Second Place is Rachel Cusk’s contemporary reimagining of Lorenzo in Taos (1932), in which Mabel Dodge Luhan recorded her memories of D. H. Lawrence. Cusk’s fictionalized version concerns the rocky relationship between “M” and “L,” an artist who comes to stay. M describes her doubts and disappointments over the course of this tragicomic visit by means of first-person direct address. The result is an intensely philosophical consideration of themes including art, nature, money and gender, and the role that these play in identity-building.
