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The Bradshaw Variations Audiobook
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(2.93) - 188 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
The seventh novel by the acclaimed author of the Outline trilogy, Rachel Cusk’s The Bradshaw Variations is a lyrical, subversive tale of a marriage unraveling.
Thomas Bradshaw and Tonie Swann are experiencing the classic symptoms of marriage in its middle years: comfortable house, happy enough daughter, and an eerie sense that life might be happening elsewhere. Then Tonie accepts a big promotion at work and Thomas agrees to become a stay-at-home dad. While Thomas is suddenly faced with the daily silence of an empty house, Tonie finds herself alive to previously unimagined possibilities. And at the head of the family, the aging Bradshaw parents continue their marital dynamic of bickering and petty undermining.
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"I have loved Rachel Cusk ever since Grace recommended The Country Life to me many years ago, and this novel, her newest, didn't disappoint me. Like the last couple of her books I've read, including Arlington Park, this one deals largely with parenting, with parents trying to hold onto their identities or reinvent themselves after having children... but in a larger sense it's also about people struggling to understand their lives. Everything in Rachel Cusk's books--moments, converstions, pieces of furniture--seems supercharged with emotion, usually of the dark, complex variety. Occasionally it's hard to believe that her characters are really thinking and feeling to such a great extent over, say, a cup of coffee. But mostly they are believable and sympathetic, and they're always fascinating."
— Kasey (5 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“A virtuoso…[Cusk’s] interiors whisper and shiver, as if Virginia Woolf had flitted through…She has a task and she applies herself to it soberly: the trapping, if only in a mirrored surface, of some fragment of reality that might yield a truth about the whole.”
— The Guardian (London) -
“At times I just wanted to punch the air in a frenzy of delighted recognition…Every single one of these honestly drawn and heart-sinkingly recognisable characters…gave me real, cackling pleasure…[Cusk’s] triumph is to make us laugh at, but also I think forgive, ourselves.”
— Financial Times -
“[Cusk] is a first-rate writer, caustically intelligent and sharply observant…Every page gleams with [her] darkly humorous powers of observation.”
— New York Times -
“Astonishing…The Bradshaw Variations is a timely, necessary story.”
— Elle
The Bradshaw Variations Listener Reviews
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" I was disappointed with this book. I read an excellent essay by the author in Granta and decided to seek out her fiction. It was told from multiple points of view (about 8), and it wasn't obvious what some of these points of view added to the story. All of the characters seemed more or less the same, it had very little narrative arc. There was some very good writing and some keen insights, and it wasn't so bad that I had a hard time finishing it. The main story was about a couple who decides that the husband, Thomas, will stay home with his daughter while the wife, Tonie, goes off to work, which reverses the roles that they have had since their daughter was born. The other points of view are both sets of their parents, the three brothers and their wives, and the main couple's housekeeper. It sounds like more of a mess than it is, but it still somewhat of a mess. "
— Maria, 2/10/2014 -
" This novel started out so promising. The quality of the writing is really superb. However, the characters lack any hint of joy, to the point of unbelievability. Selfish, privileged, miserable Brits. I finished the book simply because it was so short. "
— Laila, 2/5/2014 -
" Hmm... though I am intrigued by the midlife crisis, this just didn't cut it. Too much analysis, not enough story or character development. "
— Krissy, 1/19/2014 -
" The usual realism from Rachel Cusk, and the familiarity of real life beautifully written about. I just didn't take to her characters as much this time. Still, their emotions were played out and you could totally sympathise, maybe looking back their was just too much to take in in this novel. "
— Lizzie, 1/13/2014 -
" To be honest, I don't think I really 'got' this book. I didn't really feel any of the themes or ideas were fully developed and it just left me feeling rather miserable and lacking any sense of knowing the characters or why they did what they did. "
— Rachel, 1/6/2014 -
" If I can get the Kindle away from Alex, this is next. Financial Times recommended and they are ALWAYS right. "
— Laurel, 12/25/2013 -
" A bit abstract. Quite a quick read, but hard to identify with any of the characters - possibly because it was too short. It was very detailled in terms of feelings and emotions, which I suppose was the point, but left little room for actually getting to like the characters. "
— Angharad, 12/13/2013 -
" I love Rachel Cusk (yes she may be a narcissist...but aren't we all!) and the way she captures the details of ordinary life, elevating the domestic sphere to a political level. I didn't feel as gripped by the characters in this book as in some of her other work, but really enjoyed it nonetheless. "
— Alisonismail, 10/8/2013 -
" Ug, I feel bad about listing this as read because I couldn't even finish it. "
— Lindsey, 9/2/2013 -
" I could not get "into" this book. Too many characters and I could not really relate to their angst. "
— Lisa, 7/8/2012 -
" Started to read before I left for vacation and couldn't take it with me. Didn't really care about any of the characters. "
— Kim, 7/4/2012 -
" beautifully written, a story which exposes intense emotions even within everyday life's complexities "
— Gaby, 2/14/2012 -
" I managed to finish it in the hope of discovering some kind of plot but, alas, nothing really happens. Maybe the novel was supposed to be some kind of joke, with these truly dull characters described in ludicrously overblown prose? Whatever her intention, it's all pretty tiresome. "
— carelessdestiny, 8/1/2011 -
" I have almost put this book down many times in the past few days. I am continuing with it because there is something in Cusk's characters that interest me -- otherwise, it's a little too domestic-focused and a little too ruminative for me. "
— Carol, 7/8/2011 -
" beautifully written, a story which exposes intense emotions even within everyday life's complexities "
— Gaby, 5/20/2011 -
" If I can get the Kindle away from Alex, this is next. Financial Times recommended and they are ALWAYS right. "
— Laurel, 12/8/2010 -
" Ug, I feel bad about listing this as read because I couldn't even finish it. "
— Lindsey, 11/22/2010 -
" Hmm... though I am intrigued by the midlife crisis, this just didn't cut it. Too much analysis, not enough story or character development. "
— Krissy, 5/22/2010 -
" I could not get "into" this book. Too many characters and I could not really relate to their angst. "
— Lisa, 5/4/2010
About Rachel Cusk
Rachel Cusk is the author of the Outline trilogy, the memoirs A Life’s Work and Aftermath, and several other works of fiction and nonfiction. Her debut novel, Saving Agnes, won the Whitbread First Novel Award. She is a Guggenheim Fellow. She lives in Paris.
About Juanita McMahon
Juanita McMahon is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and a professionally trained actress with experience in theater, television, and film productions, including the critically acclaimed Control, which won the BIFA Best British Film Award.