Literary feuds – “She shot to fame in a film that sexualised a young girl”
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What sparked the controversy around Rachel Cusk's forthcoming memoir?
Now, the book hasn't even been officially published yet, but the literary world has been set ablaze with rumours that celebrated writer Rachel Cusk has fallen out with her celebrity friend, the actress Natalie Portman, over Cusk's forthcoming book, which is called The Life of M. The book seems to feature strange parallels to Portman's life and is perhaps a less than flattering depiction. Well, here to untangle this story is the author Adele Coffey. Adele, you're very, very welcome. Good morning, Derval. How are you? So look, literary feuds, few and far between. But for those who don't know maybe who Rachel Cusk is, celebrated or quite a particular kind of writer? What kind of writer is she?
Yeah, she's certainly celebrated and very, very respected. She's a really intellectual writer. She's 59. She's British. She was born in Canada to British parents, raised in Britain and has lived in Paris since 2021. She wrote novels in the 90s and then things kind of changed in the early noughties when she published her first work of nonfiction, which was A Life's Work, which she wrote about motherhood. And that... That got a huge response, wasn't it? And then in 2012, she wrote about the breakdown of her marriage. It was called Aftermath. And that too, it was just... The issue seems to be that Cusk is incredibly honest and incredibly... And that can sometimes be read as incredibly cruel.
Yes. And one of her, I suppose, fans was the actress Natalie Portman because she has interviewed Cusk for her book club. She's promoted Cusk's novels on her platform. So... So comes along this book, The Life of M, not to be confused with the story of O, and the central character in The Life of M is an actress. So how has it sort of come off the rails for these two women?
Yeah, because she's not... Not just an actress. She's a globally famous actress who came to fame as a child actress in a film that sort of sexualized this child, which Portman did as well in that film, Leon, when she was just, I think she was 11 when she played the role. And she's also, the character M is also the face of a global population. beauty brand.
Who is Rachel Cusk and how did her writing evolve over time?
Natalie Portman is the face of Miss Dior. She also starred in a very famous film about a ballerina. Natalie Portman won an Oscar for her performance in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. So it's very difficult when all those details are taken together. It's very difficult to come up with another famous actress who this might be about.
To not infer and to not kind of conclude. But it's been really interesting. You think of people like Natalie Portman, but also Dua Lipa, you know, they have these book clubs. So it's not just their life as, you know, performance artists, but they've got this sort of intellectual kind of side hustle going on. So do you think what happened here is that, you know, was there a sense of both sides benefiting from this friendship?
I'm sure. But what I really find interesting about that trend for famous people having book clubs now is it's this kind of transactional relationship, I think. And actually, Rachel Cusk writes about this really well in this book. I've read the book. I actually just read it this week.
Oh, you've got an early copy before it's published.
Yeah, I was really lucky. It's really fantastic, let me just say. Is it a good book? Absolutely. It's fantastic. But she sends up this whole situation. Rachel Cusk has taken part in one of those Chanel salons where she had Naomi Campbell, she had this ambassador for Chanel, she had herself and a journalist who were all discussing her work in this bookshop. And You know, a lot of the time I think with people like Dua Lipa, obviously they are interested in books and they love books, but it's this really easy way of sort of borrowing what Rachel Cust describes as borrowing the integrity of the writer and adding depth to, you know, to different areas like pop stardom or fashion.
Yeah, so you get celebrity access and they get maybe intellectual kudos. Yes. Authenticity, exactly. So God knows where this could end up, courts or anything.
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