The Country Life - Hardcover

Cusk, Rachel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312198485 ISBN 13: 9780312198480

Publisher: Picador USA, 1999

Synopsis

Stella Benson, anxious to leave London and begin a new life, journeys to rural Sussex to work as an au pair for a decidedly overwhelming family, leading to questions about the true motivations for her extreme actions. Tour.

About this title

Review

In Rachel Cusk's The Country Life, city mouse Stella abruptly abandons her London career and man for a job in Sussex. Her mission: to care for and transport young Martin, the disabled son of country mice Piers and Pamela Madden, owners of Franchise Farm. Alas, all is not ambrosia in Arcadia. For a start, the Maddens are, well, maddening. The paterfamilias sports "an expression of bright vacancy on his rosy face" whereas his wife evinces a more dramatic sort of derangement: "Pamela, I realized, spoke a language of energetic emergency, in which problems were approached as violently as they were escaped from." To make matters worse, not only does our heroine lack any background in her new field--she doesn't even know how to drive. Long before she's forced behind the wheel, however, Stella is out of her element. Nature, even the very air, seems against her. In one devastating tour de force, she falls asleep in the sun and is hideously burnt (but only on one side of her body!) and then suffers an indoor avian attack.

Fans of Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm will recognize more than a few nods to her classic in Rachel Cusk's hilarious and caustic third novel. For a start, the locals are unfailingly lugubrious, and every dog seems to have it in for our girl from the city. As for her young charge, Martin is either an emotional monster or a savior--though we readers might well opt for the former. The Country Life again and again displays Cusk's eye and ear for surreal comedy and social unpleasantry. Suffice it to say that your idea of a pleasant sojourn--or even a brief walk--in the country will never be the same. --Kerry Fried

From the Publisher

British Praise for The Country Life:

"That rare thing: a novel that makes you laugh out loud and that you put down with regret." --London Literary Review

"Like the novels of Evelyn Waugh or Stella Gibbons, The Country Life has a moral core, meticulously disguised by comedy. Cusk is a highly interesting, original writer, and, more unusually, she is a joy to read." --Helen Dunmore, The London Times

"An extraordinary blend of comedy and menace.... A tour-de-force against the odds and contains--just for the record--the most unexpected single line I have ever read in a work of fiction." --Lawrence Norfolk, The Guardian

"By turns funny and poignant... A pleasure to read...Cusk will reward you with gentle wit and a touching portrait of emotional vulnerability." --The Sunday Telegraph

"Here is Rachel Cusk flying a kite for au pair/governess literature and nicely abiding by the requirements... An adroitly paced narrative." --Penelope Lively, The Independent

"Gracefully captures both the heart and mind." --Tatler

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador USA
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0312198485
• ISBN 13: 9780312198480
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 341