The Country Life
Page 34
In that moment, crouched on the floor beside the steaming dish, I had a most peculiar feeling. It started as a sensation of almost overwhelming unreality, as if I had woken up and found myself there without the faintest idea of how I had come to be so; but then this feeling peaked or crested in some way, and I felt it flood out of me like something boiled over. When it had gone, I became aware of the most remarkable silence; not in the house, but in myself. The roar of the past week had ceased. I was quiet. I was quiet inside. I picked up the serving dish and bore it into the dining room.
‘Where on earth have all my dishcloths got to?’ said Pamela, when I returned to the kitchen for the next consignment. ‘I used to have simply masses of them.’
‘It’s not fair!’ Millie was wailing when I returned to the dining room. ‘I don’t see why she’s got to act as if everything’s a personal injury to her. It’s not as if she can stop us. She may as well just be nice about it.’
‘Being old-fashioned,’ observed Mr Madden, uncharacteristically epigrammatical, ‘is hardly an unreasonable quality in a parent. Your mother’s entitled to her opinion, as am I. Don’t see why we should pretend to be pleased if we’re not.’
‘Your father’s got a point,’ nodded Mark diplomatically. His forehead shone with sweat.
‘Mummy and Daddy are only being honest,’ added Caroline. ‘I do think you’re being a teensy bit oversensitive, Millie.’
‘There’s no need to stick your tongue right up their arses,’ said Martin crudely.
‘Daddy!’ shrieked Caroline. ‘Derek!’
‘Steady on,’ said Derek, although to whom it was not clear.
‘I can see your point, mate,’ said Toby, grinning horribly at Mark. ‘I’d want to keep my options open too.’
‘That’s not funny,’ said Millie.
‘If you really believe that Mummy and Daddy can’t stop you,’ rallied Caroline, ‘then I don’t see why you’re so upset. It suggests that you do care what they think.’
‘Of course she cares,’ said Martin. ‘She just wants their blessing.’
‘Exactly,’ nodded Millie.
‘I heard that,’ snapped Caroline, turning on Martin.
‘What did he say? What did he say?’ implored Toby.
‘I won’t repeat it. Something very rude, not surprisingly. Our boy genius doesn’t seem to have all that much imagination.’
Martin was mouthing something at Toby, who was chortling oafishly, leaning across the table.
‘Look, let’s just change the subject, can we?’ said Mark wearily.
‘I hope you’re all hungry!’ announced Pamela, bearing in a joint of meat on a vast silver platter.
I sat down in my chair as Mr Madden got up and prepared to carve. My hands were resting in my lap; but presently I felt the warm, clammy pressure of another hand, Martin’s, taking one of mine. He removed it from my lap and held it under the table. I glimpsed him out of the corner of my eye. He was looking straight ahead, as if nothing unusual had happened. I didn’t resist his gesture, which I took to be one of comfort and solidarity. What surprised me more was that I actually seemed to be having some physical response to it. Waves of electricity were passing from his hand up my arm. I did not interpret this as proof of some deeply submerged romantic feeling for Martin on my part. It was merely, I felt sure, that I was not touched very often by another human being. A plate of meat and vegetables arrived in front of me. The pâté had served to awaken rather than satiate my appetite; and at the sight of the plate, saliva began to prickle in my mouth. I wondered how I would be able to eat with Martin gripping my right hand.
‘Dig in!’ cried Mr Madden cheerfully.
‘Bon appetit!‘ said Toby.
‘This looks delicious,’ said Millie.
‘Great,’ affirmed Mark.
‘Mummy’s gone to so much trouble,’ declared Caroline.
‘Looks splendid, Mrs M.,’ said Derek.
‘Happy birthday, darling,’ said Pamela, leaning towards her husband and giving him a kiss on the cheek.
‘Hmmph!’ exclaimed Mr Madden, who evidently felt it was not worth his while pointing out again that it was not yet his birthday.
I picked up my fork face-up in my left hand – it is surprisingly easy to do this, once you accustom yourself to it – and began to eat. The food tasted good. My wineglass sat untouched in front of me. Martin shifted his grip slightly, squeezing my fingers tighter. I squeezed back. We turned our heads and our eyes met; and we both smiled.
READING GROUP GUIDE
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. The Country Life could be seen as a modern take on Jane Eyre, as well as on a certain popular type of British novel that extolls the virtues of country living. How does Rachel Cusk play with the themes and plot of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel, and with the perceived ideals of a rural existence?
2. What role does Martin play in bringing Stella to a better understanding of herself? How are Martin and Stella alike?
3. Stella tells Martin: “I don’t think that happiness is the be-all and end-all of everything…. I happen to believe that the search for happiness is often itself the greatest cause for unhappiness.” How does the resolution of the novel support or refute Stella’s belief? Do you agree with her assertion?
4. Stella finds Pamela Madden puzzling and intimidating, until she is able to separate “the reality of Pamela’s situation from the manner in which she represented it.” How does this split between reality and appearance manifest itself in the Maddens, in Stella’s own life, and in the novel as a whole?
5. What purpose do Stella’s visits to the postal clerk serve?
6. When she arrives at Franchise Farm, Stella is almost immediately overtaken by all manner of physical calamity and destruction. What does her misfortune say about her, about her surroundings, and about her decision to embark on this new life?
7. Class is often an issue in British life and British fiction. Stella sees her younger brother as a victim of her parents’ social aspirations, while she believes her older brother was made “homogenous” by the same desires. Do the Maddens, and the village, bear out Stella’s sense that class has a dangerous power to destroy individuality, whether literally or figuratively?
8. In what ways is The Country Life a morality story? A farce?
9. “It’s no good saying that if people aren’t perfect you’re not going to love them. That’s what families are all about. They absorb things. They grow round them. They may end up looking all twisted and ugly, but at least they’re strong.” By the novel’s end, do you think Stella would agree with this statement of Martin’s?
Also by Rachel Cusk
Saving Agnes
Thank you for buying this
Picador eBook.
To receive special offers, bonus content,
and info on new releases and other great reads,
sign up for our newsletters.
Or visit us online at
us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup
For email updates on the author, click here.
“Cusk is hilarious in her dissection of upper-class manners and mysteries, sending her poor heroine to bump into every single one of their contradictions…. But Cusk’s true quarry in The Country Life is something much more delicate than class critique…. Stella is strange because strangeness is part of the human condition; she’s just a little more aware of it than most people.”
—Village Voice Literary Supplement
“Witty, sharp, strangely good-natured: the sort of book a person is sorry to put down.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Filled with situations that make a reader laugh out loud in sympathy … It’s farce, but written cleverly, with a droll, charmingly formal tone.”
—The Tampa Tribune Times
“Touching, hilarious … Stella is utterly lovable.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Thoroughly entertaining.”
; —Marie Claire
“[A] skillful tale, marked by well-drawn characters and a confident style that winks without apology at its Austen-esque setting.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“A sad and comic tale … Cusk demonstrates the wit and wisdom of those who have gone before, examining the human condition in microcosm and in turn producing some very rich literature.”
—Portland Oregonian
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Reading Group Guide
Also by Rachel Cusk
Praise for Rachel Cusk
Copyright
THE COUNTRY LIFE. Copyright © 1997 by Rachel Cusk. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.picadorusa.com
Picador® is a U.S. registered trademark and is used by St. Martin’s Press under license from Pan Books Limited.
For information on Picador Reading Group Guides, as well as ordering, please contact the Trade Marketing department at St. Martin’s Press.
Phone: 1-800-221-7945 extension 763
Fax: 212-677-7456
E-mail: trademarketing@stmartins.com
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cusk, Rachel.
The country life / Rachel Cusk.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-4668-9165-4
EAN 978-0312-25280-0
I. Title.
[PR6053.U825C68 1999]
823’.914—dc21
98-31292
CIP
First published in Great Britain by Picador, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Ltd.