SECOND PLACE
Over the holiday break I finally had a chance to read SECOND PLACE by Rachel Cusk, which was published back in May 2021. I love Cusk’s OUTLINE trilogy, as do many people, apparently, because it took months for me to get a copy of SECOND PLACE from the library. Cusk’s new novel is hazy and digressive, and restrained in showing a clear path forward, much like the story’s swampy setting. The narrator, a middle-aged woman known only to the reader as “M,” lives with her husband on a remote marsh, where they routinely host artists in a guest cabin, the titular “second place.” M invites L, an aging but successful painter, to visit the marsh, which sets the stage for the bulk of the novel. During his volatile stay, M struggles with her relationship to him and his work, a turmoil that boils over, disrupting both her marriage and her self-image.
—Nolan Russell, Executive Assistant
