Outline is a novel in ten conversations. Spare and lucid, it follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing over an oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her student in storytelling exercises. She meets other writers for dinner. She goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her seatmate from the place. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves, their fantasies, anxieties, pet theories, regrets, and longings. And through these disclosures, a portrait of the narrator is drawn by contrast, a portrait of a woman learning to face great a great loss.
Outline is the first book in a short and yet epic cycle - a masterful trilogy which will be remembered as one of the most significant achievements of our times.
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Before the flight I was invited for lunch at a London club of a billionaire I'd been promised had liberal credentials. 1
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(@FaberBooks, 1 May 2018, 258 pages, ebook, borrowed from @GlasgowLib via @OverDriveLibs)
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I'd never heard of the author before and decided to read her books because I really liked the covers. I always judge a book by its cover even though some people are snobbish about such things. I'm not sure how I felt about this short little book. At times I really didn't want to like it. Nothing much happens. Faye wanders about Greece, teaching creative writing classes to people who seem desperate and talentless. She sees the sights and sounds of Greece. That's about it. I should hate it but somehow I didn't. I found it compelling and intriguing. To be honest, it works because it's so short. I'd have been well pissed off if this style and structure had been used in a longer book. But it's perfect for Outline. The title is perfect for the book as you just get faint sketches of the people and places Faye encounters. This is a very different sort of book. I will definitely read the other two books in the trilogy.
