RaveChicago Review of BooksLife of M is preoccupied with the possibility of writing about someone who is not the person doing the writing, which seems to be an activity about which Cusk is skeptical, on metaphysical grounds just as much as moral-political ones. ... A novel that explores, on the page, both the situation of the artist in the world and the problems inherent in being one ... The novel is comfortable, cultivating epistemological self-doubt from the very beginning, and brings all its attention to bear on those deep questions of art and representation ... Ultimately seems to claim for itself an assertion that there is no truth possible in art ... Thereby, Cusk has now attained the status of some sort of devious Plato, one who similarly sees art as dangerous representation, yet wishes not to repress it but to unleash it, to give unto reality a world of her own form.
Lee Cole
MixedOn the SeawallCole opts to play it safe at the sentence, largely avoiding any sort of dynamic risk-taking in a prioritization of clear, straightforward storytelling. While he is certainly successful there, the byproduct is a book that, while replete with big ideas and a well-developed conception, offers little to challenge, enthrall, or excite at the base unit of fiction ... The strongest portions of Groundskeeping are the depictions of the physical world. Cole relies on his considerable skill with detail and ability to portray middle America, and his small Kentucky college and Owen’s home life feel real and rich. It is a part of the country and culture infrequently explored in fiction, and there is a refreshing honesty and sensibility found in Cole’s comfort with that part of the world. Owen’s budding relationship with Alma, too, is at its best in-scene, when Cole moves away from explanation and towards rendition ... But even the best of these moments—James is a successful secondary character who is able to effectively act on the plot while challenging his traditional archetypes—are often short and somewhat malnourished, while many of them fall flat and clichéd. Cole seems reluctant to truly explore the themes of racial and social inequality that abound in a narrative set in Kentucky during the Trump years and peopled by characters of radically different socio-economic backgrounds ... Groundskeeping will divide reactions to it sharply between the reader who enjoys an easy, effortless experience and those who crave a work of more energy and audacity.
