Second Place - Rachel Cusk [Review]

A common theme, Jeffers, amongst reviewers of this book is the comment that they didn’t quite understand the book, and yet still liked it. I’m not entirely sure how it’s possible, Jeffers, to not understand a book but still enjoy it. Could it not be, Jeffers, that only a select few, only the literary elite (of which I am most certainly not), can truly decipher this book, and the rest are trying to barter their validation by pretending to understand it? I suppose it is undeniable, Jeffers, that there are elements of brilliant writing here, but there are some sections that, no matter how much I read, just make no sense. It is also overwritten, Jeffers, it is literally literary (try saying that five times fast), and her writing unfortunately doesn’t appear effortless — it does feel at times like she is trying too hard. Ultimately, Jeffers, I think that some readers’ indecisiveness and desire not to diminish a piece that feels like it’s clever and artistic is propping it up.

I didn’t like the start of this book, Jeffers, I have to say; the first chapter was an absolute slog of a read. But after those initial 14 pages, we emerged over the brow of Pretentiousness Hill and I started to warm to it, and became increasingly engaged. Even still, and despite its short length, Jeffers, I found it difficult to read, but I will say that is just a personal thing — I know others have breezed it. Strangely, Jeffers, I am used to reading dense non-fiction and academic texts for long periods, but here I found myself reaching the end of a 15 page chapter and feeling mentally exhausted.

I discovered having finished the book, Jeffers, that this is a tribute to Mabel Dodge Luhan’s “Lorenzo in Taos”, a sort of diary of the time she spent with D. H. Lawrence. This is also where you get the names from; M being Mabel, L being Lawrence, M’s husband and Luhan’s fourth husband sharing the same name, and Jeffers referring to Robinson Jeffers who the original text was addressed to. While we’re on the topic, Cusk refers to you, Jeffers, 126 times in a 207 page book - for context, Luhan addresses Jeffers on fewer occasions than Cusk in a book that is nearly twice as long. It makes it seem gimmicky, Jeffers, more like a Weird Al Yankovic parody than a tribute.

You see, Jeffers, I’m simply not educated enough or qualified to conclude if this is a cheap imitation that has been elevated beyond its wildest dreams due to this nifty piece of trivia, or actually an award worthy tribute. I will repeat, Jeffers, that I am not qualified to comment, and that is okay, but here are some excerpts from Luhan’s original compared to Cusk’s book:

• Cusk on M’s first impression of Brett (L’s female friend) - “She had a curious mouth that hung open in a kind of letterbox shape – the mouth of a comic-book gunman, I often thought afterwards”.

• Luhan on Lawrences wife - “Frieda always had a mouth rather like a gunman”.

• Cusk on M’s chair in the Second Place - “‘We call that the electric chair,’ L said. ‘The shape is uncannily similar.’ ‘I’ll have it taken away if you like,’ I said coldly.”

• Luhan on a chair that she gifted to Lawrence - “Well, Lawrence took an immediate dislike to it, called it “The Iron Maiden,” and Tuite soon had it moved over to our cottage!”

• Cusk - While I watched, L wiped the back of his hand across his nose with a savage gesture and left a long streak of paint over his face too. Brett pointed at it and doubled over with laughter. They had taken the little stepladder from the shed and were using it to reach all the way to the top of the walls, which were halfcovered in a growing swirl of lurid colours and shapes. I stopped and stood, rooted to the spot, unable to help seeing what I saw through the glass. I saw the forms of trees and plants and flowers, the trees with great twisting intestinal roots, the flowers fleshy and obscene, with big pink stamens like phalluses; and strange animals, birds and beasts of unearthly shapes and colours; and in the middle of it all two figures, a woman and a man, standing beside a tree bearing violent red fruits like countless open mouths, with a great fat snake wound all around its trunk. It was a Garden of Eden, Jeffers, except a hellish one!

• Luhan - So there we all were with pots of pale-colored paints: pink and light yellow and so on. Lorenzo first painted the brand-new pine-wood toilet that stood off at some distance from the house. Had it been done in green, as I had planned it to be, it would have faded into the landscape and been unnoticeable. But what do you think he did? He gave it a coat of cream-color to make it stand out more than before, and on it he made an enormous design! In the center, coil on coil, and swaying upwards, was a great, green snake wrapped around the stem of a sunflower that burned and shone like the Taos sun. On either side of it he painted a black butterfly as large as a plate, a white dove, a dark-brown bullfrog, and a rooster. Whom all these were supposed to symbolize, I will leave it to you to puzzle out. Certainly they were not Must fortuitous forms.

• Cusk - “Nonetheless he was still, and watching him I realised that a certain kind of stillness is the most perfect form of action.”

• Luhan - “You always want to rush into action. Realize that a certain kind of stillness is the most perfect form of action, like a seed can wait. One’s action ought to come out of an achieved stillness: not be a mere rushing on.”

Forgive me, Jeffers, but I wasn’t aware that a homage would involve straight up ripping lines from another book — if this is the case, Jeffers, excuse me while I write my own book paying trbute to Cusk’s “Second Place”.