The Bradshaw Variations
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Review
'At times I just wanted to punch the air in a frenzy of delighted recognition.' --Julie Myerson
'I enjoyed everything about this dazzling performance of a book ... which wants to know the truth about love, especially middle-aged, married love.' --Observer
'Rachel Cusk's writing is so beautiful that I would happily read her account of a trip to the shops on a rainy morning ... she tells me about myself (and herself), and a world that is deeply familiar, yet seldom pinpointed like this in modern fiction.' --Literary Review
'I enjoyed everything about this dazzling performance of a book ... which wants to know the truth about love, especially middle-aged, married love.' --Observer
'Rachel Cusk's writing is so beautiful that I would happily read her account of a trip to the shops on a rainy morning ... she tells me about myself (and herself), and a world that is deeply familiar, yet seldom pinpointed like this in modern fiction.' --Literary Review
Book Description
From award-winning novelist Rachel Cusk, comes an incisive and commercial contemporary family novel.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
'What is art? Thomas Bradshaw asks himself this question frequently.'
Thomas has time to think, time to learn to play the piano now that his wife has taken on a full time job and he has become a house husband. Rachel Cusk continues her exploration of middleclass misery and angst in this novel. Each section changes the point of view - probably a few too many times in terms of real character development. Yes, it adds insight to see Tonie's mother's view of Tonie and her family, but not if that character is herself reduced to a cipher.
The novel is 250 pages or so and it isn't until pages 200 that the pace picks up and at that point I was fully engaged, though underwhelmed ultimately by the ending. There is humour - Claudia is a funny creation, a martyr to her family, who never gets to her studio to create her art, but the same joke is repeated too many times. There is some good dialogue, for example when Tonie and Janine have their morning coffee and if there were more of that then the book would have caused me to care more about the characters. Rachel Cusk is often at her best when she marries her sharp observation with her more caustic wit - in this novel I felt the lack of both.
Rachel Cusk can write very well but The Bradshaw Variations is a very consciously 'written' book. The images can be arresting - but hardly seem effortless and seem to be at the expense of any tension or plot.
Thomas has time to think, time to learn to play the piano now that his wife has taken on a full time job and he has become a house husband. Rachel Cusk continues her exploration of middleclass misery and angst in this novel. Each section changes the point of view - probably a few too many times in terms of real character development. Yes, it adds insight to see Tonie's mother's view of Tonie and her family, but not if that character is herself reduced to a cipher.
The novel is 250 pages or so and it isn't until pages 200 that the pace picks up and at that point I was fully engaged, though underwhelmed ultimately by the ending. There is humour - Claudia is a funny creation, a martyr to her family, who never gets to her studio to create her art, but the same joke is repeated too many times. There is some good dialogue, for example when Tonie and Janine have their morning coffee and if there were more of that then the book would have caused me to care more about the characters. Rachel Cusk is often at her best when she marries her sharp observation with her more caustic wit - in this novel I felt the lack of both.
Rachel Cusk can write very well but The Bradshaw Variations is a very consciously 'written' book. The images can be arresting - but hardly seem effortless and seem to be at the expense of any tension or plot.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book irritated me beyond measure; I didn't enjoy it, but finished it in the hope that something would gell towards the end. When I don't care about the characters and what happens to them, I know I'm reading a book that has no 'juice'. Plotless books I can deal with; it's okay to write muscular vignettes, but TBV got lost in its padding of trivial details. In short, I found the whole thing pointless and was dismayed that Cusk could have written something so bad - I wonder if she actually enjoyed writing it? It seemed ironic that the only 'character', the dog Skittle, died at the end, while the humans swam about helplessly in an introverted tide of ennui and disconnection. As bad as it gets, and I'm sorry to say that about Cusk, who can write well.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
The raison d'etre of this book is evident; the lives of ordinary people are interesting. The book centres around the Bradshaw family; three brothers, their spouses and their aged parents. The three brothers have ploughed their own furrow in life yet it is clear that their upbringing has had a profound affect on the way they think and interact with each other and with those around them. The wives chosen by each brother reflect their individuality. Each chapter in the book deals with the particular life and point of view of a member of the family. The author provides us with insights into the thoughts and actions of individuals and the ways in which hidden insecurity can influence their reactions in the most commonplace situations. For example, Leo the youngest of the brothers goes shopping for a coat. He enters the men's department in a store and eavesdrops on the interaction between a rather dominant woman and the man she is with. She is making all the decisions for this unfortunate man and Leo feels intimidated by it and leaves only to return later when he realises his folly. The author identifies the minute fascinations of the mundane; a journey on a train, a piano lesson, taking a child to school, helping a parent to clear the loft and conversations over a drink in the pub. In this respect there is little narrative drive but this is not the author's intention. Cusk focuses upon the internal life of the characters and intends to create a sense of the complexity of the interior life of her characters even within the context of domestic minutiae. This she undoubtedly achieves with some success. However, the preponderance of inconsequential detail and the lack of narrative thrust lends the novel the air of a stylistic exercise. It is clearly not a Dan Brown- style thrill ride, nor is meant to be. It is a literary novel and is beautifully, at times poetically written, but, ultimately, this reviewer was left wondering, "So what?"
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Depressing book
I have read several of Rachel Cusk's novels and I greatly admire her writing skill but for me the balance is all wrong in this book. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Rose Maroc
Disappointing
Comparisons with Virginia Woolf are not appropriate.
i don't have a problem with the somewhat indulgent style of writing. Read more
i don't have a problem with the somewhat indulgent style of writing. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Tim
Caviar, not chips
I love how Rachel Cusk dives straight under the surface of life, and nowhere more so than in this novel, a subtle examination of what it's like to be English and middle class. Read more
Published 19 months ago by EmmaH
Beautifully written but not for me
I hope I am not alone in thinking that this story was not plot driven! I do like a good plot so struggled a bit especially as I never felt much sympathy for any of the... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Louiseog
Well written but depressing
There is no doubt that Rachel Cusk writes very well but ultimately this book was not for me and it actually took me a concerted effort and several weeks to finish it. Read more
Published 22 months ago by H. B. Hosegoood
A WELL WRITTEN NOVEL
This was a very good novel.Although it lacked any discernable plot ,it was written with thought and understanding. It covers a year in the life of the Bradshaw's. Read more
Published 23 months ago by bibliophile
Would like to have known the characters a little better..
On the surface this is the story of one year in the life of three brothers, their families and their parents. Read more
Published on 22 April 2010 by Roger Sharp
Impressive but alienating
This novel follows the extended Bradshaw family - three brothers, their wives and children, and the Bradshaw parents - through the course of a single year, although the sense of... Read more
Published on 12 April 2010 by Laura T
Not so varied
The Bradshaw Variations pursues an analogy with piano, but a better parallel would be with painting. With portraiture, or still life. Read more
Published on 6 April 2010 by reader 451
Plotless, but effortless
A bittersweet and slightly strange family saga, following the fortunes of three brothers and their families as they negotiate middle-age, marriage and parenthood. Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2010 by C. Askew
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