In the Fold

Ada Calhoun

Rachel Cusk's new novel is the cleverest portrait of narcissism since Charles Allen Gilbert's 1892 painting "All Is Vanity." Like that image, an optical illusion that can be seen either as a young woman at her mirror or as a human skull, "In the Fold" is at once a shimmering vision of privilege and a wise meditation on disillusionment.
— The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Real estate trumps true love in this often hilarious, British black comedy of manners and property values. After the second-story balcony of London lawyer Michael's townhouse crashes at his feet, nearly killing him, he decides to take a holiday to sort out his unhappy life. His wife, Rebecca, miserable with motherhood and marriage, is glad to see him and their introverted three-year-old, Hamish, hie off to the fine old country farm of Michael's university friend Adam Hansbury. But all is not well at Egypt, the oddly named Hansbury estate. Patriarch Paul is hospitalized, but no one visits him; his audacious ex-wife (Adam's mother) remains a frequent "guest" at her former home, where Paul's current wife doles out money, food and complaint to the malcontent step- and grandchildren who come and go. Even Adam is acting strangely. As the discord among the Hansburys escalates to violence and revenge, Michael becomes privy to a secret that unites the family where love and filial piety failed. Whitbread-winner Cusk (The Country Life, etc.) serves up crisp prose full of the unexpected pleasures of observation and metaphor, but this is a book about clever people behaving venally, and as such, the only person to really root for is poor silent Hamish. Agent, Sarah Chalfant. (Oct. 19) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

As a student, Michael is enfolded in the seeming warmth of his friend Adam's bohemian family. As an adult whose marriage is falling apart like his townhouse, he sees an invitation to help Adam and the other Hanburys with the lambing on their English country estate as an opportunity to capture something that has been missing from his life. Michael quickly realizes that the Hanbury family is not only eccentric but also quite lacking in charm and so curiously detached from one another that no one wants to visit patriarch Paul, who is in the hospital following cancer surgery. In her sixth novel, Cusk, whose Saving Agnes won the Whitbread First Novel Award, pleasantly balances sometimes stilted dialog with careful descriptions of place and an interesting use of similes and metaphors. Unfortunately, the fairly unformed Michael lives mostly through others and is thus less than compelling as a protagonist; one must go back to untangle the threads of relationships and traits to keep members of the Hanbury family straight. This sardonic novel-recently longlisted for the Booker Prize-will appeal to readers cynical about family life.-Caroline Hallsworth, City of Greater Sudbury, Ont. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.