Arlington Park

by Rachel Cusk | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 9780571228485 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Tregossip of St. Austell, Cornwall United Kingdom on 1/22/2008
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This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
9 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Tregossip from St. Austell, Cornwall United Kingdom on Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Donated to bookcross and one I will read before releasing on it's travels

First I've read by this author, and will now look for previous books

Looking at comments on this book on the web site - some are disappointed. I was not.

I found this author interesting and a clever, crisp writing style

Going on a Ring and usual guidelines please

Make a Journal Entry on it's arrival

PM next person before completion for address

Update JE when posted on - and above all enjoy

Tregossip (me) posted 7/2/08
Frenchnicola UK post anywhere arrived 11/2/08
Icila France no posting preferences recieved arrived 27/2/08, sent 8/3/08
okyrhoe Greece post anywhere
aava Finland arrived 30/5/08
seethroughfaith Finland arrived 7/6/08
Chania Finland
Inver UK, post UK
Return to Tregossip


Ray still open

Journal Entry 2 by Tregossip at -- Controlled release in St. Austell, Cornwall United Kingdom on Monday, February 4, 2008

Released 16 yrs ago (2/6/2008 UTC) at -- Controlled release in St. Austell, Cornwall United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:


Journal Entry 3 by Frenchnicola from Birmingham, West Midlands United Kingdom on Monday, February 11, 2008
Waiting for me on my return from holiday! It'll be next on the list to read...
Ooh, and thank you for the lost gardens of heligan leaflets - I'm going to be staying in Boswinger youth hostel in May, so I'll definitely be popping in there!

I finished this last night - my first thought when I closed the book was 'what was that all about?!' - it's a tricky book to get to grips with, and you have to concentrate to follow the different personalities. But it is beautifully written - I love the idea of life bubbling up through the floorboards! - some glorious paragraphs and the angst and maybe even claustrophobia of the women is perfectly captured. So not easy - it took me a while to get into it - but worthwhile.

Update: put in the post to Icila in France on Friday.

Journal Entry 4 by wingIcilawing from Nantes, Pays de la Loire France on Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Arrived this morning. Thanks for the card, the bookmark and the leaflet about Heligan.

Journal Entry 5 by wingIcilawing from Nantes, Pays de la Loire France on Saturday, March 8, 2008
Very well observed.

Thanks for sharing.

08/03/18 : In the mail.

Journal Entry 6 by okyrhoe from Athens - Αθήνα, Attica Greece on Monday, April 21, 2008
Thanks Tregossip for adding me to the ring, and icila for posting it to me!

Journal Entry 7 by okyrhoe from Athens - Αθήνα, Attica Greece on Monday, May 26, 2008
Arlington Park is a series of untitled & unnumbered passages; each one focuses on a different woman coming to grips with her suburban life's dissatisfactions. This variation on a single theme comes dangerously close to making the narrative obsolete as a whole. It's difficult to center one's attention on each separate character; the women's identities & responses almost merge into a single persona by the end.
That there is no worthwhile plot and each character's fate is indistinct from that of the others is appropriate to the theme of the book: Time passes, nothing happens.
Rachel Cusk paints a rather bleak picture of each woman's plight, the daily anxieties of the suburban mother/housewife/consumer, and it is easy for the reader to be overcome by the claustrophobic & strangulating details of these women's existence.
"A downpour would come or a reprieving ray of light, and in the end you didn't know what the difference was, what it all meant, what it added up to, what set against the necessity for just surviving and getting through."
"'You've just got to steer your own course. That's all you can do really, is steer your own course through it and not think too much.'"
What makes the book worthwhile is that Cusk recognizes that Juliet, Maisie, Amanda, Solly, and Christine have at the core of their being a common existential dilemma: they are all equally incapable of enunciating their reality into words, and of speaking about it amongst themselves. Therefore someone else must speak for them. Arlington Park then becomes a testament to their predicament.
My question is whether Cusk manages to give us something more to ponder on, beyond the obvious thematic references to Virginia Woolf and Philip Larkin.

Rachel Cusk reviews other writers.
---
On its way to aava.

Journal Entry 8 by aava from Jyväskylä, Keski-Suomi / Mellersta Finland Finland on Saturday, May 31, 2008
The book arrived yesterday. I'll try to read it quickly so I can pass it on before I start my holiday.Thank you Tregossip for starting this ring and for okyrhoe sending it. And for the lovely post card as well.

Rachel Cusk is a totally new author to me but certainly seems very interesting one.

Journal Entry 9 by aava from Jyväskylä, Keski-Suomi / Mellersta Finland Finland on Thursday, June 5, 2008
This was like reading Desperate (English) houseviwes...It's not an easy book but once you get into it is very gripping and written in beautiful style. There's the very dry and very black humour, but also sadness, anger and joy. Even though nothing happens much, a lot of is still going on.

Thanks for the opportunity to read the book, I will certainly keep my eyes open for other Rachel Cusk books.

This book will come with me to the meeting of Finnish bookcrossers this weekend in Helsinki. I'm hoping to meet with seethroughfaith there and give this book for her.

Journal Entry 10 by seethroughfaith from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on Saturday, June 7, 2008
This was on the table waiting for me at kesäpäivät. Thanks!

The JEs are really interesting and make me want to dive right into the book. Unfortunately I have a few books (other rings/rays) to read first and am leaving for holiday next Weds so sadly this will have to wait a couple of weeks until I can really pick it up- but will send it up to Chania sometime in July (probably along with other books)

Journal Entry 11 by seethroughfaith from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on Saturday, July 5, 2008
Next on my reading pile. Yippee

I'll meet Chania on July 15th so will hand it to her then :)

Journal Entry 12 by seethroughfaith from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi / Egentliga Finland Finland on Wednesday, July 23, 2008
oops.

I had this ready to take with me to read on holiday and then give to Chania (we met for the first time last week) only I forgot it. So it's un-read and ungiven.

I am leaving to help in a camp on Sat so I'll take this with me (and envelope) and post it from there. My apologies for delaying the ring. It'll soon be moving again

August 1st Edited to add: a) I didn't get to camp as I had the most awful bout of influenze (in the summer - the pits) then when I had read the book (at last!) b) I missed the post. It'll now be sent out on Monday (4th). I am so sorry for stalling the ring!

As for the book itself: Well there's an awful lot of description in it - way too much for my way of thinking. I mean I know it rains in England - a lot - but the first chapter was only about rain, (almost as bad as Dickens' endless description of fog at the beginning of Bleak House!) and I almost gave up reading then! I liked what Aava said that this book was a bit like reading desperate housewives :) but oh the endless descriptions marred what otherwise would have been a very good read. It made it a very mediocre read in the end. Hence the 6*

I really liked it that the book progressed from one housewife to another - and we saw the world through their eyes - but also that their worlds collided. Amanda was the most interesting to me.

Journal Entry 13 by seethroughfaith at Kokkola, Keski-Pohjanmaa / Mellersta Österbotten Finland on Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Released 15 yrs ago (7/30/2008 UTC) at Kokkola, Keski-Pohjanmaa / Mellersta Österbotten Finland

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES: (edited this book went out on August 4th)

Hope you enjoy this Chania! It was really nice to meet you last week. Thanks :)

Journal Entry 14 by Chania from Kokkola, Keski-Pohjanmaa / Mellersta Österbotten Finland on Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Thank you, seethroghfaith, it was lovely to meet you! I had totally forgot this book, so it will have to wait a while until I read it, but not for long, hopefully.

Journal Entry 15 by Chania from Kokkola, Keski-Pohjanmaa / Mellersta Österbotten Finland on Sunday, August 17, 2008
Hmmm... not too easy book to read, I think. It really took some concentration and silence and the right mood to get into this book. But yes, I did like it. Although I would have wished bit more optimistic parts in the lives of these women too, they all seemed so gloomy and wrapped up in their misery. But I suppose inside many ordinary housewifes there might be one of these disappointed women who are unhappy or at least unsatisfied - I don't know.
Very descriptive style, I agree with seethroughfaith, sometimes too much of it.
But I think I'd like to try another book by Rachel Cusk.
Thanks for the ring!

Journal Entry 16 by Inver from Aberdeen, Scotland United Kingdom on Wednesday, August 20, 2008
With me now. Have another two bookrings before this one. Not sure what I will think of it once I get to read it. Very mixed reviews here.

Message from Tregossip I can turn this into a bookray and release etc when the time comes.

I did attempt this one but wasn't holding my interest I'm afraid.

Journal Entry 17 by Inver at Belmont Cinema Cafe in Aberdeen, Scotland United Kingdom on Thursday, November 19, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (11/19/2009 UTC) at Belmont Cinema Cafe in Aberdeen, Scotland United Kingdom

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Taking along to the meetup. If not taken will be left on OBCZ shelf in the corner at the end of the bar.

Journal Entry 18 by wingbelmontcafewing from Aberdeen, Scotland United Kingdom on Saturday, January 16, 2010
obcz 111109

Journal Entry 19 by wingbelmontcafewing at Belmont Cinema Cafe in Aberdeen, Scotland United Kingdom on Saturday, January 23, 2010

Released 14 yrs ago (1/23/2010 UTC) at Belmont Cinema Cafe in Aberdeen, Scotland United Kingdom

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WILD RELEASE NOTES:

picked up

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