What is the importance of the beach in the novel, Kudos?

The final pages of Kudos take place on the beach of an unnamed European city, the only natural setting in the novel (every other encounter between Faye and a secondary character happens in man-made environments, from airplanes to city streets to hotel bars). The whole scene is saturated in primitive iconography. Faye encounters a group of men around a fire, some of whom are naked, and the rest of whom are wearing what Faye describes as a “simple loincloth,” an unusual sartorial choice for contemporary Europe (231). Indeed, this final encounter seems to take place in a different time, as if Faye had accidentally entered a time-warp back and found herself back in the Stone Ages. While much of Kudos is concerned with peculiarly modern phenomena, the end of the book, set on the beach, seems to be a reminder from Cusk that many of the issues and themes that she’s explored throughout have roots that go back to antiquity.