Second Place by Rachel Cusk
A woman who lives with her family in a rural seaside area asks a well-known artist to stay at her guesthouse. She is intensely drawn to his paintings and hopes that his insight will help her solve the riddle at the core of her existence. But when a long, dry summer approaches, his intriguing presence itself turns into a mystery, upsetting the peace in her isolated home.
The captivating new book Second Place by Rachel Cusk examines the moral dilemmas that drive our lives as well as the geometry of human connections and masculine privilege. It serves as a reminder of both the uplifting and destructive power of art.
Second Place by Rachel Cusk
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The main character in Second Place, “M,” is a writer who lives in a remote marsh, similar to Cusk herself. The narration also alludes to some “global chaos” that makes travel challenging. The American salonnière Mabel Dodge Luhan, who invited the author D.H. Lawrence to live at her arts colony in New Mexico, wrote about her experiences in a 1933 book, from which the basic idea of the narrative was based or taken. Similar to Luhan, M in Cusk invites a painter she admires to stay in a guest house on her property in a letter. Like Luhan, M hopes that this well-known artist will somehow depict her life and surroundings in his work, even though she does not feel competent to do so.
And this relationship can only be troubled and parasitic, just like Luhan’s friendship with Lawrence. Who is the parasite, though?
M and her husband Tony are middle-aged writers who reside in the epidemic. She starts the story by thinking back to a period when she was younger and the artwork of the artist L made her feel alive and real. She extends an invitation to L to live in her second home, a cosy refuge on Tony’s marshland property, as the pandemic spreads.
Strange connections arise and reorganize when L, the ingenue, Britt and M’s daughter Justine, and her lover arrive. M’s only desire is to be L’s confidante, but L detests her, which causes M unending conflict. M’s personality is so absurd that I was frequently giggling, yet she also has her profound moments when she feels like a kindred spirit.
The book begins with a terrible tone as recollections of a man who appeared and behaved like the devil are recalled, but it flows beautifully. It brings people and places. It evokes emotions and ominous observations about human nature. Every feeling is examined from every perspective imaginable. M is a frail person who can’t manage her own life, but her inner laments and struggles are both piercing and delightful. She encounters a painting that will alter her life on a visit to an exhibition.
She takes a while to decide to let the painter inside the home where she and her husband reside; she wants both his art and his presence, and there is even a hint of lust in her thoughts. Her marriage is on the verge of disintegrating as a result of the man’s arrival, and M begins to question her prior, “boring,” lifestyle. It is not effortless.
