PositiveQuill and QuirePieces leap from the seemingly banal – the act of driving, the concept of rudeness, the frustrating nature of teenagers – to vast arenas where the author’s proven artfulness is allowed to thrive. The title essay, on being temporarily ignored in the course of a spat or grudge, transforms the familiar into the profound ... The author gives herself ample space to build the complex out of the insignificant, the reader accompanying her so far afield that it can be difficult to recall where the journey started ... Cusk writes caustically as ever about the constraints of womanhood, in the home and elsewhere, at times leading us to wonder whether she’s celebrating or dismissing feminism’s current incarnations ... The controversy that once surrounded Cusk’s writing on the private sphere could be viewed as laughable now, given how public the personal has become in the years since, but her scathing observations and unabashed honesty about motherhood (and its difficulties) still enlighten and illuminate ... Coventry can, at times, feel front-loaded with the author’s more powerful work; the latter half trails in overall impact. Though Cusk is certainly an invigorating critic, her gift is undeniably for expanding the realm of the personal, and the final essays on art and literature...end up feeling like tacked-on afterthoughts. Despite some curatorial unevenness, the collection still manages to represent the best contemporary essay writing has to offer – the artful unravelling of the author’s thoughts, the methodical revealing of ideas, the difficult journey to understanding, and the gift of watching a first-rate intellect at work.
