Second Place

 Second Place

Reviewed By  Ian Banks       August 23, 2021

 

Author  Rachel Cusk

Distributor:      Allen & Unwin
ISBN:                 9780571366699
Publisher:         Faber
Release Date:   May 2021  

   Website:   https://www.allenandunwin.com

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Told in the first person through a conversation with Jeffers, Second Place is a beautifully executed look at life, desire, male/female fate and provocation.

Set in France during the blistering heat of summer, a woman falls in love with a painting she is attracted to, inexplicably! To her, her life is a mystery, a round of days of routine, never quite satisfying some undefinable need.

She invites the artist L to the farm where she and her husband have lived comfortably and in return he is expected to paint her portrait; the very last thing L intends. Down on his luck the once sought out artist is happy to free load for the summer, inviting his current girlfriend, comfortable with manipulating the situation to suite himself. As the summer drags ever onward, the once happy home becomes a place of distrust and distress.

The lure of the unattainable, so redolent of humanity has been explored well as the woman, later referred to as M, slowly destroys not only her peace, but that of her husband and home in a search for fulfillment through the seductive power of art.

L, the artist has been well crafted with inspiration drawn from the life of DH Lawrence and his somewhat flamboyant, hedonistic lifestyle which adds a certain authenticity to this character as well as the overall story. Well written in clear structured language, Second Place is an excellent reflection on the power of delusion.

Fiction