Published by Mariah Sturdivant
September 19th, 2022
Summary
"A woman writer goes to Athens in the height of summer to teach a writing course. Though her own circumstances remain indistinct, she becomes the audience to a chain of narratives, as the people she meets tell her one after another the stories of their lives. Beginning with the neighboring passenger on the flight out and his tales of fast boats and failed marriages, the storyteller talk of their loves and ambitions and pains, their anxieties, their perceptions, and their daily lives. In the stifling heat and noise of the city, the sequence of voices begins to weave a complex human tapestry. The more they talk the more elliptical their listener becomes, as she shapes and directs their accounts until certain themes begin to emerge: the experience of loss, the nature of family life, the difficulty of intimacy, and the mystery of creativity itself. Outline is a novel about writing and talking, about self-effacement and self-expression, the desire to create, and the human art of self-portraiture in which that desire finds its universal form" (Goodreads.com).
Genre
Fiction, Autofiction
Rating
I rate this book 3/5 stars. I read this book for my graduate class about Arealism and it was my first time reading something in this genre. I thought that this book was beautifully written and had a long of good themes and elements in it. This book did more thematic things than literary things which was very interesting. Throughout the book I found myself having a lot of epiphany moments and it really opened up my eyes. This book is actually the first one in a trilogy and I am interested in what Cusk explores in the other two books. You can find this book at your local library or online. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a different reading or writing style.
Your outline of this book makes me want to read it. Just the idea of her listening to different people stories and making them into stories is intriguing.