A work of stunning beauty, deep insight, and great originality . . . Transit is a slender novel that contains multitudes. It is a work of great ambition, beautifully executed, a worthy successor of the brilliant Outline .” —Monica Ali, The New York Times Book Review “Transfixing . . . A serious achievement . . . [Cusk's] writing offers the iron-rich pleasures of voice instead of style. Each sentence is drilled down, as with an auger . . . This writer never has to recover her aplomb because she never loses it.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times “A reading journey you wish didn't have to end . . . Cusk gives us engrossing, probing conversations . . . Her prose is exquisitely precise . . . With its resonant comparisons between life and art (including literature) and its enjoyably varied, more tightly structured series of vignettes, Transit fills in the ‘sketched-out form’ Cusk introduced in Outline . Her narrator's ongoing odyssey toward finding her bearings in her new life is a journey worth following.” —Heller McAlpin, NPR “Alienating yet intimate, dreamlike yet grounded, slim yet substantial, delicate but fierce, Cusk’s writing feels, exhilaratingly, unlike any other fiction being written these days.” —Emily Donaldson, The Toronto Star “Rachel Cusk is returning fiction to its roots in storytelling . . . Cusk's goal . . . [is] the establishment of a compelling, dreamlike language and worldview that are utterly her own.” —Jamie Fisher, The Washington Post “How much should we say, this novel asks, and when should we say it? To whom? In Cusk’s case, a few words are enough to keep readers engrossed, waiting for more.” —Jackie Thomas Kennedy, Minneapolis Star Tribune “Hypnotizing.” —Laird Hunt, Los Angeles Times “Arresting . . . Condensed, powerful . . . Cusk's technique is reminiscent of filmmaker Richard Linklater, who delights in showing how ordinary people talk to each other as they analyze their shared lives. Talk can have all the drama, suspense, surprise, and plot development of an action scene, but it takes skill to keep the tension high enough to make a scene in which nothing much happens, except for friends trying to manage their children long enough to have a civilized dinner, hit with the force of a car crash.” —Jenny Shank, The Dallas Morning News “Cusk writes in a cut-glass style that is elegant, austere, and disciplined . . . Yet this cool, balanced style is used to describe the hottest of feelings and the most destabilizing of experiences: moments of transit — getting divorced, renovating a house—the movement from one life to another.” —Anthony Domestico, The Boston Globe “ Cusk’s story-invention powers are so rich that the format feels as fresh the second time around as it did the first. It also hints at Cusk’s extraordinarily precise orchestration of narrative effects.” —Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times “ In Transit , the second novel in the series, Cusk hones her new approach, which might be called stream of conversation-ness. She structures her minimalist plot as a jeweler affixes glittering gems in a necklace . . . The experience of reading Transit re-creates, with delicious adult sophistication, that wonderful sensation of being a child, staving off bedtime by requesting tale after tale . . . Cusk at her most brilliant, feminist best.” —Miranda Purves, Elle “In her effort to expose the illusions of both fiction and life, [Rachel Cusk] may have discovered the most genuine way to write a novel today.” —Ruth Franklin, The Atlantic “Outstanding . . . As always, Cusk’s ear for language and dialogue is sharp; her characters speak about universal ideas, such as anxiety and lust. This marvelous novel continues the author’s vivid exploration of the human condition.” —Publishers Weekly , boxed, starred review “Brave and uncompromising in its literary ambition, Transit is a work of cut-glass brilliance that quietly insists on the reader's thoughtful attention. One beautifully crafted sentence follows another.” —Rebecca Abrams, The Financial Times “Cusk is now working on a level that makes it very surprising that she has not yet won a major literary prize. Her technical originality is equaled by the compelling nature of her subject matter, and Transit is a very fine novel indeed.” —Helen Dunmore, The Observer “[Transit ] is tremendous from its opening sentence . . . Cusk is always an exciting writer: striking and challenging, with a distinctive cool prose voice, and behind that coolness something untamed and full of raw force, even rash . . . she has developed a radically new novel form that works triumphantly . . . Transit steers with stylishness and grace between the low-lying truths and the significant dramas we compose for ourselves out of the accidents which befall us.” —Tessa Hadley, The Guardian “Transit is an extraordinary piece of writing—stunningly bold, original, and humane.” —Joanna Kavenna, The Daily Telegraph “ Cusk's perspective on the human condition provokes and bewitches.” —Sarah Begley, Time “Cusk is one of the most lucid, powerful novelists working today, and Transit reflects her ability to make a profound impact with deceptively simple and always elegant prose.” —Nylon “[Transit ] is a delightfully fun read. Cusk knows how to write a great novel, and this one satisfies on many levels . . . she is producing work that is beautifully refined.” —Melissa Katsoulis, The Times (UK) “Beneath [Transit 's] placid surface, themes of displacement and the desire for transformation and authenticity rumble like small, violent earthquakes. It’s also gruesomely funny: the final part, which describes a particularly poncey dinner party, is like something from a horror story. Strange, frightening and brilliant.” —Clare Allfree, The Daily Mail “ Brilliantly written and structured, which is nothing new from this superlatively gifted writer.” —Kirkus Reviews “With the sparest prose, Cusk has again created an expertly crafted portrait in this distinctive novel about the fear and hope that accompany change, and one woman’s quest to conquer them. A masterful second installment to a promising trilogy.” —Cortney Ophoff, Booklist (starred review)
A novel no less dedicated to uncovering what it feels like to be human. . . . The daisy chain of encounters made for addictive reading.
Literary Review of Canada
condensed, powerful
Cusk’s story-invention powers are so rich that the format feels as fresh the second time around as it did the first.
With literary sleight of hand, Cusk is playing narrative tricks, and Transit, like Outline before it, slowly reveals much about Faye, too, no matter how concealed she tries to remain. Transit is a brilliant meditation on change, freedom and the ways we construct our lives.
Brave and uncompromising in its literary ambition, Transit is a work of cut-glass brilliance that quietly insists on the reader’s thoughtful attention. One beautifully crafted sentence follows another.
One of the most daringly original and entertaining pieces of fiction I’ve ever read.
That Cusk makes such satisfying and original use of [her tribulation] is something of a modern literary phenomenon.
Transit is an extraordinary piece of writing—stunningly bold, original, and humane.
A work of stunning beauty, deep insight and great originality. . . . Compulsively readable. . . . It is a work of great ambition, beautifully executed, a worthy successor to the brilliant Outline, and a harbinger of great hope for the third and final installment—soon may it arrive.
New York Times Book Review
One of our most astute writers. . . . Cusk is very good at creating characters who seem fresh; they blossom under her pen. . . . This is part of what makes [Transit ] so effective and smart.
Quill & Quire (starred review)
Cusk’s perspective on the human condition provokes and bewitches.
[Transit] is a delightfully fun read. Cusk knows how to write a great novel, and this one satisfies on many levels . . . she is producing work that is beautifully refined.
[I]n her effort to expose the illusions of both fiction and life, she may have discovered the most genuine way to write a novel today.
How much should we say, this novel asks, and when should we say it? To whom? In Cusk’s case, a few words are enough to keep readers engrossed, waiting for more.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune
The rare capital-L Literary writer who can make an entire novel about irresolution feel as gripping and binge-worthy as any thriller.
Cusk is one of the most lucid, powerful novelists working today, and Transit reflects her ability to make a profound impact with deceptively simple and always elegant prose.
Mesmerizing.
Quietly radical. . . . Ingenious.
With the sparest prose, Cusk has again created an expertly crafted portrait in this distinctive novel about the fear and hope that accompany change, and one woman’s quest to conquer them. A masterful second installment to a promising trilogy.
Booklist (starred review)
[Transit’s] themes of transience and dislocation are contiguous with a broader conversation about the fluidity of identity resulting, in part, from an increasingly—and contentiously (see Brexit, Trump, etc.)—borderless planet.
hypnotizing
Such deft positioning is Cusk at her most brilliant, feminist best-a reminder that she, and her readers, won’t be pinned down by stories, but freed.
[Transit] rests its claim to our attention on the consistent keenness of its insights into our human relationships.
Alienating yet intimate, dreamlike yet grounded, slim yet substantial, delicate but fierce, Cusk’s writing feels, exhilaratingly, unlike any other fiction being written these days.
Beneath [Transit’s] placid surface, themes of displacement and the desire for transformation and authenticity rumble like small, violent earthquakes. It’s also gruesomely funny: the final part, which describes a particularly poncey dinner party, is like something from a horror story. Strange, frightening and brilliant.
A reading journey you wish didn’t have to end . . . Cusk gives us engrossing, probing conversations . . . Her prose is exquisitely precise.
Rachel Cusk is returning fiction to its roots in storytelling . . . Cusk’s goal . . . [is] the establishment of a compelling, dreamlike language and worldview that are utterly her own.
[Transit] is tremendous from its opening sentence. . . . Cusk is always an exciting writer: striking and challenging, with a distinctive cool prose voice, and behind that coolness something untamed and full of raw force. . . . page-turningly enthralling and charged with the power to move.
In Transit , Rachel Cusk masters the art of revealing the one through the many.
Rachel Cusk is returning fiction to its roots in storytelling . . . Cusk’s goal . . . [is] the establishment of a compelling, dreamlike language and worldview that are utterly her own.
Mesmerizing.
hypnotizing
09/01/2016 The second book in a projected trilogy (after Outline), this novel subtly explores the multiple definitions of "transit," as its characters are all in transition: moving their physical location, ending or beginning relationships, transforming their homes, or coming to terms with new phases of life. The only through-line that resembles a plot involves the (mostly) unnamed narrator, who has ended her marriage and returned to London after living away for 15 years. She buys a dilapidated flat and starts a major renovation project, over the objections of her extremely hostile neighbors. Otherwise, most of the chapters consist of the stories imparted to the narrator, a writer, by the various people she encounters, including an old flame, her hairdresser, her building contractors, writing students, and dinner party guests. VERDICT The narrator's apparent emotional distance makes her a sounding board for the other characters, who open up and share their lives and struggles. In a way, Cusk is unmasking one way that writers take life and turn it into fiction, and this experiment with the form and definition of the novel make this a recommended purchase where creative writing and contemporary literature collections are strong. [See Prepub Alert, 7/18/16.]—Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis