PositiveColumbia JournalIn Coventry, Rachel Cusk’s first collection of nonfiction writing, she has not reinvented the essay as she innovated the novel in her Outline trilogy—what she has done instead is showcase the pleasurable continuity of a mind at work on the same questions over time ... in the nonfiction register she writes with stunning clarity about her own capacity for cruelty, but also for compassion, perseverance, and maternal love ... The essay collection is broken into three sections, but it’s in the first—Coventry—that Cusk’s digressive style glimmers most, sometimes leading the reader to unexpected places ... Cusk is a master of the illustrative anecdote, allowing her to telescope between the specific and the abstract ... All in all, Cusk’s rare intelligence shines in these essays. But I did find myself missing the subtle situational humor that her eye for irony brought to her fiction—those dazzling moments where, in the latticework of allegory and specificity, a bit of light squeezed brightly through the cracks.
