But I think it is more likely that to feel such pain is so fundamentally different to reading about it. Thankfully, there seems less of a (to my mind, and Cusk’s, dishonest) taboo against complaint than there was. I think a lot of the Asian countries where it’s very common would be pretty offended by that description! The whole tone just irritated me and so now l do understand what other people who read this book felt when they read it.

There is a ferociously vigilant intelligence at work in every line of this book, which launches it past the tight orbit of self-pity into something that is actually useful - and occasionally grimly funny, like a Helen Simpson story. As unmarried, no child reader, middle section was hard to get through as it felt exhausting to read. When author Rachel Cusk wrote A Life's Work, her disarmingly frank account of motherhood, she was shocked by the vicious reaction it provoked from other women. I continue to marvel at the fact that every single member of our species has been born and brought to independence by so arduous a route.The book generated mild controversy for its “brutal honesty” ( Publishers’ Weekly) about the reality of childcare: Cusk focuses on her struggle to maintain an independent sense of herself in the face of her child’s needs. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Perhaps strangely, it was the second remark that troubled me more than the possibility that humanity would be extinguished by my hand.

Whether describing her c-section or her reaction to the ever-popular mother's group, I found myself agreeing and at times laughing out loud. It was a beautiful place in the Brendon Hills in Somerset, the rattling ghost of a grand estate, where a miniature ornamental lake still languished in the overgrown pleasure gardens, and the trees in the neglected orchard shed rare red, heart-shaped apples like the apples in a medieval tapestry.Even when she is not breastfeeding, every moment of her life is accounted for: there are no “lubricant empty hours” in which she can reflect, regroup, and feel herself again.

I wasn't offended or shocked by Cusk's book - I just didn't find it a very enjoyable reading experience. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. In telling these stories, the director examines not only the particulars behind these ventures, but also the motivations and commitments driving their creators, as well as the challenges associated with carrying out these undertakings. It undermines a deeply held notion that it is the preserve of instinct, that mothers dwell in a place of ingrained nurturing, and that to critique it is unnatural.She describes in stark vividness her treatment by midwives, health visitors, doctors, her friends, her partner. A Life's Work is Rachel Cusk's funny, moving, brutally honest account of her early experiences of motherhood.

A Life’s Work is Rachel Cusk’s funny, moving, brutally honest account of her early experiences of motherhood. That is essential reading not only for all mothers but for everyone to fully understand both the privilege and sacrifice of motherhood. Her most recent novel, Kudos, the final part of the Outline trilogy, will be published in the US and the UK in May 2018. That is an issue of sexual politics; but even in the most generous household, which I acknowledge my own to be, the gulf between childcarer and worker is profound.It's clear to me she had very little help and support in the ways that women, new mothers, need in this time.