inspired by the 1932 memoir "Lorenzo in Taos," in which Mabel Dodge Luhan describes the time DH Lawrence visited her in New Mexico, "Second Place" is the story of M., a woman who invites artists to live and work at her "second place," a guesthouse on her remote coastal property. Having been profoundly impacted by the work of artist L. at an earlier time in her life, M. is thrilled when he at last agrees to stay at the Second Place. The summer with him in residence that follows, however, is nothing like she expects, turning her life upside down and leaving her to ruminate on the power of art and what it means to be human. "Second Place" is everything I expect from a Rachel Cusk novel-- gorgeously written, intensely intelligent, and thought-provoking well beyond its final page. It's a novel that begs to be read again, and I'm sure I will return to it often.

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the great treat of reading an ARC of "Second Place" in exchange for my honest review.

What a gorgeous, unexpected novel! It is quite a departure from Cusk's latest works, namely her Outline trilogy -- though, thematically her concerns again lie in similar territory (marriage, family, art), and she once again employs dialogue/conversation to great effect. But there's something unexpectedly anachronistic to her prose this time around, something classical that I can't quite explain. It reminded me of Amina Cain's Indelicacy. And the final quarter of the novel too was quite surprising.

A ferocious, moving work about uncontrolled passions, and the unexpected nature to life.

Rachel Cusk’s latest is a decadently written reflection on freedom that has interesting insights on a woman's role in marriage and art. The Second Place of the title refers to a literal second place owned by the narrator, M, and her husband, Tony, that sits adjacent to their restored abode in a marsh surrounded by verdurous brambles. It also has a second meaning, specifically how the narrator has conceived of her place in society, second to her husband, then her daughter, and finally to her own interests. When M invites the artist L to stay with her and Tony at the second place for a residency of sorts, she does so in order to fulfill a vague yearning for freedom. It is unclear what M wants from L, but as the story unfolds, he sets out to destroy her with his selfishness in pursuit of his own artistic ends.

It’s difficult to write about Second Place, as the plot beats in description appear at times thrilling and unsettling, where in others it can appear blithely silly. It is neither of these, but also both. Cusk has a beautiful, claustrophobic way of writing from M’s perspective and creates a tense atmosphere with some indulgences around scenery. She writes with impressive zeal for the renovated property that leaves an impression on the types of people who inhabit the spaces in her story. M alludes to this story taking place potentially during the early days of the pandemic, which further emphasizes these qualities around space, and punctuates themes of freedom. M, her family, and her guests are trapped together physically, but M is also trapped in her role as matriarch, unable to act out her selfish desires.

As always, Rachel Cusk does not disappoint. I'm a huge fan—read almost everything she has written. She has a remarkable way to write what characters are experiencing and thinking, deep looks into interior landscapes. This character-driven novel is no exception. I always come away from her novels a bit wiser.

INCREDIBLE! 5/5 stars. My first Cusk, and now I am desperate to read more. So poignant about gender roles, patriarchy, art making, motherhood, and identity without hitting you over the head. I loved this meditative read. It was only 200 pages but it took my quite a while to get through it as it required a lot of focus and in the moment processing. I want to do more research about what this is an homage to, but it definitely stands alone without that context as well. Tony forever!

Cusk is very prolific, and knows how to craft a good tale. This has all the elements of good literary fiction including an engaging plot, good characters and solid writing. Recommended for literary fiction fans.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

I enjoy books that give me ideas to ponder and reflect on. Second Place was full of such philosophical statements and observations. The narrator, identified only as ‘M’, spends the bulk of this novel reflecting on her past and present situations in life, a lot of which I could relate to. The problem is that there was not enough action to balance the reflection. There were long, rambling passages of M contemplating mundane things, such as the irrigation system her husband was installing, and my mind would wander. At 120 pages, this book was too long. I had to force myself to pick it up. It took me almost a week to finish it, and the only reason I did was because there were great moments in there when the plot moved forward. But the prolonged pace frustrated me.

Reading Second Place was like reading a sort of austere, British take on Chris Kraus' I Love Dick. A thought experiment of a book, as Cusk's books tend to be. She has yet to disappoint me!