Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation

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Description

In the winter of 2009, Rachel Cusk's marriage of ten years came to an end. In the months that followed, life as she had known it came apart, like a jigsaw dismantled into a heap of broken-edged pieces. Aftermath chronicles this perilous journey as the author redefines herself as a single woman and creates a new version of family life for her daughters. She discovers previously unknown strengths and freedoms but also finds herself suddenly vulnerable to outsiders, unwelcome advice, social displacement and the absence of a clear authority. The pressure to reconstruct a 'normal' life for her daughters competes with the sense that nothing feels normal at all. Aftermath is a masterly work in which the author, at her most candid and rigorous, charts the largely unwritten journey back to order from the chaos that is left when a family breaks apart.

Reviews

Praise for "Aftermath
""[I] admire Cusk . . . for the gravity and ruthlessness of her self-examination. Much that is written these days about what are regretfully called 'relationships' feels overly processed, with emotions filtered bloodlessly through irony, or diverted into easy sentimentality. Cusk's book, on the other hand, is emotionally raw and deeply uncomfortable-making, while also being finely turned as a literary artifact. (Cusk can nail a simile like Gabby Douglas can execute a backflip). Cusk, admirably enough, is not afraid to take herself seriously." --Rebecca Mead, "The New Yorker
""[A] brilliant new memoir . . . As slim and revealing as a microscope slide."--Lisa Shea, "Elle
""Compelling . . . Affecting . . . [A] bravely unsympathetic memoir of marital dissolution . . . A restlessly erudite portrait of post-marital strife. The book's satisfactions lie in its cold-eyed probing of the "aftermath," which, as she tells us, is a second sowing after the initial harvest. And in its vivid use of image and metaphor . . . This book is a solace to anybody who has dwelt in post-familial wastes." --Liza Mundy, "San Francisco Chronicle
""Thrilling . . . There are riches buried like gold in the bitter picture she describes . . . An enormously talented writer." --Nan Goldberg, "The Boston Globe
""Striking . . . Startling . . . Unflinching . . . Bold, gripping, original and occasionally darkly funny." --"Kirkus Reviews "(starred review)
"I read "A Life's Work" shortly after I, too, had had a child, and doing so was like finally letting go of a breath I had held for a year. Ostentatiously smart, fearless, the author displayed what almost seemed a compulsion to yank the threads of that impossibly pretty doily tatted by convention around motherhood . . . Her memoir of divorce displays the same ferocity of intellect, humor, and occasional bad mood . . . It is a testament to Cusk's talent that she was able to make something ofh

Praise for "Aftermath
""[A] brilliant new memoir . . . As slim and revealing as a microscope slide."--Lisa Shea, "Elle
""Striking . . . Startling . . . Unflinching . . . Bold, gripping, original and occasionally darkly funny." --"Kirkus Reviews "(starred review)
"In this thought-provoking memoir, Cusk musters her considerable literary powers to mine a complex terrain filled with heartbreak and doubt . . . Interspersed within the narrative are stories within stories, vivid scenes, and piercing observations." --"Publishers Weekly "(starred review)
"A penetrating exploration of gender roles in the context of marriage and family and how the dissolution of a marriage changes a person's relationship with others." --Vanessa Bush, "Booklist
""Artful and nuanced . . . [Cusk] has the novelist's saving graces--honesty, courage, and the ability to depict her experiences in exquisitely crafted language . . . Her exacting, cerebral treatment of such a highly-charged subject is what makes it of literary value." --Amanda Craig, "The Independent
""Brilliant . . . Rachel Cusk's books are like pop-up volumes for grown-ups, the prose springing out of the page to bop you neatly between the eyes with its insights." --Julie Burchill, "The Observer "(London)
"Unflinching and beautifully wrought . . . Cusk uses the [memoir] form with great tact and writerly panache. She is at once probing and reticent, mustering her scenes and images to convey the truth of enmeshed lives and loves . . . ["Aftermath" is] full of beauty--the beauty of language struggling to reveal an experience which is complex and scored with doubts and pain." --Lisa Appignanesi, "The Daily Telegraph
""Startlingly insightful . . . Rachel Cusk's writing has quietly thrilled me for years with its intelligence, perception and understated power ordinary people's flaws are depicted vividly yet without fanfare in brittle, brilliant prose . . . As always with Cusk, it's exh

Praise for "Aftermath
""Striking . . . Startling . . . Unflinching . . . Bold, gripping, original and occasionally darkly funny." --"Kirkus Reviews "(starred review)
"In this thought-provoking memoir, Cusk musters her considerable literary powers to mine a complex terrain filled with heartbreak and doubt . . . Interspersed within the narrative are stories within stories, vivid scenes, and piercing observations." --"Publishers Weekly "(starred review)
"A penetrating exploration of gender roles in the context of marriage and family and how the dissolution of a marriage changes a person's relationship with others." --Vanessa Bush, "Booklist
""Artful and nuanced . . . [Cusk] has the novelist's saving graces--honesty, courage, and the ability to depict her experiences in exquisitely crafted language . . . Her exacting, cerebral treatment of such a highly-charged subject is what makes it of literary value." --Amanda Craig, "The Independent
""Brilliant . . . Rachel Cusk's books are like pop-up volumes for grown-ups, the prose springing out of the page to bop you neatly between the eyes with its insights." --Julie Burchill, "The Observer "(London)
"Unflinching and beautifully wrought . . . Cusk uses the [memoir] form with great tact and writerly panache. She is at once probing and reticent, mustering her scenes and images to convey the truth of enmeshed lives and loves . . . ["Aftermath" is] full of beauty--the beauty of language struggling to reveal an experience which is complex and scored with doubts and pain." --Lisa Appignanesi, "The Daily Telegraph
""Startlingly insightful . . . Rachel Cusk's writing has quietly thrilled me for years with its intelligence, perception and understated power ordinary people's flaws are depicted vividly yet without fanfare in brittle, brilliant prose . . . As always with Cusk, it's exhilarating to feel stimulated, to have fabulous phrases and similes cause pulses of pleasure." --Leyla Sa

Praise for "A Life's Work

""Extraordinary." --"The New Yorker

""Wholly original and unabashedly true . . . Funny and smart and refreshingly akin to a war diary--sort of Apocalypse Baby Now." --Elissa Schappell, "The New York Times Book Review"

Author Bio

Rachel Cusk was born in 1967 and is the author of: Saving Agnes, which won the Whitbread First Novel Award, The Temporary, The Country Life - won a Somerset Maugham Award, The Lucky Ones -shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award, In the Fold and Arlington Park -was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and The Bradshaw Variations. Her non-fiction books are A Life's Work and The Last Supper. In 2003 she was chosen as one of Granta's Best of Young Novelists.