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Books

When Rachel Cusk went to Greece: would she be nice or nasty?

A review of Outline, by Rachel Cusk. A surprisingly compelling, dream-like new novel from the acclaimed but difficult author

13 September 2014

9:00 AM

13 September 2014

9:00 AM

Outline Rachel Cusk

Faber, pp.256, £16.99, ISBN: 9780571233625

Last year in Athens, rumours raced about Rachel Cusk’s creative writing classes at the British Council. Some of the (mostly Athenian) pupils revered her for her intelligence and pitiless honesty, while others reviled her for her ‘colonial attitude’ and an apparent antipathy towards Greeks. One might suspect Greeks of tending towards intense emotional reactions, but the phlegmatic British have had no less divided opinions about Cusk’s books.

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