Transit - Whole Book (spoilers welcome)

[Hugh]

I have not yet managed to dig out my copy of the book, but in any case I don't think the concept of spoilers really applies to this book, and it isn't that long, so I think a single thread will suffice.

All comments welcome.

[Mark]

I'm enjoying it. The similarity to Sebald is striking - I was rather gratified when the similarity was noted by several reviewers as well. Ms. Cusk seems to pack more plot into her stories, though her odd "he said" coda evokes Sebald, as well as the willingness to leap time and open past narratives in the middle of a different narrative.

So far (up to writer's talk chapter) each chapter follows a pattern; quirky situation with uncomfortable details, leading to a blow-up.

[Lily]

Thinking of Cusk this week, my thoughts jumped to Margaret Drabble's The Red Queen, a very different story of a professional woman traveling, yet with some uncanny parallels of (responsibilities for?) relating the tales of others, as I thought of the two alongside each other. It has been some time since I read TRQ, so I am sure my comparisons are hazy. Do others recall tales of modern women pursuing their careers across international boundaries that they find themselves comparing with Cusk's narrator?

[LindaJ^]

I'm reading the series backwards. I really like the writing. I did not detect a similarity to Sebald, although I've read only one of his books and did not enjoy it anywhere near as much as Cusk's books.

I love how Faye knows how to ask the right questions and to listen to the responses. The stories that she gets people to relate is amazing. Okay, I know it's fiction but I bet Cusk can do it!

[Lily]

LindaJ^ wrote: "...The stories that she gets people to relate is amazing...."

They did sort of remind me of ones that I used to have fellow airplane passengers relate back in the seventies. But then, maybe it was because I was still a rather naive, open former midwesterner traveling on business who liked to elicit and listen to the stories of the person sitting beside me.