Lifestyle
In 'Parade,' Rachel Cusk once again flouts traditional narrative
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Farrar, Straus and Giroux
In her latest novel, Parade, Rachel Cusk once again flouts traditional narrative to probe questions about the connections between freedom, gender, domesticity, art, and suffering in a series of fractured, loosely connected, quasi-essayic fictional episodes.
But Parade is a more abstract and less inviting construct than Cusk’s Outline trilogy and her 2021 novel Second Place. However unconventional, each of those books features a woman writer who provides a narrative through-line: Faye, in the celebrated trilogy, seeks to find her footing after a bitter divorce by eliciting others’ revelatory confidences, while the writer dubbed “M” in Second Place recounts her obsession with a famous painter dubbed “L.”
Cusk’s 12th book of fiction offers no such centralized narrative maypole, repeatedly shifting direction and leaving readers in the lurch. Parade is divided into four sections, whose titles — “The Stuntman,” “The Midwife,” “The Diver,” and “The Spy” — could be read as thumbnail descriptors for how multiple artists, all called G, produce their art. The fact that Cusk’s parade of deracinated seekers are all identified by the same initial is obviously meant to suggest a connection between them. But the deliberately obfuscating shared initial, combined with erratic jumps between first- and third-person narration, struck me as not just off-putting but pretentious. While Cusk’s aim is apparently a sort of Cubist group portrait of her artists, she has taken her experimental abstraction too far this time.
“The Stuntman” begins boldly, with a line that made me think of another G man, the satirical Ukrainian Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. Cusk writes: “At a certain point in his career the artist G, perhaps because he could find no other way to make sense of his time and place in history, began to paint upside down.” We’re told that while no one knows whether G actually painted upside down or simply inverted his finished canvases, he was careful to establish the painting’s preferred orientation with his signature.
In a remark that could apply to her own artistic trajectory, Cusk notes that after being “savagely criticised” for his early work, G’s new approach garnered “a fresh round of awards and honours that people seemed disposed to offer him almost no matter what he did.”
More parallels with Cusk’s own creative arc emerge in her account of G’s development. The painter, she writes, deeply affected by his poisonous early reception, “had found a way out of his artistic impasse, caught as he had felt himself to be between the anecdotal nature of representation and the disengagement of abstraction.” Cusk, who was vilified for her harsh take on motherhood and domesticity in her early books, also shifted gears to emerge triumphant with her innovative Outline.
But not everyone approved of the “new reality” reflected in G’s upended canvases. “His wife believed that with this development he had inadvertently expressed something disturbing about the female condition.”
The stuntman of this tale is not just the artist G but also his wife, inverted in her husband’s unflattering portraits. And it is also the woman — who may or many not be the artist’s wife — who, disoriented after an unprovoked attack by a deranged woman while walking in an unnamed city, describes her sense of an alternate self in which she is “a kind of stuntman.” In a way, all of Cusk’s female characters — artists, writers, wives, gallerists — are stuntmen fighting what one of them calls the “quicksands of female irrelevance.”
“The Stuntman” ends with G and this woman traveling to another unnamed city to see a retrospective exhibition of works by a female sculptor, also called G. This exhibit, shut down on its opening day by a suicide at the museum, figures again in the novel’s third section, “The Diver,” in which the museum’s director and the artist’s biographer gather with other art professionals to discuss the day’s upsetting events over dinner, noting how the suicide mirrors the “power of disturbance” in the featured sculptor’s work.
Their wide-ranging conversation evokes the sort of earnest intellectual exchanges that people have in French movies. It is classic Cusk, touching on questions about art’s relationship to morality and the challenges of combining art with marriage and motherhood. These issues are also raised in the novel’s dark, fairy-tale-like second section, “The Midwife,” in which another female artist named G is trapped in a horrible marriage to a man who seizes control of their daughter and disapproves of his wife’s work, though not the money it generates.
The last section of the novel, “The Spy,” is a bit of an outlier, evoking the sad impossibility of resolution after the death of parents with whom one has had a contentious relationship (as Cusk did with hers). It is about a filmmaker — called G, of course — who broke away from his loveless childhood by adopting a pseudonym. This anonymity gave him freedom, but also led to a sense of detachment, with “no investment in the game of life. He is a spy; his ego is exiled, at bay.”
In Parade, as in all her recent work, Cusk strives toward what she has lauded in Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg’s writing: “a more truthful representation of reality” through “a careful use of distance that is never allowed to become detachment.” But this novel, intermittently intriguing but mostly alienating, asks too much of readers.
On-air challenge
Based on the clue, name two words that have the same number of letters and begin and end with the letters provided. (Ex. Rocks / five letters / S and E —> Slate, Shale)
1. European languages in 7 letters starting with S and ending with .
2. Ancient stringed instruments / 4 letters / L and E
3. Birds / 6 letters / P and N
4. Parts of the body / 5 letters / T and H
5. Things seen in a classroom / 5 letters / C and K
6. Newsstand magazines / 7 letters / E and E
7. Books of the Bible / 4 letters / A and S
8. Foods from Italy / 5 letters / P and A
Last week’s challenge
Next weekend will be the 186th convention of the National Puzzler League, in Bloomington, Ind., which I’ll be attending as always. Two other people who will be there are Henri Picciotto and Joshua Kosman, who created this week’s challenge. Name two words that are opposites. They share a single letter. Remove that shared letter from each word, put a hyphen between the two starting words, and you’ll get a term you sometimes see in food ads. What are the two words?
Challenge answer
Slow, fast –> low-fat
Winner
Debra Waller of Burlington, Kentucky
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Take the 10-letter name of a popular TV series for which most of its seasons have been filmed in a foreign country. Remove the first and last letters, and the remaining letters can be rearranged to spell the name of a country. What are the two names?
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, July 16 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
“Portraits 2019 – 2026” by Tyler Matthew Oyer at Night Gallery
“Location Unknown, 2023 – TANA 2023.”
(Tyler Matthew Oyer and Night Gallery)
Experience Tyler Matthew Oyer’s photographic exhibition, “Portraits 2019-2026.” This immersive show moves through seven years of portraits through Oyer’s lens, capturing subjects’ raw individuality. Showcasing “the panoramic and the intimate,” the photographs line the entirety of the gallery in identical scales and frames, emphasizing that every face carries equal presence and beauty. The exhibition coincides with Oyer’s fifth portrait book release, which features selections from his extensive archive. Open July 18 through Aug. 15. 2050 Imperial St., Los Angeles. nightgallery.com
Paloma Wool opening
Paloma Wool’s first permanent store in L.A. houses footwear, bags, a fresh new menswear line and exclusive specialty projects. This new space contrasts a bright, vivid backdrop with dark furnishings, alluding to the brand’s edgy, crisp designs. Open now. 8410 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. palomawool.com
Noah Los Angeles opening
Founders Brendon Babenzien and Estelle Bailey-Babenzien bring the East Coast to L.A. this summer with the opening of Noah’s first West Coast location. Blending classic menswear with skate and surf culture, the space also features an in-store skate bowl, reflecting the brand’s roots while tapping into Los Angeles’ laid-back vibe. Open now. 911 N. Orange Drive, Los Angeles. noahny.com
H. Lorenzo opening
H. Lorenzo’s new flagship store reflects the brand’s commitment to highlight both established and emerging designers from around the world. It also showcases rare collectible furniture, including pieces by woodworker George Nakashima. By day, the space takes on an ever-evolving approach to display; by night it transforms into a hub for cultural programming and community gatherings. Open now. 8801 Beverly Blvd. West Hollywood. hlorenzo.com
Bang & Olufsen opening
Bang & Olufsen’s new flagship is using music to connect people from all over the world, reimagining the classic retail experience into an immersive sound house perfect for showcasing Los Angeles’ vibrant and diverse entertainment culture. Customers can experience the brand’s latest technology in a setting inspired by Nordic design and Southern California living. Open now. 370 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood. bang-olufsen.com
Maison Louis Marie opening
Upgrade your scent game this summer with a visit to Maison Louis Marie’s new flagship store in Silver Lake. Designed in collaboration with Via Clover, the fragrance house has curated a light, modern space, blending French and Californian aesthetics where customers browse everything from Fleur de la Passion hair and body mist to No. 10 Aboukir candles at their own pace. Open now. 3920 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. maisonlouismarie.com
Molteni&C L.A. flagship redesign and new collection
Italian craftsmanship and contemporary living come together in Molteni&C’s newly redesigned Beverly Hills flagship. After exploring thoughtfully curated living spaces featuring coffee tables designed by Vincent Van Duysen, be sure to check out the brands’ latest Outdoor Collection, ideal for the heat of L.A.’s long summers. Open now. 147 N Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood. molteni&c.com
Zegna’s new fragrance line
Zegna’s new fragrance line, Memorie, is shaped by place, ritual and intention. Inspired by the Alps of northern Italy, each of the six scents captures a moment, place or object from founder Ermenegildo Zegna’s life, preserving memory through fragrance. Available now. zegna.com
“Animals” by Alex Gardner at Perrotin
“Catapult,” 2025. Acrylic on canvas. Unframed: 48 1/16 x 96 1/16 inches. Framed: 51 7/8 x 99 3/4 x 5 inches.
(Don Lewis/Alex Gardner; Perrotin)
Join Long Beach artist Alex Gardner for the final days of his first solo exhibition in a decade as he reimagines the meaning of fatherhood at Perrotin. Through a series of acrylic paintings, Gardner explores intimate connections between parents and children, partners and siblings, inviting viewers to identify themselves within his signature faceless figures. Open through July 11. 5036 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. perrotin.com
A promo image of Peter Sagal, Jason Narducy, and Alzo Slade
NPR and James Richards IV/NPR and Jason Narducy
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NPR and James Richards IV/NPR and Jason Narducy
This week, we’re live in Milwaukee with musician Jason Narducy. Plus, panelists Alonzo Bodden, Adam Burke, and Negin Farsad talk the World Cup, Love Island, and new rules for summer travel.
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