Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10354 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
What I Loved is a deeply touching elegiac novel that mourns for the New York artistic life, which was of a time but now has gone--by extension, it is about all losses swept away by mischance and time. Half-blind and alone, Leo tells us of marriage and friendship, and makes the sheer fragility of what seemed forever not only his subject, but perhaps the only subject worth considering. Scholars Leo and his wife Erica admire, and befriend, artist Bill and his first and second wives--their respective sons Matthew and Mark grow up together until the first of a series of tragedies strikes. And things get gradually worse from then on, both because terrible things happen and because people do not get over them.

Part of the strength of this impressive novel is its emotional intensity and part is the context in which those emotions exist; these are smart and talented people, even the children, and we luxuriate, even when things are at their worst, in the sheer intelligence they bring to bear on their situations. It is also impressive that, for Hustvedt, intelligence is an end in itself rather than something that prevents tragedy or makes it more bearable. This is a powerful book because everything Leo knows makes him ever more the victim of exquisite pain. --Roz Kaveney

Kieron Corless, Time Out
'Subtle, compassionate, wise, and supremely intelligent, it's a striking achievement.'

Review
'Breathtaking' (James Urquhart, Independent )

'A love story with the grip and suspense of a thriller. It makes you ponder human existence with a peculiar mixture of stoicism and wonder.' (Noonie Minogue, Times Literary Supplement )

'Defiantly complex and frequently dazzling ... she has created a conceptually exciting work that demands we think, but which still allows us room to feel.' (Alex Clark, Sunday Times )

'Substantial, moving and beautifully written' (Christian House, Independent on Sunday )

'A big, wide, sensuous novel - clever, sinister, yet attractively real' (Julie Myerson, Guardian )

'A consummately intelligent novel, highly literate but also intensely moving.' (Jackie McGlone, Scotsman )

'Riveting ... erudite and immensely detailed ... a rich, densely textured and utterly absorbing novel' (Lesley Glaister )

'Subtle, compassionate, wise, and supremely intelligent, it’s a striking achievement.' (Kieron Corless, Time Out )

'Hustvedt ranks amongst the finest American writers working today' (Jennifer O’Connell, Sunday Business Post )

'a powerful novel of love, loss and longing, exquisitely written' (Anne Donovan, Sunday Herald )

Customer Reviews

One of the Must Read Novels of this year
What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt, is one of the most extraordinary novels I have read for a long time. It is primarily a novel of ideas and yet has a great plot and is very gripping. It is the story of 2 couples who are part of the artistic bohemian set in Greenwich Village, they are a very close group of friends and few other people permeate into their world. This book charts the relationships between these people and their children. The novel incorporates art, the process of biography, memory and how it fluctuates, love, loss, hysteria, eating disorders and many many other issues. It is one of those rare things a book which stays with you for a long time after you have read it. I urge everyone who enjoys fine writing and thoughtful concepts to read this book it is a real treat.

What I nearly Adored
Written in the first person from the point of view of an elderly art critic, What I Loved tells the story of an artist, his wife, his second wife, his son and how their lives and work affect and intermingle with those of the narrator and his wife and son. In the background, the book takes a nostalgic and evocative look at the New York artworld, absorbing as it goes such diverse topics as the nature and intent of art, hysterics, compulsive personality disorders, love, death and grief.

Initially, this novel is utterly absorbing. There is an intimacy of style, a come-here-listen-you're-one-of-us tone which flatters the reader by assuming that you too have the same intellectual vigour and appetite. The artist Bill is an intoxicating and charismatic figure and the reader is captivated by observing Bill at work, by analysing minutely his artistic aims, techniques, urges. At times, it is difficult to see the direction the narrative is taking you but always you are brought back to Bill, to his work, his loves.

Ultimately however, the novel seems to lose the only tenuous direction it had. Bill dies and with it goes the heart of the novel. We are left with all kinds of intriguing and demanding notions to contemplate - most notably the complex and disturbing personality of his son - but the narrative drive has gone and the reader is left with the feeling that there are too many ideas within the manuscript and that none of them is really put to rest.

Art, Drama., Darkenss
What I Loved" by Siri Hustvedt is a juxtaposition of two stories in one book. It is an amalgamation of the art world, the lurid underworld in the late 70's and 80's, and the human story of two families.
Leo Hertzberg, an art historian in New York City, discovers a painting by an unknown artist that catches his eye. He buys the painting, tracks down the artist Bill Wecshler and they become life long friends. This painting has a story of its own, and he needs to understand. He brings the painting home to his wife Erika who also becomes entranced with it. Bill and his wife, Lucille invite Erika and Leo into their lives. Lucille is a bit reticent, and we are unable to get to know her. Something is missing in her. Astoundingly, both women become pregnant within the same period of time, and Matthew is born to Leo and Erika and Mark to Lucille and Bill. But something is awry in the life of Lucille and Bill. Bill has fallen in love with the model, Violet, that was in the original painting that attracted Leo to Bill. Bill leaves Violet and his son Mark and marries Violet. They are happy, so very happy, and life is so good.

A tragic death foretells the dark drama of the lives of these people in the next twenty-five years. The lovely story of the art world and the art critics in New York, and the lives full of fun and love have taken a mysterious turn by one of the children born to these couples. A psychological drama overtakes this story. At once erringly familiar and so out of place. I have difficulty sorting the sudden change in fortune of these families, and the loss of family and love. The sense of betrayal is at every corner. The discovery of the dark, deep secrets that need to be fleshed out from corridors that we do not want to go down, is an area best left alone.

The lives of Leo, Erika, Bill, Lucille and Violet are changed irrevocably. Nothing can ever be the same again. The art world has come undone, and the crimes that are committed are too ghastly. We are left to try and contemplate the psyches of all involved. How could this happen? Was there something to be done?
I am not sure that I really liked the second half of this novel. It is difficult to place the latter half of the novel with the lives of the couples we have come to know so intimately. We are asked to move from one world into another without time to analyze what is happening. A dark, deep novel that needs to be savored to fully understand. prisrob