Name: A Life's Work
ISBN: 9780312311308

Rachel Cusk

Moving, riotous, thought-provoking, and extremely illuminating, an intimate account of a year of modern motherhood, set against the backdrop of sexual equality, details the author's many experiences during and after her transformation into a mother, all of which have taught her valuable lessons in life. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

On Becoming a Mother

A Life's Work

A Life's Work is Rachel Cusk's funny, moving, brutally honest account of her early experiences of motherhood. An education in babies, books, breast-feeding, toddler groups, broken nights, bad advice and never being alone, it is a landmark work, which has provoked acclaim and outrage in equal measure.

Cassie B

Let me start off by saying I am NOT the demographic for this novel. (hence the lower rating but do not let that deter you) 

A slightly autobiographical novel about motherhood, what it means to be a mother and finding identity. As someone who plans to never become a mother this book obviously wasn't for me, however I can appreciate the writing that cusk puts forth, it is flowery and sharp, there are antidotes within some of the chapters that are dark yet refreshingly honest. Cusk captures her experience of motherhood in her traditional vibrant writing style.

jaz ☁️

Let me start off by saying I am NOT the demographic for this novel. (hence the lower rating but do not let that deter you) 

A slightly autobiographical novel about motherhood, what it means to be a mother and finding identity. As someone who plans to never become a mother this book obviously wasn't for me, however I can appreciate the writing that cusk puts forth, it is flowery and sharp, there are antidotes within some of the chapters that are dark yet refreshingly honest. Cusk captures her experience of motherhood in her traditional vibrant writing style.

When first published in 2001, it divided female critics and readers. One famous columnist wrote a piece demanding that Cusk's children were taken into care, that was she was unfit to look after them. Oprah Winfrey invited her on the show to defend herself and the book as protests grew about the its honest, gritty account of the misery of those early months. It is a seminal, stand-out book on the complications of being an ambivalent mum in an age of white-washed, Annabel Karmel'd new families.

A Life's Work On Becoming a Mother

Reviews