Rachel Cusk’s Life of M and the enduring appeal of celebrity fiction
Rachel Cusk’s Life of M, centered on an author’s friendship with a world-famous actor reminiscent of Natalie Portman, arrives as the latest example of fiction using fame to probe identity, distance and public image. Publishers Weekly says the novel belongs to a broader literary tradition that includes books by Anna Dorn and Lisa Halliday, alongside other celebrity-focused titles reviewed in its roundup.
Rachel Cusk’s Life of M is the newest novel to turn celebrity into a subject for literary scrutiny. Centered on an author’s friendship with a world-famous actor who bears similarities to Natalie Portman, the book fits into a continuing strand of fiction that treats fame not as decoration but as a way to ask what people really know about one another.
That question sits at the core of the novel’s appeal. Publishers Weekly describes Cusk’s book as “slippery,” and notes that the fictional movie star is deliberately presented as unknowable. The mystery around the character is part of the design: Cusk is notably elusive about the model behind her creation, which aligns with a novel interested in the gap between public image and private self.
A familiar literary provocation
Cusk’s approach is not the only way writers have handled celebrity in fiction. Some authors have made their sources plain. Anna Dorn’s American Spirits was shaped by her admiration for Lana Del Rey and by her interest in an online community of Taylor Swift fans. Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry also draws on real life, featuring an aging writer who partly resembles Halliday’s longtime friend and onetime lover, Pulitzer-winning novelist Philip Roth.