The New Yorker: Fiction · The New Yorker

Rachel Cusk Reads Marguerite Duras

May 1, 2024·55 min·5 clips

Rachel Cusk explains why Marguerite Duras's uncluttered French became her creative turning point.

The frame is clean and unfussy. Deborah Treisman names the Fiction Podcast ritual, then puts Rachel Cusk beside two Marguerite Duras pieces from the magazine's archive. Cusk starts with geography: her move from England to France gives the choice of Duras some personal charge, though the excerpt only begins to explain it. Treisman keeps the setup tidy. She names the translations, their magazine appearances, and Cusk's novels without making the intro feel like a sales pitch. Then the reading gets the room. The passage follows Madame Bousque as she hurries upward through village paths, vines, wind, and calculation. This is not a simple errand. Her gossip has strategy to it, sent toward the listeners most likely to receive it properly. The pigeons become everyone's business. Madame Bousque retells the night: cousins from Algeria expected, cooked birds in the pantry, and a noise downstairs that does not sit right. The Pelgrims lean in, all attention, which makes the scene sharper before the story even arrives. Duras keeps the comedy dry. A household problem widens into suspicion, family honor, railway workers, and village reputation. The podcast fits that restraint. Treisman and Cusk give context, translation, and form their due, then leave the fiction in charge. The closing returns to magazine housekeeping, naming Cusk's books, the archive, and related New Yorker fiction programs with the same calm order as the opening.

As heard by us

Rachel Cusk brings Duras's village gossip, appetite, and social pressure into crisp focus.

Rachel Cusk's visit to The New Yorker: Fiction returns Marguerite Duras to the archive with a live sense of personal urgency. Deborah Treisman introduces two short pieces, The Bible and The Stolen Pigeons, and Cusk explains that her move from England to France has altered her…

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