What I Loved (Paperback, New Ed)

If praise from one's peers is an indicator of success, then the fulsome jacket blurbs from no less than Salman Rushdie and Don DeLillo for Hustvedt's previous two books should give the casual reader a clue that here is no ordinary novel. DeLillo is, in fact, the writer who springs to mind when one tries to find a reference point for Hustvedt's elegant and lightly nuanced analysis of the human condition, and her characters, academics and artists engaged in unravelling the mysteries of the psyche, could have walked straight off the pages of, say, White Noise. This is not to imply that Hustvedt has been unduly influenced by other writers; her voice is very much her own, and her characters are certainly not drawn from anywhere but her own imagination. Leo, the narrator, is a New York art critic whose admiration for the paintings of one Bill Weschler turns into a lifelong friendship with the artist and his family. We first encounter Leo in early middle age, newly married to Erica. Bill and his wife Lucille first become neighbours, and the four are soon bound together by the birth of sons to both couples, Matthew and Mark. First, Bill's marriage to Lucille crumbles, then Leo's and Erica's marriage comes under the most dreadful strain imaginable when their son, Matthew, dies in an accident at summer camp. Leo becomes something of a father figure to Bill's son, Mark, but by the time Mark becomes a teenager on the cusp of adulthood, it is clear that all is not well. Bill's muse and lover, Violet, does what she can for Mark, but after Bill's death from natural causes, it is left to Leo to try and uncover the truth about Mark's sinister night-time activities and about his relationship with a controversial young artist who has been accused of sensationalism and, worse, murder. Violet's academic work on eating disorders and the American attitude towards food have ill-prepared her to accept that Mark is suffering from something worse than mere teenage angst and drug addiction, and slowly she and Leo come to accept that the boy may be suffering from some kind of sociopathy. This is a beautifully written and insightful novel about the way we live now. (Kirkus UK)

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 'Defiantly complex and frequently dazzling' Sunday Times 'Siri Hustvedt's most ambitious, most rewarding novel. It mesmerises, arouses, disturbs' Salman Rushdie 'Superb . . . What I Loved is a rare thing, a page turner written at full intellectual stretch, serious but witty, large-minded and morally engaged' New York Times Book Review 'A love story with the grip and suspense of a thriller' Times Literary Supplement In 1975 art historian Leo Hertzberg discovers an extraordinary painting by an unknown artist in a New York gallery. He buys the work, tracks down its creator, Bill Wechsler, and the two men embark on a life-long friendship. This is the story of their intense and troubled relationship, of the women in their lives and their work, of art and hysteria, love and seduction and their sons - born the same year but whose lives take very different paths. 'A big, wide, sensuous novel - clever, sinister, yet attractively real' Guardian PRAISE FOR SIRI HUSTVEDT: 'Hustvedt is that rare artist, a writer of high intelligence, profound sensuality and a less easily definable capacity for which the only word I can find is wisdom' Salman Rushdie 'One of our finest novelists' Oliver Sacks 'Reading a Hustvedt novel is like consuming the best of David Lynch' Financial Times 'Few contemporary writers are as satisfying and stimulating to read as Siri Hustvedt' Washington Post 'A 21st-century Virginia Woolf' Literary Review

General

Imprint:	Sceptre
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	August 2003
Authors:	Siri Hustvedt
Dimensions:	196 x 129 x 25mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - B-format
Pages:	371
Edition:	New Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-340-68238-8
Categories:	Books
LSN:	0-340-68238-8
Barcode:	9780340682388

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Wed, 30 Sep 2020 | Review by: Mokgadi M.

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