Book Review: "Saving Agnes" by Rachel Cusk

I've read some of Rachel Cusk's autobiographical novels in my time. One of the more recent and more positive ones was called Transit - you can read the 5/5 review here if you wish. I've also read books like Parade, Outline and some others. It can be a hit and miss for me if I'm in the wrong mood and so, I have to be in a very certain way to read her books. Sometimes, I will read them at the wrong moment and it will kind of let it down a bit for me. It's only proof that time of reading also matters. Let's take a look at Saving Agnes, another Rachel Cusk novel...

The novel opens with Agnes Day, a young woman in her early twenties, living in London. She has a job in publishing, a boyfriend, and friends, but she feels disconnected from it all, as though she is inhabiting someone else’s life. This is a clear comment about modern work culture and how eventually, we just disconnect. Agnes narrates her experiences with a kind of defensive distance, as though she is both observing and mocking her own participation in life. Her dissatisfaction is subtle but all-encompassing: she cannot connect with her surroundings or with herself. This is something so prevalent in modern life that I actually believe that until we are confronted with it in someone else, we can't actually fully understand it in ourselves.

Agnes is highly literate, often well-versed in cultural references and observations, but her intelligence isolates her. She sees through the artifice of social interaction, which prevents her from engaging fully. Instead of intimacy, she lives in a state of perpetual commentary, translating events into witty detachment. I'm not going to lie to you, but this is a thing I found a bit rubbish about the character. Agnes truly believes that she is super-different and unique because of her individual observations on life that must be somehow, more intelligent and precise than anyone else's. I mean, she's just a random Reddit user at this point because they all think like that. No, Agnes honey, you're not quirky and individual, you're not perceptive and profound - your observations are just rather annoying after a while.

Agnes has a boyfriend, but the relationship is described with the same ironic detachment she applies to everything else. Their intimacy is performative rather than genuine; she cannot shed her layer of irony long enough to allow for vulnerability. At this point, the 'everything is ironic' thing is getting a bit dull. But at the same time, she envies those who seem capable of passion and belief. Her inability to commit to relationships mirrors her inability to commit to life as she hovers, observes, and withdraws, unable to risk real emotional investment. Even though it is getting dull, as I have said, it is still a direct reflection of the detachment that many experience in modern society. The belief that whatever it is, it is never-ending. There is always something ridiculous to deal with next, always another headache. If you just switch off, then you won't experience the emotions attached to it - especially, if they are negative.

Throughout the novel, Agnes is haunted by a desire for something authentic, something real that cuts through her ironic defences. This again, is something that many people are missing from their lives. She occasionally glimpses it in fleeting moments: a glance, a fragment of conversation, an atmosphere. The lack of appreciation for the real world and the actual authenticity that is out there is something that I definitely believe, like Agnes, plagues us all. I personally don't understand terms like 'authentic' and 'present' but I don't find them ironic or intolerable. They just aren't concepts to me. But whatever Agnes is looking for, she never holds on to it. Her pursuit of authenticity therefore becomes paradoxical: the more she seeks it, the more her self-consciousness prevents her from grasping it. This tension is central to her crisis. As I understand it therefore, Agnes wants the authenticity of reality but is unable to have it because she can't let it in. Her brain has become part of the 21st century landscape - constantly looking to escape something that isn't actually there.

I enjoyed this novel even though it probably wasn't as good as some of the other Rachel Cusk books I have read. It seems that Agnes is a perfect reflection of the middle class, mid-life struggles of a woman who is basically not all there because of life getting in the way of everything. Our modern day is probably much worse than this now and though this isn't a book of warning, it is definitely interesting to see the dystopian mindset dialled back.