Tag Archives: Siri Hustvedt
The Hustvedt essay
Desire has long been Hustvedt’s forte, from her novels and threaded through her nonfiction. And the essays in this collection are so unmistakeably-to-me Hustvedtian: They’re essays in the blessedly conventional sense—the simplest route from writer to reader. Here are a host of subjects in a deeply personal voice, exceedingly intelligent, more than a little sensuous, and familiar all throughout. Desire weaves in and out of the essays—“Living,” for her musings on family life; “Thinking,” for her reflections on the making of and the appreciation of literature, the academe, as well as her disarmingly easy relationship with neuroscience; “Looking,” for her meditations on art. Again: All of them fascinatingly eloquent, and all of them unafraid to draw from Hustvedt’s own life. No shame to tell the reader that this was how she felt as she thought. This unabashedness, coupled with her goddamned intellect, never fails to send happy shivers down my spine. [Continue reading.]
On The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt
What to say about The Summer without Men, favorite author Siri Hustvedt’s latest? For one, it’s unlike any other novel of hers I’ve read. In fact, although I love this novel, if you’d taped over her name on the cover, I wouldn’t have known this was a Hustvedt book. That’s a compliment, I guess, yes—although […]
My enchantment with Siri Hustvedt
What follows is my history with Siri Hustvedt’s fiction: I chanced upon her first novel, The Blindfold, a few days after discussing with a friend her and her marriage with Paul Auster. The Blindfold was a terrific read, about a young heroine named Iris Vegan, traversing life and all its accompanying hauntings and disconcertions. A […]
A call for an “abiding uncertainty” — On A Plea for Eros by Siri Hustvedt
Where does the need to write come from? What is it? It is a need, not a choice — it’s giving way and a giving up. As I mentioned elsewhere, I have reunited with Siri Hustvedt, c/o her collection of essays, A Plea for Eros. Another favorite writer — I’ve read all of her novels […]
Some choice certainties about good books, ineloquence in the face of said good books, and me having read — and still reading — some good books lately
Have reunited with Siri Hustvedt, and it feels so good. I’m running out of her novels to read [I have one left on my shelves], and I’m branching out to her nonfiction. Here’s a passage, from “Being A Man,” from her book of essays A Plea of Eros: As a reader of books, I’m convinced that […]
Sasha might be enjoying reading the “About the Author” pages a smidge too much –
[This is all obviously off the top of my head. Hello, lazy weekend.] [And thanks to The Boyfriend for letting me borrow his Robert Lowell poetry books for yet another fuzzy book pictorial.] You know the whole la-dee-dah about letting the text speak for itself, the author being dead and all that jazz, the Not […]
