Rachel Cusk and the obsession with 'M', Natalie Portman's avatar

Rachel Cusk, an author already known for her experimental works, returns to bookstores with 'Life of M'. The new novel constructs a narrative around an avatar of film star Natalie Portman, a fellow writer living in Paris who previously interviewed Cusk herself for her online book club. The character, referred to simply as 'M', appears in advertisements for a major brand and in films that closely resemble iconic titles from Portman's filmography, such as 'Léon', 'Black Swan', and 'Vox Lux'.

The book's structure alternates scenes from 'M's life—at the spa, at the school gates, during interviews—with episodes narrated by an amorphous 'we' wandering through an unspecified Paris, horrified by screaming children, the weekly garbage truck, and even birds. Cusk's fiction becomes increasingly experimental, deliberately blurring the narrative planes between the 'I', the 'we', and 'M's mind.

The novel culminates in a tense confrontation between the narrator and 'M', who is unhappy with the manuscript. Cusk projects her own tormented authorial persona onto a woman seen everywhere 'surrounded by pink spring flowers', in an experience the article describes as hypnotic, if not vampiric. A work that continues to challenge the conventions of the contemporary novel.