The Temporary
A Novel
ISBN10: 1250824001
ISBN13: 9781250824004
Trade Paperback
256 Pages
$17.00
CA$23.00
Ralph Loman is working in an unsatisfying job at a free London newspaper when Francine Snaith, a temporary secretary for a corporate finance firm, unexpectedly crosses his path at a party. Her beauty ignites a blaze of excitement in his troubled heart. But Francine is ravenous for attention, driven by a thirst for conquest, and when Ralph tries politely to extricate himself, he finds he is bound by chains of consequence from which it seems there is no escape. In The Temporary, Rachel Cusk paints a merciless portrait of the cut and thrust of modern romance, work, and life.
Reviews
Praise for The Temporary
"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
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BOOK EXCERPTS
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One
In a call-box on Fortune Green Road, where Hampstead ends and Kilburn begins, a telephone was ringing. Francine Snaith heard it, and being possessed of the conviction that destiny had it continually in mind at any moment to...