The Lucky Ones (short story collection)

Not to be confused with The Lucky One (novel), by Nicholas Sparks.

The Lucky Ones

First edition cover
Author	Rachel Cusk
Publisher	Fourth Estate
Publication date	April 7, 2003

The Lucky Ones is a 2003 story collection by British author Rachel Cusk. ^{[1] [2]} Billed as a novel, ^[3] it consists of five stories mainly concerned with the subject of family relationships, about five different people who are loosely connected to each other.

Contents

• "Confinement" concerns Kirsty, a young pregnant woman who is serving a life sentence after being wrongly convicted of arson and murder.
• "The Way You Do It" sees Martin, a male friend of one of Kirsty's legal representatives, spending a holiday in Switzerland with friends – and away from his young family for the first time
• In "The Sacrifices", an unnamed woman (the sister of another of the solicitor's friends) recalls her broken marriage during a visit to her childhood home.
• "Mrs Daley's Daughter" concerns Barbara Daley (the mother of another of the friends), who fails to recognise and understand her daughter's postnatal depression.
• And in the final story, "Matters of Life and Death", Vanessa (one of Barbara's neighbours) discovers that her husband has been having an affair and is preparing to leave her; while a chance meeting prompts her to take an interest in Kirsty's case.

Reception

Reviewing the book for The Guardian , John Mullan, senior lecturer in English at University College London was positive about the collection, describing the connected stories as using "a technique of passing, sometimes accidental, connection, reminiscent of a Robert Altman film". ^[4] Mullan adds, "The desolation is elegantly credible."

References

1. "The Lucky Ones". Kirkus Reviews . 15 December 2003. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
2. "Lucky Ones" . Booklist . 1 February 2004. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
3. "Fiction Book Review: THE LUCKY ONES by Rachel Cusk, Author". Publishers Weekly . 26 January 2004. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
4. Mullan, John (5 April 2003). "Review: The Lucky Ones by Rachel Cusk". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 28 January 2016.