Arlington Park

I supposedly read Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk for my book group, but it's a sloppy book group--we're all busy and it's hard to get reorganized at the end of summer/beginning of school. In any case, the suggestion to read this book got me out of my rut of summer thrillers and unsatisfying books so even if we never talk about it in a group, at least I read it and had an opinion.

Arlington Park appears at first to be just another one of those "women dissatisfied in the suburbs" books, but I forgave it at first because it takes place in Britain instead of the States and also because I am well removed from the stroller set these days and happy in my own marriage so I could read about these women's angst in a more dispassionate way.

Trouble arrived at last when I couldn't figure out if I was supposed actually to LIKE any of these characters. I had my hopes pinned on Christine (and I don't think it was just the name), but then she turned out to be a cleaning freak--which actually I'm okay with--and THEN she threw the child (someone else's child) hard onto her white couch because he'd colored on it with markers.

Okay, sure, maybe we've all wanted to do that to a certain degree--just grab up that annoying, spoiled kid and give him or her a good shake (though OF COURSE we don't), but come on, over a marker? Why did she have a white couch anyway?
Also, who in their right mind takes kids in strollers to the mall FOR A GOOD TIME? (okay, actually a lot of people do, but you can see the outcome a mile away)

Then I thought I'd like Juliet because she too is a teacher, but she didn't seem that good at her job, even with the supposedly bright kids.

Am I being too picky?

I won't even get to the men who turned out to be useless.

I guess we're supposed to feel for these people for living in the suburbs and wasting their lives, but I want characters to take control of their lives and not just get drunk by the end of the book.

Still, there was some nice writing and I'm not sorry I read it. One character is trying to drill names into her husband's mind just before a dinner party because "Benedict had the unnerving habit of confidently addressing people by names that did not belong to them." I loved that and wanted to be at the table with Benedict when he did this.

I also liked the former wunderkind who becomes a teacher and realizes that it doesn't really matter how many prizes you get at school, you still just end up a normal person. "...it made it seem that she wasn't bright or gifted or exceptional at all. She was merely good at going to school." I could relate to that in more ways than I care to admit.

I think a nice companion to this book would be Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, which I haven't read yet. I think I'll suggest in to my book group if we ever meet again.