Life of M
The narrator moves through obsessions familiar to readers of Cusk’s previous novels: frustration over the inauthenticity of contemporary life, the instability of identity, and a sort of neurasthenic aestheticism that makes simple activities like going to a museum distressing if the other visitors respond to the art in a too-boisterous manner ... A narrative hall of mirrors that only a fool would confuse with a thinly veiled roman à clef about a celebrity.
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A short and electrifying novel ... A deeply enjoyable addition to Cusk’s canon concerning brilliant and divided women who are not-quite-willing participants in the worlds they have had a hand in creating ... Cusk is most successful at imagining the thoughts and private experiences of M as they occur within the layered structures she maintains to keep the world at bay.
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Cusk’s prose is polished, poised, exquisite, and covertly enigmatic until the final, stunning scene throws everything into question, leaving us abruptly aware of our myriad unsubstantiated assumptions. Whip-smart, mesmerizing, and provocative.
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