This may not be as formally innovative as Cusk's Outline trilogy but it's arguably a more challenging book with its existentialist probings and sheer smartness. It's so rich and dense that any easy summary escapes me - and plot, of course, isn't the point anyway - but I will say that I made 80 notes and annotations in a book less than 200 pages long. This is a novel just begging for a re-read (and another re-read, a desert island book, for sure). 

In some ways, what this reminded me of is Plato's dialogues where characters contemplate complex ideas, and different philosophical positions are in discussion, sometimes in the form of harsh clashes, with each other. As the dialogues are filtered through the authorial voice of 'Plato', so here they're verbalised through M, a female some-time author, who writes a series of letters to Jeffers, within which are contained the substance of the text, including some inset letters from the painter, L. 

Ideas about subjectivity and objective 'truth', about gendered power dynamics, art and reality, how to live a 'free' life and what that might mean, fear and solace, beauty and rage, loneliness and connection, mother love, sexual/romantic love, love of self are all here, treated with sophistication and an assured intelligence. The very definition of the 'second place' varies by character, though  the concept of the subsidiary position of women is crucially important. 

Inspired by [book:Lorenzo in Taos|3043836], though seemingly set in the present, (there's a teasing 'global pandemonium' that has affected the stock markets and made travel difficult but people still hug and live 'normal' lives), the shade of D.H. Lawrence adds a dimension to this novel, not least in the biblical/mythological imagery of demons and temptation, a mural of Adam and Eve with the snake, and a mini-flood that follows a dramatic encounter. 

Cusk's writing is fluent and graceful, such a pleasure to read, but incisive, too, in the way it balances forward movement and the stasis of contemplation. Anyone like me who has been waiting eagerly to see what Cusk would do after Kudos can breath a sigh of relief - this is superb!