The Lucky Ones : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Missing something.
Review: Cusk's The Country Life is one of my favorite novels of the last ten years. The characters are hysterical and tragic at the same time; her use of metaphor constantly amazed me with its subtle power; although not much actually happens in the plot, the chaotic internal life of the main character creates a vivacious momentum that carries you quickly through the novel.

I was thrilled when I saw that Cusk had a new book (I have not read her recent book about motherhood). But the energy of The Country Life was not here. Her characterizations in The Lucky Ones are insightful--her knack for exploring unusual relationships gives many of the stories their driving force--however, I just couldn't care about them. I blame the short story format. The characters are connected--loosely--but not enough to sustain the cessation of story after story. As soon as we start to wonder about the incarcerated woman, her story is over. What happens to Jane? To Lucy? To Martin & Dominique? The last two stories do an admirable job of bringing together the themes set forth on the book jacket, "haunted by family, longing for love, the struggle to connect," but I was left feel like I could shelve the book and never think about it again.

I highly recommend The Country Life if this is your first venture at Cusk. As for The Lucky Ones, it is not the best example of her abilities.

Rating:
Summary: A novel to be re-read as it comes full circle
Review: I have read every one of Rachel Cusk's novels and they just get better. While I am carried along by her stories, I am also marveling at her command of language, how just one sentence can reveal a whole life. She understands how men feel, as sensitively and acutely as she reveals a woman's heart. I read probably two or three books a week (usually in the wee small hours) and this would have to be the pick of the last six months' reading -- and that's saying something! This is a novel lover's novel - fiction that feels utterly real.

Rating:
Summary: The longer you read, the better it gets!
Review: I once tried to read Rachel Cusk's "Saving Agnes," but for some reason, I didn't take to it. I assumed that it was because I was less experienced in reading books that are similar to her style, and vowed to try again.

I picked up "The Lucky Ones," took it home, and realized that it was made up of five short stories. I don't read them that often, but am always looking for books that will pull me into that genre.

I was pleased. Cusk's writings are "show," rather than "tell," as if you are in this persons body, feeling the things they have felt.

"Confinement," is about a woman who is imprisoned for (possibly) killing her children.

"The Way you Do It," is about some couples and singles that go skiing in the Swiss Alps, and one man, Martin, who has recently had a baby with his girlfriend. It seems that all the others care about is if she is breastfeeding, and it appears that he is trying to find his old life again.

"The Sacrifices," is about a woman who goes back to the home she grew up in and remembers the life that she and her family shared, while trying to understand her present. She is raising another man's child, while living in close proximity to her twin-sister Lucy, who is her complete opposite.

"Mrs. Daley's Daughter," was one of my favorites. Mrs. Daley is miserable, and tries to make everyone around her miserable as well. She seems to be constantly complaining about her past and her husband (what he didn't do for her) and is jealous of her daughter, who has what she would have wanted for herself. She makes every effort to insult her daughter, who either takes it in stride, or doesn't realize what Mrs. Daley is doing.

The last story (my favorite) is called "Matters of Life and Death," about a stay at home mom who got into a car accident and befriends a neighbor Serena Porter, who writes a column about "life" in the newspaper. She seems to be very independent, yet only writes about her life with her children. Meanwhile, her husband is dying of cancer.

I really enjoyed the book. I will have to read it again to make the connections of each character that went from one story to another. I didn't realize that all of the characters were somehow connected until I was half-way through. She writes with such rich, lyrical language that keeps you locked into the stories the whole way through.

Recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Rachel Cusk's The Lucky Ones is an excellent collection of interconnected stories. It's not a novel in the traditional sense of the word, really a group of well-written stories with characters in each story popping up in the others. All of the stories focus on the relationship between parents and children, exploring the nature of the desire for becoming a parent--is it something innate, something we all have? Are some better parents than others, or are they all bad in their own way? The writing here is wonderful--very enjoyable. A well-done collection that hangs together much more cohesively than most other interconnected story collections I have read.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Rachel Cusk's The Lucky Ones is an excellent collection of interconnected stories. It's not a novel in the traditional sense of the word, really a group of well-written stories with characters in each story popping up in the others. All of the stories focus on the relationship between parents and children, exploring the nature of the desire for becoming a parent--is it something innate, something we all have? Are some better parents than others, or are they all bad in their own way? The writing here is wonderful--very enjoyable. A well-done collection that hangs together much more cohesively than most other interconnected story collections I have read.

Rating:
Summary: (3.5)"The threat of eternal redundancy"
Review: The author of The Lucky Ones tackles relationships, particularly between parents and children in this series of interconnected stories sharing common characters. With incisive prose, Cusk addresses the lost opportunities that plague everyday life. Each new tale builds upon the prior one, adding characters and events, until she exposes the fragile fabric of their lives.

The first story sets the stage for the ongoing drama as a young woman grapples with the impending birth of her child, how the delivery will destroy the intimacy she has treasured throughout the pregnancy. Carrying a child has allowed her to pretend an emotional distance from undesirable surroundings. With the birth, she will be thrust into reality.

In another tale, we meet the acerbic Mrs. Daley, a woman engaged in an adversarial relationship with one of her children, Josephine. Mrs. Daley is offended daily by Josephine's choices, her unmarried state, current pregnancy and her paucity of worldly goods. Mrs. Daley is incensed by Josephine's lack of engagement in the one-sided battle for dominance. Lacking a sense of the fragility of others, Mrs. Daley builds her days around such small dramas, a petulant woman terrified of confronting her own shortcomings.

In yet another small drama, a group of friends go on a skiing vacation, forced to endure accommodations that are clearly unsuitable. Thrown together randomly, they muddle through the holiday barely connecting, ruminating privately over their personal accomplishments and disappointments, the drastic changes wrought by marriage and parenthood. They are virtual strangers, sleeping under the same roof by night, flashing down the icy slopes by day.

The author casts a discerning eye on the human condition, the choices that people make and then regret and the subtlety of ego, as each yearns for a comfort zone from which to address the rest of the world. No characters are ill-intentioned; they simply disregard the feelings of others while meeting the daily demands of busy lives.

Most striking in The Lucky Ones is the contrast between the characters' interiors and exteriors. Most of them construct elaborate interior lives to cope with the banality of marriages gone stale, irritating children clamoring for attention and a general disharmony that can be defined as unhappiness. The author's female characters are by far the most complicated, not particularly warm or considerate of one another, almost dispassionate in their treatment of friendships: "Vanessa imagined Serena's mind to be like the nest of some thieving, clever bird, lined with stolen fragments."

With its abstract, observant view of married couples and their relationships to each other and their children, this novel is vaguely reminiscent of The Ice Storm, with a similar construct of externals that highlight the emotional vacuum of disconnected lives. The author examines the absence of emotional commitment, reflecting a certain reality, a chill that hands like a pall over The Lucky Ones. Luan Gaines/2004.

Rating:
Summary: It's all connected
Review: The form of this unique novel, along with its themes of interconnecting reminded me strongly of another book: Bark of the Dogwood by Jackson McCrae. Both books have a lot in common, and the phrase "knotty relationships" that one reviewer used to describe the connections is an understatement in both books. But "The Lucky Ones" touched a nerve for me--there's something unique here and well worth a visit. Do yourself a favor and make an appointment with this very different novel.

Rating:
Summary: It's all connected
Review: The form of this unique novel, along with its themes of interconnecting reminded me strongly of another book: Bark of the Dogwood by Jackson McCrae. Both books have a lot in common, and the phrase "knotty relationships" that one reviewer used to describe the connections is an understatement in both books. But "The Lucky Ones" touched a nerve for me--there's something unique here and well worth a visit. Do yourself a favor and make an appointment with this very different novel.

Rating:
Summary: lost steam near the end
Review: The Lucky Ones started off promising, but by the last story, I was bored.


Rating:
Summary: "I'm more than equal. I'm the lucky one"
Review: Without a doubt, Rachel Cusk is an author capable of dazzling with her prose. Not necessarily with the poetry of the words themselves, but of what these words point to, the tiny observations and idiosyncratic thoughts that give each character she describes authenticity. When Cusk is at her best, the small surface details of everyday life reveal a deeper tragedy, imbued with poignancy and pathos, like Virginia Woolf, who is appropriately namedropped on the dustjacket of 'The Lucky Ones'. It would be a bit much to say this book is as good as anything by Woolf, but it is Woolfian in its approach, and well done.

Not really a novel, despite it being called one, these five short stories-- interconnected by peripheral characters in one story playing a larger role in others-- deal with the theme of parenthood, and more specifically motherhood (mothers being the titular 'lucky ones'). Things such as how children change one's life, approaches to raising children, attitudes to a partner's children from other relationships, how wanting children and not having them affects a woman.

All of the stories are rather depressing, so if you've picked up this book in the hopes of reading some cheery chick-lit-- not unthinkable as the dustjacket picture and the photo of the young, goodlooking author suggest "girlie fun"-- sorry, but that isn't what you're going to get. The first story starts out quite literally in a prison, and proceeding on, one finds that all of the characters seem to feel imprisoned by their lives to various degrees. I don't know if men will like this book so much, but I think 'The Lucky Ones' is ideal for women in the mood for something introspective.