Rachel Cusk's OUTLINE-Minimalist Plot but Observes a Lot

Claude Debussy famously stated "Music is the space between the notes." Rachel Cusk's novel OUTLINE is sparse in plot and heroine development but much is revealed in the dialogues and encounters enveloping  our narrator. In fact, there are minimal facts ascertained from our narrator other than she's an author, writing professor, divorced with 2 grown children and resides in London. The story begins on a flight from London to Athens in which the narrator becomes engaged into a conversation with an older man over the course of the flight and over the middle seat occupied by a young passenger. The narrator name's is never revealed and this is perhaps a clever device in Cusk's deceptively insightful novel as the narrator serves to draw out conversations, admissions and derisions of others. The male flight passenger pursues our heroine who submits to his invitations to go with him on his small motor boat to enjoy a swim in the ocean. Our senses are engaged by the arid, congested drive to the dock, the thrust of the boat which almost causes her to go overboard and the invigorating chill from the glinting water as she gives herself over to its lull. She's no pushover and the man's passes are expertly combatted. Still, this doesn't stop his confessions of his past failed marriages and estrangements from his troubled son. The narrator is a succubus of information from those she encounters in a medley of conversations that ebb and flow depositing tidbits of jetsam that appear random. She asks her writing students to talk about what they encountered on their sojourn to class which turns into a master class of observational writing. There are interloping bizarre encounters that which added a piquant tidbits to savor within its loquacious storytelling. I found Cusk's serrated writing intoxicating. I was thoroughly captivated by every seemingly incongruent conversation that gushed forth. I was mystified and engaged by what individuals revealed, where their talk would lead and where the next exchange would be derived. OUTLINE is sparse in plot but abundant in human frailties and frivolities and overpowered with a sense of disconnection and loneliness.