Customer Reviews

The Temporary

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Aside from the sophisticated, intricate writing, the kind that may not have been successfully executed since Jane Austen, Rachel Cusk's insights into human behavior are dizzying. She uses unique, unexpected metaphors to describe, and almost every paragraph includes a disturbing glimpse into the human psyche. In my opinion, The Temporary is a psychological thriller, and the genius of it is that Cusk has created a sympathetic character whose behavior we sometimes question, and an unlikable character for whom we come to have compassion. At least that's how it worked for me. The fact that the ending left me mildy baffled only increased the novel's success. It ends with a cliffhanger, suggesting the fluidity of fate. Anwyay, I cannot say enough good things about this story of a temporary, her hapless victim, and the womanizer who brings the whole thing to a head in ones of the most chilling scenes I have ever read.Read it!

'The Temporary' is probably the darkest novel Cusk wrote. Poor Ralph! He is snared so slowly and so completely it's almost unbearable to read. However, the real stand-out in this novel is Francine. Very different character from Agnes Day in many ways, and not nearly so likeable as Stella. Yet there's something about Francine that fascinates me more than Cusk's other female characters, save perhaps Mrs Daley.

Anyway! What I loved most about the novel were the little touches. The description of Francine wearing a too-thin jacket, her hands retreating into the sleeves for warmth. Or how she is rejected by Stephen and tries to walk off 'as elegantly as she could.'

What a chilling ending! Absolutely breathtaking, perfect. This is just the sort of book I like to read. And what a brilliant writer Rachel Cusk is.

Imagine a world without art, music, sports, politics, crime, humor, or travel. Now write a book about it, and you have The Temporary. The author has stretched a short story's worth of material--at best--into 245 plodding pages. Her two unlikable characters (sadly, they are too dull to be despicable) take long walks through London, mulling over their feelings, agonizing, until one wants to give them a good shake. I spent two thirds of this book waiting for something to transpire, and when it finally did, it was simply one more excuse for self-indulgent musings. Rachel Cusk does have a facility for words, and she is certainly capable of better. If you haven't read The Country Life, choose it over this depressing snooze.

In Rachel Cusk's first two novels - this and Saving Agnes - she is hell-bent on charting the unglamorous, depressing eking out of a living in London's 20-something temporary job market. Her characters are unsympathetic, caught in an unpleasant world not of their making. But the accuracy with which Cusk describes atmosphere and feeling lifts this from being hard work into being a very human account of the metro bulot dodo lifestyle that today's job market has become.

Yes all of the reviewers are right. The characters are boring and unimpressive. Rachel Cusk is a great writer and depicts these two ordinary characters so well to a point that we really have no interest in further reading / knowing anything more about them. I generally love Cusk's work but agree with the other reviews in respect to the characters were just so uninteresting that I struggled to continue along their everyday paths. Cannot recommend.