Product Description

When one of corporate London’s transient typists unexpectedly crosses Ralph Loman’s path, her disruptive beauty ignites a brief blaze of excitement in his troubled heart. But Francine Snaith is ravenous for attention, driven by a thirst for conquest, and when Ralph tries politely to extricate himself he finds he is bound in chains of consequence from which it seems there is no escape.

‘Brilliantly perceptive . . . a ruthlessly honest dissection of modern sensibilities . . . It says much for her growing skills as a novelist that she is able to make something like a work of art out of her drawerful of our daily junk’ The Times

‘Breathtaking, fascinating and believable . . . The Temporary would be worth reading for its self-regarding, utterly thoughtless anti-heroine alone, yet Cusk’s interpretation of menial office existence and her understanding of its psychology is also piercing’ Financial Times

‘This is the story of a Julie Burchill heroine in a Julian Barnes world . . . Cusk has earned all her eulogies. She is a writer of great promise’ Literary Review

‘ “Temporary”, a category of both employment and lifestyle, is such an apt metaphor of Nineties existence that Cusk deserves special praise just for thinking of it . . . She writes with nervy precision about the vagaries of minor ambitions and desires’ Guardian

‘An exquisitely written gem of a book’ Vogue

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #378391 in Books
• Published on: 1996-06-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 9999 pages

Customer Reviews

Unforgettable read
Aside from the sophisticated, intricate writing, the kind that may not have been successfully executed since Jane Austen, Rachel Cusk's insights into human behavior are dizzying. She uses unique, unexpected metaphors to describe, and almost every paragraph includes a disturbing glimpse into the human psyche. In my opinion, The Temporary is a psychological thriller, and the genius of it is that Cusk has created a sympathetic character whose behavior we sometimes question, and an unlikable character for whom we come to have compassion. At least that's how it worked for me. The fact that the ending left me mildy baffled only increased the novel's success. It ends with a cliffhanger, suggesting the fluidity of fate. Anwyay, I cannot say enough good things about this story of a temporary, her hapless victim, and the womanizer who brings the whole thing to a head in ones of the most chilling scenes I have ever read.Read it!

Nothing Ever Happens
Imagine a world without art, music, sports, politics, crime, humor, or travel. Now write a book about it, and you have The Temporary. The author has stretched a short story's worth of material--at best--into 245 plodding pages. Her two unlikable characters (sadly, they are too dull to be despicable) take long walks through London, mulling over their feelings, agonizing, until one wants to give them a good shake. I spent two thirds of this book waiting for something to transpire, and when it finally did, it was simply one more excuse for self-indulgent musings. Rachel Cusk does have a facility for words, and she is certainly capable of better. If you haven't read The Country Life, choose it over this depressing snooze.

metro bulot dodo
In Rachel Cusk's first two novels - this and Saving Agnes - she is hell-bent on charting the unglamorous, depressing eking out of a living in London's 20-something temporary job market. Her characters are unsympathetic, caught in an unpleasant world not of their making. But the accuracy with which Cusk describes atmosphere and feeling lifts this from being hard work into being a very human account of the metro bulot dodo lifestyle that today's job market has become.