\nThere seems to be no local version of \u2018being sent to Coventry\u2019.\nThere may well be distinct versions of it in other cultures but it is\nlargely accepted as a particularly English saying, and it does typify\na particular trait of Englishness. I could as easily say, there may\nwell be no other culture that displays the particular social practice\nof sending someone to Coventry. At least, not to the extent they have\na saying for it. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIt speaks, I would hazard, to an unwillingness to engage in direct\nconfrontation, an underlying passive aggression, war by attrition. It\nemerges from a misplaced sense of manners; one does not wish to cause\na scene, but one must still have one\u2019s way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIt is the most passive of aggressions. So passive that, as Rachel\nCusk states in her collection of absorbing essays \u2013 brimming with\npithy observation, wit, and at times delightful iconoclasm \u2013 nobody\neven tells you you\u2019ve been sent to Coventry. It is a slow process,\nlike the receding of a tide, largely unnoticed until the realisation\nof your social isolation dawns. It is equally difficult to accurately\ntrace the exact cause. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nCusk muses on this very peculiar aspect of social relations in her\nsecond essay in this collection, which also provides its title. The\nfirst essay is about driving, a subject on which she gives pause for\nthought as she considers what it signifies to consciously choose not\nto learn to drive; how the lack of what might be argued an unnatural\nfreedom determines our lives are by necessity more contained,\nmanageable, in a sense, neater, and less wasteful. This theory also\npresumes one\u2019s ability to live close to one\u2019s work or, ideally,\nto live and work in the same place. To suggest to the domestic worker\nin Khayelitsha who has to negotiate the anarchy of minibus taxis and\nfailing public transport that her lack of an automobile is a positive\nattribute would be insulting in its arrogance. But Cusk is English,\nand she\u2019s considering England, not South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIf you can accept that, and in any way appreciate the understatement\nthat defines English wit (in contrast to the American penchant for\nslapstick), you\u2019re likely to derive great pleasure from the way\nCusk thinks, particularly in the six essays that are collected as the\nfirst part of the book. Here she also considers rudeness, teenagers\n(her own), divorce, and home making, in which she offers such\ndiamonds as the following: \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nNoting that in the \u201cmoderately grand\u201d houses she grew up in, the\nbest rooms were always the ones least used – the drawing room with\nits \u201cdustless ornaments\u201d, the spare bedroom where the \u201cwhite\nbed sheets were always crisp and clean\u201d, the study with its \u201cunread\nleather-bound volumes\u201d – she muses that \u201cIn their way these rooms\nwere expressive works, attempts to perfect reality and hold it in an\neternal moment. They told me something about the person \u2013 my mother\n\u2013 who created them. What they seemed to suggest was that she would\nnever be happier than in the home she made for us, at the times when\nwe weren\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nFor anyone who has grown up in a family that, if not wealthy enough\nto realise the perfect room only ever created for the external gaze,\nat least aspired to it, the insight is devastating. It is also\nliberating, and comic in that it makes clear the ridiculousness of\nthe assumption that we structure the spaces we inhabit to please an\nunknown and unknowable standard that is not ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nWhat is particularly attractive is that Cusk does not produce\nstatements such as these as definite. Unlike Alain de Botton, say,\nwhose philosophical musings reach a denouement, Cusk produces them as\na sort of by-product of a conversation with herself, to which we as\nreader are invited to participate. She freely considers other\npossibilities; that yes, things can also be viewed in a different\nlight. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nBesides the glades and views she leads us to, there is also the\nfascination of seeming to being privy to how her thoughts unfold, how\nher mind works. Which is a deceit, of course. What is written is\ncarefully chosen, likely to have been edited, rewritten and\nre-edited. The art is in making it appear so natural, for the logical\nprogression leads to unexpected places yet is incredibly pleasing in\nits tidiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe second part of the book departs from considering the personal,\nand moves to considering work by the artist Louise Bourgeois,\nCatholicism, \u2018women\u2019s writing\u2019 (as opposed to writing), and\ncreative writing courses, all of which provide new, or deeper,\ninsight. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe last section comprises what might better be described as reviews,\nalthough reviews which have the depth and form of the essay. How much\nyou enjoy these depends on whether you are familiar with the novels\nshe\u2019s writing about. I\u2019m slightly ashamed to say I have not read\nany of the seven she covers, except perhaps D.H. Lawrence\u2019s The\nRainbow<\/em> but if I have read it is\nso far in the past I can no longer remember. However, I would gladly\ntake the time to read them merely to come back to Cusk and re-read\nwhat she had to say. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nOne exception is Elizabeth Gilbert\u2019s\nmemoir Eat, Pray, Love<\/em>,\nwhich spawned the movie by the same name. I haven\u2019t read the book,\nand having had the misfortune of watching the movie, don\u2019t plan to.\nIn any event, I have Cusk\u2019s wonderfully dry and considered\ncritique, which by its very thoughtfulness, eviscerates the\nthoughtlessness of Gilbert\u2019s bestseller. If you, too, hated Eat,\nPray, Love<\/em>, perhaps for reasons\nyou didn\u2019t take the time to fully understand, you will also fall in\nlove with Cusk, who, like with all other matters she chooses to write\nabout, takes the time, and gets to the bottom of things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cusk’s philosophical musings seem a by-product of a conversation with herself, to which we as reader are invited to participate. She freely considers other possibilities; that yes, things can also be viewed in a different light. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[1137,1136],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4351,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions\/4351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}