Coventry by Rachel Cusk | Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ต.ค. 2024
- In this video, I talk about Rachel Cusk's fascinating new essay collection, Coventry, how she fits into the Canadian canon, and why reading this book is going to make me a better Booktuber. I hope.
Got any thoughts on the video? Let's chat in the comments!
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I like that you're re-defining the channel and how to approach books. Sometimes when we read a book and we're excited about getting other people to give it a try, we make videos (or rate the book with stars on goodreads) to drum up readership for that work. But other times, as in this instance, you're approaching Cusk as more than just the writer of this one collection but as a writer who has confronted issues from many angles in both fiction and essay. In a meta sense, this video you've made has expanded beyond like or dislike into the realm of personal essay too.
I can't speak to Cusk's odd identification as a self-hating transvestite so I won't even try because I don't know the context. But I'll try to defend her personal essays about her marriage (and their one-sided perspective) because the personal essay isn't a court. She doesn't have to be fair or try to see it from his side if she's making art that is culled from her life. The Outline trilogy turns that notion inside out by holding close the main character Fay's personal details and selecting very carefully details from discussions she has with people about their relationships and feelings. In the essays and in her fiction, there are silences that make the overall piece more rich and less direct than if her whole purpose was to give a fair hearing to all sides. Whether this is successful or not is up to the reader. My sense from the work I've read is that she is coming at the politics of marriage from her own experience as a subversion that pushes back against the traditional roles we're taught to play.
Thanks for letting me write this crazily long comment and I am excited to see what other Can-lit books you've got coming.
I think the issue I had with that piece was Cusk's disdain for the "story" her ex-husband tells about their marriage. Because Cusk's account feels one-sided as well, her version feels like a "story" just the same. The only difference is that it's from her side. So what she's doing *feels* no better than what he's doing. But again, she may not be telling a story at all, and it could all be the truth. Who knows. Nonetheless, it was a fascinating read. I didn't necessarily have a problem with her taking this stance in the piece. Her "side" is what makes the piece interesting, to be honest. But it's something that I felt was important to talk about.
I would love to re-read Outline now that I've read this collection. It didn't speak to me at the time, but I'm curious to re-visit it now.
(Thanks for the wonderful comment! Lots to chew on. This was great.)
I agree, there were certain parts on the essays from the book where Cusk attempts to a strong (or complicated) use of language, which sometimes made me read them all over again haha. I loved how the essays from the third part started this conversation of what we could expect from novels and their reviews, and how we could experience their narratives in such a more meaningful way, maybe not only in the writing, but also in life.
but that's just my opinion!
This was a fantastic review. Your personal insights were so interesting. I didn’t get on with her fiction at all either, but will reserve this one at the library. I love essays on domesticity / the small parts of life. Notes to self by Emilie pine ( although she’s Irish) is the most visceral and emotive accounts ive read.
If you like essays on domesticity, I think you'll really enjoy this one. Good luck! Let me know how it goes :)
Rick! Knocked it out of the park again with a review of a book I’m reading. Love what you’re doing bro!
Thanks, Justin! Very much appreciated. I hope you like the rest of the book. The final section might have been my favourite.
In Canada, EVERYONE COUNTS! I love this country - and LOVE that you're talking about it in this way. Because it IS weird! So funny about Rachel Cusk - I have the same experience with her fiction (having not enjoyed it) but now I'm really tempted to pick this up... The thing with this video that I loved so much was that I was so engrossed in what you were talking about despite not having read the book. Often I don't really let myself listen to in-depth discussions of a book just in case I read it sometime but I literally couldn't stop.
I agree with you about book reviews!
Thank you for this video! I'm currently reading this collection of essays and am loving them, and happy to find someone else's thoughts on them. I found Aftermath to be my 2nd favorite essay (second to Shakespeare's Sisters). I assume that Cusk has to be an unreliable narrator about her divorce but for me that wasn't the point at all, and I was interested in how she responded to the long-term stress of trying to reject while being unable to escape traditional female roles. Now on to her book reviews! This collection is such a treat, thank you for talking about it.
It's so nice to hear about someone else loving them. I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. I hope you're enjoying the book review section!
Love the new focus for your channel--very interesting approach and thoughts.
Brilliant observations on the Cusk book.
Thanks Richelle! Glad you liked it.
I am so excited to read Coventry and flipped through section II to try and see what is was about - couldn't quite figure it out by skimming. We shall see. I think I've read most if not all the books she's writing about in section III!
As for becoming a better booktuber: I think there is a spectrum of "talking/writing about books" that has literary criticism on one end and product reviews on the other. In the middle are everything from traditional reviews, like you might see in a newspaper, to personal essays that happen to centre on a book, to Goodreads reviews that comment more on "drama" than the book, to content/influencer marketing (often posing as a review). And the quality of each varies wildly! I see most book blogs and booktube as somewhere in the middle, often skewing more towards the personal essay side of things, which is where you have that emphasis on personal feelings, did I like it, what does this mean to me, how does this fit into the context of my reading. I mean, when you're sitting in front of a camera, and everyone viewing is looking at your face, it's hard to get away from personal feelings :) I just want quality and originality. If someone can deliver "I liked this book/I didn't like this one" in a way that I find original and interesting then I'll watch it. Of course it's hard to be interesting if that's all you've got to say!
That last part, "it's hard to be interesting if that's all you've got to say!" is exactly it. It's so hard to be interesting if likes/dislikes are all you have to say. I'm annoyed I didn't say that in the video now LOL. WHERE WERE YOU THREE DAYS AGO, LAURA.
Also, excited to see what you think of the book. Whether you like it or don't like it, I'm curious for your perspective on it. It's one of those books where I think it's worthwhile to read it either way. And yeah, the criticism stuff at the end is super fun if you're familiar with the books :)
Interesting point you raise here about the nature of reviews on platforms such as TH-cam and Goodreads. I think saying whether or not you liked a book is an inevitable part of the reviewing process. However, what matters is reflecting on why the book worked for you or not, and where your own subjectivities come in. The most important thing is that a book is assessed against what it aims to do and not against what you want the book to do. When I don't gel with a book, I often say to myself 'ok, I don't think I really understood what this book is doing' or 'I am just not the right reader for this book' rather than 'oh, this book was bad'. Decisions to downgrade a book because you didn't like the ending, also don't make much sense to me. Each author has a reason for ending a book in a particular fashion, so instead of being annoyed because they didn't write the ending you wanted, reflect on what they were trying to achieve. Appreciation for what the book/author tries to do often leads to a greater appreciation for the book as a whole, I find. But all this requires engaging not only emotionally but also intellectually/analytically with a book, and I can understand that for many people that is not what they want from their reading.
This is an A+ comment. And your point at the end, that many people want different things with their reading, is important. In retrospect I wish I'd laid into that more in the video. That what I was saying was applying to me and my own sensibilities. Other people are going to want different things. And also, those needs change from book to book. Some books are just for fun. That's the goal. So liking the book is probably the most important part of that experience.
Secret Bookcase yes yes yes!!
The point about the endings gets me every time, people saying oh I wish that didn’t happen to that character. I know I’ve done it in the past too, especially if I’ve made emotional investment in the characters, somehow we feel the authors owes us some answers or an appropriate ending. But your so right, the question is asking firstly why we want that ending and if not, what was the author trying to do with it.
Can i move to Canada? I want to move there 😬😬 please? 😅
Coventry sounds so interesting, i will add it to my list
There's definitely enough room here!
I definitely prefer a person's emotional reaction to a book rather than their intellectual one. I think an emotional reaction possibly tells you more about the person and helps you connect with them and I think, when it comes to booktube specifically, viewers like to feel they know who they are watching. Written professional reviews, on the otherhand, I think should be more academic/intellectual - which is probably why I never read them 😂
You make a good point. The format of the review is important, and there's no doubt that Booktube offers a more intimate perspective/reaction than a print review. Like you say, you can build up a connection with a person on Booktube over time, which helps put the feelings they have for a book into context.
I have read Outline by Rachel Cusk and it wasn't a bad book, but the characters in there just didn't interest me at all. And her writing style seemed very essayistic to me. So I would give her nonfiction a go to see if it suits better there for me. I thought about, if I might have the same experience with her, as I have with Zadie Smith. I love her essays, but don't get along with her novels that well.
That's exactly what happened with me and Cusk. Wasn't a huge fan of Transit, but tested out her non-fiction to see if I could get a better grasp of her voice that way. Definitely worked for me this time!
If a book doesn’t make you feel something, then it has failed at being a book. It doesn’t matter what that feeling is, it just has to be an emotion that you get out of it. A book has to say something, feel something, to convey something. I don’t even know what I’m writing here never mind
LOL
Yeah that was me trying to be meaningful and failing. Let’s all forget that comment. By the way, really love your videos. Your book reviews are so refreshing because other book reviewers are just saying “I liked this” or “I didn’t like this”. Books aren’t so black and white, they have many grey areas. Also that failed comment was the first comment I have ever made on TH-cam. What a great start.
@@Flopinator-gc8sg It got an LOL! It was a great first comment :) And thank you for the compliment, that's super appreciated.
Oh man I was so excited when I found your channel, but disappointed that you are pigeon holding your channel. Still subscribed though
Lots of great stuff for me to read! Have no fear. Hopefully, it'll expose you to some stuff you wouldn't have known about otherwise? That's the goal, at least.
Another Kick at the CanLit for sure Empire of wild is on my tbr. Just really dig your take on things and would want them for many other books just not in Canada. Looking forward to some more vids. Love from the States
Based on your comments about 'liking books' I think you will feel really comfortable with Louise Penny. She chooses an emotion then takes her characters around and through them. Yes, they are fiction but a very interesting way to doing it to keep asking, 'but why did they do this'? Lee K
some hard-to-parse antipathy to prescribed gender roles for women, the weird-ass transvestite comment? I have only read Outline, though am very interested in reading more. As an essayist, I believe it is usually wisest to show your ass a little. I'm less interested in work that would mount any kind of unassailable authority-- which actually feels less authoritative in its impossibility. All said without having read this particular essay, though, so I don't know if I would judge it that way.