Arlington Park - What a great big pile of crap, worst book I have had the misfortune to pick up in a long long time

Zoe Heller

I was thinking about what Xenia said about how much she earns. I don't think she makes the bestseller lists but she could, one day, be as successful as someone like Zoe ????, the one who wrote the book about the teacher who had an affair with a pupil. What's her name? I think she'll one day write a book that clicks with a wider public.

Well she's doing well so far isn't she. I mean she's worked solidly as a writer since Saving Agnes, which was what twelve/eleven years ago, maybe even more.

She does write well, and she's uncompromising and often prickly and unattractive, and has an angry heart.

Like I said before, I admire her writing, but I don't much like it.

I think she'll do well in the long run. One of them will be made into a TV drama. They're right for a certain type of BBC three parter. In fact, if they had slightly more plot, it would be happening now.

She has a recogniseable voice and a loyal and probably growing following. She's got talent. She can enrage people and make readers remember descriptions of rain. She can describe the mundane in ways that aren't mundane.

I don't like the books much but I can see why people do.

I thought a Life's work was very good, very well written. I thought AP was duller than I expected but do think she writes quite well. I wonder what authors ilke her earn and how many copies they sell?

But fair point that she wasn't hyped from book 1 but only after a couple of successes.

Starting off isn't hard, though, it's maintaining a career without financial support from your publishers - or somewhere else - which is impossible. That's why so many authors fall by the wayside after their 2nd or 3rd book.

i nmever ifnished it
what a load of miserabel cows the women were

JKR is the exception to the normal writer's life in sooooooooo many ways! It's a bit like saying Bill Gates is your typical guy who works in IT

Rachel has a fan club on facebook. Have a look.

Oh Xenia - that really isn't kind, you know, to give A Life's Work to new parents.

Well, my DW would find the idea that she waits on me hand and foot very amusing...

Lazycow's generalization still sounds truer than yours I'm afraid.

"Most married male writers do have them - they are just generally called wives"

Oh, let's generalise hugely, shall we?

Let's try: "30- and 40-something female novelists have indulgent hubbies with hedge funds so that they can stay at home and indulge their little writing fantasy with no financial pressure to contribute to the family purse."

Haven't read the whole thread, or indeed this book, but someone gave me her book about motherhood when I had my first child, and already depressed this almost put me over the edge - so have no desire to read more...
Also, entirely agree about books whose grown-up male characters have names like Benedict, and who live in vast places on low-paying jobs.
Olive Oyl - lol at the extra book for the free postage - how often have I done that... Am convinced that that extra book is how Amazon's fortune is made!

Agree with OO, it was boring as shite. I got to the end and was completely baffled as to the point of the book. Nothing happened. [puzzled emoticon]

I might actually be a touch biased as I knew Rachel Cusk at university, but I find her writing almost unreadably purple, and excesively portentous. If you think that she won the Whitbread first novel prize for Saving Agnes, and compare it with eg Oranges are not the only fruit, which also won the Whitbread a few years previously, there's just no comparison.

Xenia - I think she did didn't she? Doesn't she say at the start of that book that her husband looked after the children for her, so she could write?

I know lots of writers - most of whom seem able to write great book and average books and poor books, all strangely able to do this without the inspiration of the kitchen sink and dirty laundry.

And Lazycow is right, and women don't have wives so they buy them if they chose to work.

She described the early baby years so accurately that I always buy that book for new parents I know.

It was bearable to me because I went back to work at 2 weeks which is perhaps what Ms Cusk should have done.

Unquiet Dad. Most married male writers do have them - they are just generally called wives !

Well this has made me want to read her.

She sounds like just my type of writer. I generally like depressing. And actually I didn't read her book on motherhood but much of what I've heard about it makes me think ' Well isn't it like that for everyone?' so it is interesting to hear that not all women find the early baby years almost unbearable in many ways.

In fact the only thing that made them bearable for me was the fact that I love ds so much.

school run reference.. can we ask if her children go to a state school?

I would be if I knew of any.

I admire Rachel Cusk's work too, although I haven't read Arlington Park yet. I though A Life's Work was such a powerful exposition of how some women feel after having children. I thought it quite honest and brave.

I can see that she is spiky and harsh in both her writing and her personality, but that doesn't mean that her work is without merit.

And unquietdad - gosh, such venom about Cusk and Winterson. Hope you are equally damning about male writers with household help.