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A Life's Work Paperback – May 16, 2019
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A Life’s Work is Rachel Cusk’s funny, moving, brutally honest account of her early experiences of motherhood. An education in babies, books, breast-feeding, toddler groups, broken nights, bad advice and never being alone, it is a landmark work, which has provoked acclaim and outrage in equal measure.
‘An incitement to riot . . . It’s an extraordinary piece of work and the writing is utterly beautiful . . . I laughed out loud, often, in painful recognition.’ Esther Freud
‘As compulsive as a thriller.’ Kate Kellaway, Observer
‘Thank god for Rachel Cusk’s beautifully written and compelling memoir.’ Claire Messud, Guardian Books of the Year
‘Cusk is not afraid to address frankly the grief for freedom lost, the despair, pain, boredom and guilt – all in the context of the mother’s unspeakable love for the baby . . . Perhaps the most beautifully written and moving book on the subject.’ Stephanie Merritt, Observer
- Print length240 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFaber & Faber
- Publication dateMay 16, 2019
- Dimensions5.28 x 0.63 x 7.64 inches
- ISBN-100571350933
- ISBN-13978-0571350933
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Product details
- Publisher : Faber & Faber; Main edition (May 16, 2019)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0571350933
- ISBN-13 : 978-0571350933
- Item Weight : 7.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.28 x 0.63 x 7.64 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,063,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,938 in Motherhood (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
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Rachel Cusk is the author of nine novels, three non-fiction works, a play, and numerous shorter essays and memoirs. Her first novel, Saving Agnes, was published in 1993. Her most recent novel, Kudos, the final part of the Outline trilogy, will be published in the US and the UK in May 2018.
Saving Agnes won the Whitbread First Novel Award, The Country Life won the Somerset Maugham Award and subsequent books have been shortlisted for the Orange Prize, Whitbread Prize, Goldsmiths Prize, Bailey’s Prize, and the Giller Prize and Governor General’s Award in Canada. She was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2003. Her version of Euripides’ Medea was directed by Rupert Goold and was shortlisted for the Susan Blackburn Smith Award.
Rachel was born in Canada in 1967 and spent her early childhood in Los Angeles before moving to the UK in 1974. She studied English at Oxford and published her first novel Saving Agnes when she was twenty six, and its themes of femininity and social satire remained central to her work over the next decade. In responding to the formal problems of the novel representing female experience she began to work additionally in non-fiction. Her autobiographical accounts of motherhood and divorce (A Life’s Work and Aftermath) were groundbreaking and controversial.
Most recently, after a long period of consideration, she attempted to evolve a new form, one that could represent personal experience while avoiding the politics of subjectivity and literalism and remaining free from narrative convention. That project became a trilogy (Outline, Transit and Kudos). Outline was one of The New York Times’ top 5 novels in 2015. Judith Thurman’s 2017 profile of Rachel in The New Yorker comments “Many experimental writers have rejected the mechanics of storytelling, but Cusk has found a way to do so without sacrificing its tension. Where the action meanders, language takes up the slack. Her sentences hum with intelligence, like a neural pathway.”
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonTop reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2022Last chapter gave me hope that one can return to being some semblance of one s self after having children.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2022I get why preface was written in such way. As unmarried, no child reader, middle section was hard to get through as it felt exhausting to read. However I really enjoyed the beginning and the ending.The writing may feel unique or poor especially for readers not familiar with such type.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2021I was told this would make me not want to have kids. Did not work.
Top reviews from other countries
- sue geogheganReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for new mothers
This is a classic and truthful book about what it is like to be a first time new mother, and how your life is upended .Apparently, Rachel was much maligned when she wrote her day to day experiences of new motherhood which was not the fairytale that is so expected. My granddaughter is 14 months old and my daughter identifies with the book only too well. Motherhood claims a lot of a new mother’s life and should be acknowledged however much the child is totally loved. So much is written pre birth but the reality of the months after, not so much.
- charlotteReviewed in Germany on May 29, 2024
1.0 out of 5 stars Missing pages 39-86
Faulty print. The book is missing almost 50 pages.
charlotteMissing pages 39-86
Reviewed in Germany on May 29, 2024
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- KiaReviewed in Italy on April 19, 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Look deeper
Well written, honest and funny nonetheless.
Being mother is something else from the love for your children, it’s a path you learn and unlearn everyday.
- Joanne NicholsonReviewed in Australia on March 14, 2020
1.0 out of 5 stars Pity party
I found this book aggravating. The author relays her journey of motherhood like she is a victim - kidnapped by an alien baby. I assume she suffered post natal depression, for which her time may have been better spent getting help. As a mother of 4, I can not relate to her self indulgent rant about having to care for a baby. If you are pregnant or have just had a child, don’t waste your precious time or energy reading this.
- Amazon KundeReviewed in Germany on August 5, 2022
2.0 out of 5 stars Very negative vibe from reading it
The book is a realistic view on motherhood, but the writer felt to be kind of insulted that no one told her before how hard it is. She is right in the things she says tho but as It gives a very sad and bad feeling after reading it, the book seems not really helpful during pregnancy and early motherhood.