Outline by Rachel Cusk
Synopsis
Faye is a novelist teaching a week-long writing workshop in Athens. She meets a man on the plane to Greece, which kickstarts a series of conversations that structure the entire narrative. These conversations are with other writers, students, acquaintances, and each conveys a snapshot of a person's life. We hardly get any context due to the brevity of character interactions, and we know very little about Faye. In fact, we only ever pick up on who Faye is through her conversations but never enough to wholly understand her in the way we might expect from a novel. Hence, she is only an outline of a woman whose experiences are vaguely reflected in the other characters she converses with.
So, what’s the deal?
As the people Faye meet reveal their desires, anxieties, and longings — predominantly about marriage, motherhood, and other relationships — Faye is also given a space to question her life as a mother of two sons. Athens allows her a certain freedom to regain her identity, even if she might not completely understand what that means yet. The more she listens and interacts with the other characters, the more she realizes how much is lost within her life. Outline is then a novel about identity, familial expectations, perceptions of others, and the boundaries of reality.
"When I looked at the family on the boat, I saw a vision of what I no longer had: I saw something, in other words, that wasn't there. Those people were living in their moment, and though I could see it I could no more return to that moment than I could walk across the water that separated us. And of those two ways of living -- living in the moment and living outside it -- which was the more real?"
What is most intriguing about Outline is Cusk's discussion on the nature of truth and reality relative to human experience and emotion. Cusk's characters are truth-tellers, meaning they have the ability to express their own truths, which essentially make up their identity. They do so unashamedly, a stark contrast to the everyday conversations that might occur in real life -- only saying just enough to avoid revealing too much about how we truly think or feel. We often gauge selfhood in relation to other people (whether that be through affirmation or negation) and failing to express ourselves fully can create inner conflict. As a result, Cusk has created a series of portraits in written form that reveals the importance of expression that we may not always acknowledge in our daily interactions with others. In other words, we can learn a lot from what people divulge about themselves, even if we don’t always agree or share the same views. Moreover, snapshots and outlines never reveal the entire story, and so we tend to fill in the gaps based on our perceptions and experiences, much like Faye does throughout the novel. Faye’s discussions with her students, the Greek man on the airplane, and her friends uncover various viewpoints and thus reveal more than one reality.
"Sharing of worlds means a shared reality. When this fails people may struggle with their identity."
Final Thoughts
Cusk offers no easy answers, and Outline is not for everyone. It is cerebral and can, at times, be challenging to get into. There were moments where I found myself pulling away from the narrative, which prompted me to re-read sections after realizing I had no idea what I just read. Maybe that’s a symptom of the novel or the state of mind in which I read it, but I did enjoy looking back at what I highlighted and realizing how much the book has to offer. My awareness of the novel resides in an understanding that there is only “point-of-view,” meaning the various experiences and ways of perceiving the world are all valid and valuable. Just as we might have different interpretations of a photograph or painting, Outline merely reflects the reader, whether or not the characters' experiences are similar to their own. It is the reaction to the art which is valuable, imploring readers to seek their own answers and possibly learn more about themselves along the way. Isn’t that what great story-telling is all about?