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

[Oliveoil]

One of my NY resolutions is to read more books (now that dd2 seems to realise - at 3.6yrs!!! - that at bedtime she REMAINS in her bed in the evening) and I have been doing just that

well

Arlington Park

I forced myself to get to the end

what an obnoxious moaning bunch of women

I do not know ANYBODY like this, it makes out motherhood and relationships to be crap

yes you may have the odd day when you could easily headbutt the wall, but purlease

hated the writing style and skimmed it over and over again

anybody want it FFP? before I lob it out of the window?

oh come on, surely someone agrees with me?

I had a bit of a run of rachel Cusk and quite liked her other ones, but I know what you mean. These characters seem to be a theme with her...people who seem to exist in perpetual misunderstanding: no-one understands them, they don't understand anyone else, they can't really connect with each other. I read her baby memoir (can't remember the title) and found it depressing and doom laden...nobody understands her, breastfeeding takes up too much time, the other women at playgroup are all shallow, she just can't find the right servants, impossible to enjoy a latte with a screaming baby on your lap...etc...

oh goody

it was depressing wasn't it? I haven't read any of her other ones, are they all along the same vein (ie rubbish)?

I dont like Rachel Cusk at all

have no interest in reading it

it sounds dire

ooh, I LOVED this book!

aha, a dissenter

why?

You read a book which has this written about it in an amazon review?

"There is Juliet, an English teacher at the local High School, who silently rages over the fact that her husband Benedict, fulfilled in his role as inspirational teacher in a failing school, leaves her with most of the monotonous child care for their two kids Katherine and Barnaby."

Just the names would have put me off

lol

I only got it becuase I was ordering 2 Harry Potters [highbrow] and wanted another book to throw in so I didn't pay the postage iyswim

agree with you wholeheartedly oliveoil !

I'm in the middle of it Olive.

I do like the way she writes, she's so hard and uncompromising and difficult, and gets in the detail and is unscrupulous in examining it all.

BUT I also find her so lacking in warmth. That baby book was written when she had PND I think, and now I think all her work is clouded by PND. But she does articulate uncomfortable things well - but it's not enjoyable reading it is it?

it is depressing

off to lunch now and to go past Waterstones

I would LOVE to work in a bookshop, I would put everyone off saying "harrumph, this is crap, are you sure you want it????"

olive - I used to work in a bookshop ( Waterstones, in fact) but don';t think I ever said anything was crap, just guided people to the books I liked !

I quite liked early Rachel Cusk.

But I loathed that silly book about motherhood, A Life's Work. Couldn't relate to it at all.

I read "In the Fold" and "the country Life" and enjoyed them both, then "The Lucky Ones" where I thought things got a bit tedious (they are all in my local library). The disorientation/misunderstanding theme starts to be a bit repetitive and depressing, especially as things always seem to go wrong for people after having children. Arlington Park seems a bit "thinner" than the others in terms of plot and character development. On one level, she seems to be sympathetic with the female lot, but it also reads as a sense of superiority over other mothers. Personally I have found that relationships with other women have been v. important and supportive since having a baby, so I suppose those themes of women not really empathising with each other are irritating to me.

But depressing should be allowed. Depressing doesn't mean it's a crap book, it means you don't like depressing books. [stubborn]

What will you get in Waterstones? I want to hear about your next purchase.

I just read post about PND-didn't know she actually had it, was going to suggest it but didn't want to sound like I was belittling PND...
I read Arlington Park and A Life's Work just after I had DS and found them very depressing myself, although they didn't chime with my own experiences (luckily).

Yes RosJ, I agree. Like that baby book - nobody understood how special she was, why was she being asked to go to a toddler group, why were all the children there ugly? Why all the mother's boring. Why was this happening to HER?

But I sort of don't mind that - it's like a howl in the wind, but I do find it odd how she generalizes those feelings to assume all women MUST feel the same.

But I like angry books too. I think I quite admire her books without really liking them.

I read Arlington Park and though I didn't like the characters, I thought the writing was beautiful. The opening pages were gorgeous, almost filmic

I did find myself overtaken by the writing to the point where I got to the end of a book with some very unsympathetic characters, which surprised me

There were irritating aspects to it - I did think that some of the feminism within it was a bit tired, a bit 'Didn't we already do this with The Women's Room in the 1970s? There was a good deal of heavy handedness in it but the writing was just gorgeous

Yes depressing themes doesn't mean its a crap book, but I find books with a limited range of themes and characters depressing, especially if the same themes are repeated. I think Annie Proulx (cant be bothered to check spelling) does it so much better-some very difficult marginal characters, having hard times but...there seems to be an expansiveness there about human nature, which is much more generous and less myopic.
I'm avoiding getting on with my studies here.....

Yes it is generosity isn't it?

Difficult thing to pull off though. Alice Munro does, she focuses on the small and domestic and opens up her stories to be generous and universal. I heart Alice Munro.

Cusk is different though. She's tough and cross and a bit jumpy.

I think she writes really well too Capp.

Oh Alice Munro now we're talking

the opening of Arlinton Park does go on about the weather,relentless rain,leaves etc...which I quite like,as I enjoy atmospheric details...it sounded a vile place to live though and imagined the hideous shopping place to be like the one in Basingstoke, if anyone knows that ( actually, I don't mind it but dh loathes it)

Agree with every word of the OP. I read it on holiday and several times had to resist the urge just to chuck the bloody book in the swimming pool (I did resist because I didn't have a lot of other books with me). But it was utter shite.

I really enjoyed a life's work, I found it ironic.

I thought she seemed depressed too. Actually I think alot of authors are quite depressed.