What I loved. Take note of the past tense. It evokes painful memories of the past. Things that we used to cherish and treasure that are no longer there. It evokes the feeling of losing something or someone either physically like a dead father or emotionally like an ex-lover. Come to think of it, there seems to me a big blur between physical and emotional losses. A dead father may not be physically present but emotionally, he still resides in our hearts. An ex-lover may still be there physically More...

Every story we tell about ourselves can only be told in the past tense. It winds backward from where we now stand, no longer the actors in the story but its spectators who have chosen to speak. The trail behind us is sometimes marked by stones like the ones Hansel first left behind him. Other times the path is gone, because the birds flew down and ate up all the crumbs at sunrise.

Equal parts memoir, novel of ideas, and psychological thriller, the story opens in 1975 and spans 25 years of friend More...

I love Paul Auster. Having discovered him through the joys of the 1001 books list, I've now read almost everything he ever wrote and just when I was getting to the end of his stuff and wondering how I could get my hands on more Paul Auster stuff (short of holding a gun to his head and forcing him to write faster), along comes the literary off-shoot of Auster that is Siri Hustvedt. What!? I hear you yell in supportive indignation for Mrs Auster and her right to be recognised as a successful and t More...

a few notes,
there is much to think about in this book, intriguing themes of identity, what is real and what is illusion, ("i am bc you are" and shifting nature of reality, lies, betrayal), intimacy/friendship, myth and faery tales, art and the ways our imagination and creativity relates to our lives, madness or "mental illness" or mental health,how we deal with pain, loss,memory

the way she invokes the changeling myth as a sort of felt truth of the experience of being with certain kind of person More...

The writing was rich and very compelling. It's been a long time since I've thought about characters when I wasn't reading about them. The bits about art, perception and time that were thrown in as the characters developed and progressed through the plot were moving too.

The story is divided into three parts. I was drawn into the first two parts completely. The third part I resented on some level. Thinking about it now, it's the mark of a well written and executed story because I realize my resen More...

This is a tremendous book, and I was sorry that it had to end. I would appreciate a sequel, because Hustvedt has given so much intricacy to her characters; it would be wonderful to find out what happens to them. She mixes art, both modern and classical, into a novel with rich themes such as art's immortal quality juxtaposed with our mortal inevitability. (Her immense knowledge is not boastful like Byatt's, though.) She examines the many facets of love, unrequited love being the most painfully su More...

It was a complete coincidence that I picked this book up at the library at the same time that I took out Paul Auster's Book of Illusions. As it turns out, the author of this book and Auster are married, and this book is dedicated to him. There are parallels in the themes they handle: loss of a child, deep and paralyzing grief, detailed descriptions of fictional pieces of artwork, vacations in Vermont. It's strange to read about those things from the perspective of two authors whose real lives ar More...

I consider this book to be truly wonderful. My fellow London commuters clearly thought I was crazy as I cried over passages on a number of trains. I think the past tense in the title succinctly communicates the loss dealt with by Hustvedt.

I didn't initially like the descriptions of the art installations, and had difficulty visualising them. As I progressed through the novel I began to enjoy them more.

Because I've been engaged in a book club with three others--one who likes fiction, one who likes it with reservations, and a third who views it with trepidation--I've been thinking about why I like fiction so much. Modern fiction, classic fiction, whatever--what always draws me is the way human nature is portrayed. What does it mean to be human? Is it sad, broken, lonely, joyful, complicated? Yes.

This book is, for me, the dream of fiction, in that it tells us a story, and transports us, while at More...

Here is a big, ambitious novel about four talented, intelligent people -- artists and intellectuals in New York -- who first find love and friendship and then immense suffering. Bill, a talented and original artist, leaves Lucille, his emotionally stunted wife, for Violet, his passionate, vivacious model. Meanwhile their friends Leo and Erica live upstairs pursuing their own ecstatic marriage. The two couples have sons almost at the same time -- Mark and Matt. They vacation together in Vermont, More...

Ok, so Tobey recommended this one to me, perhaps not with much enthusiasm, but with at least a "it didn't suck" recommendation. I have to say that I agree, indeed, it didn't suck. The intellectual nature (lots of references to art history primarily) of the book was definitely compelling, and overall, I did enjoy the book. So my minor complaint (without spoiling too much) is that there were a couple sections where the book was slow, i.e., not much development of plot and/or characters. My major c More...

This book had been sitting in my "to-read" pile and I am glad I finally read it. The characters were strong and interesting and the story kept me engaged. The setting of pre-gentrified Soho was an unexpected treat. Part way through, a segment of the novel felt familiar to me and after doing some internet research, I realized that it paralleled the Michael Alig drama that took place in NYC in the 1990s (Google his name for more details). The author's stepson was peripherally involved, so it was c More...

An amazing book. One of those you just can't put down.

The story plays out in three parts, and the first two were utterly transcendent. The third part is totally compelling, and I couldn't stop reading until I'd finished the book, but somehow the mid-portion of the last part felt a bit false, as if the author were trying too hard to capture the downtown Manhattan zeitgeist of the '80s and '90s. Still, the end was very moving and the characters and story are hard to forget.

Initially I thought th More...

Sometimes a book just asks to be read. My friend Efrat left this at my house for me to read, and I hadn't quite gotten around to it until I opened the New York Times special real estate Sunday magazine of all things and saw a photograph of Siri Hustvedt's garden in Brooklyn. I took it as a sign that I should read her book, and fell immediately into the story. Some of the descriptions of art are a little tedious but the portraits of people are intense and beautiful. I feel like I'm learning more More...

All the words in this book soaked into me, got under my skin and pulled me beneath the surface. Hustvedt's characters breathe in the pages, and the two huge plot twists in the book hit me like body blows. The book centers around a group of friends and lovers who are all artists and academics, all searching for some kind of logic in human interrelations, never consciously realizing that the torturous social viruses and resulting self-loathing that they map out in their paintings and poems and boo More...

So excited to be starting this!

Just finished 9/22 and really enjoyed it. I got really caught up in the middle 60% of the book and could not put it down. That meant for some much to late nights. I loved the characters and was talking back to the book as I read because some of their actions made me so mad! I can't remember the last time I've done that.

I can't say I was disappointed in the ending - although I wasn't thrilled with it. I did immediately go back and read the first few pages because i More...

It is rare that you can find a book with beautiful writing that you also can't put down. I read this book the way that I read a Harry Potter, in a furry to find out what happens the characters that I have developed such an affinity for. I sat in public and cried and cried for the characters, I could not stop reading this book. It is so much more than that though, it is a beautifully written and complex book about real life and real love and real relationships. It is all mimicked in the intricate More...

This was a thought-provoking book for me. To quote the back cover of the book, it “combines the intimacy of a family saga with the suspense of a thriller”. Add in the subject of ART. The relationships are between New York academics, an art historian/professor and an artist. Add wives and children and the plot thickens. The more you get into this story, the more you get tied into the lives of the characters and have concern about how their dilemmas are going to be resolved. The story starts out s More...

I'm guessing I'm late to the party, but I'm so grateful to have discovered this brilliant writer. Her layers of wit and wisdom, imagery and storytelling unfolded as I read, like standing before a Rembrandt until you find yourself thinking about each brushstroke, each batch of pigment the artist had to mix.

WHAT I LOVED talks about the nature of love and loss, how death is one kind of loss, as is mental illness, as is each revision we overlay on the internal narration of our lives. At times, espec More...

I have two small children who leave me comatose by about 7 pm, but I stayed up until 2 last night finishing this brutal, brilliant, excruciating book. I saw Siri Hustvedt speak in London last week, and having read only a couple of her essays, was prompted by her lecture to read this, her best-loved novel. In person, Hustvedt was charming but intensely cerebral, actually an ideal preparation for her as a writer on the page. What I Loved first plunged me into deep nostalgia for New York, the stree More...

Siri Hustvedt's writing flows, its characters are painted with words. I see them, hear them and feel them. She knows art - the art scene, the politics, the inner conflicts and passion of an artist. It is so extremely rare to find someone who really gets it. It's easier to find a jar of gold nuggets in the street than it is to read a book about the art world that is real! I loved the story. As a novel, it works, and keeps the reader turning page after page because there are so many loose ends to More...

One of the great things about the library is that I can take a chance on books that I'm not sure if I'll like, since I don't have to pay for them. One of the bad things about the library is that if that risk pays off, I've read a fantastic book, but I don't own it to re-read at my leisure. And it feels silly to buy a book I've already read, when there are so many books out there that I want to read and haven't yet. And this conundrum has risen again, thanks to What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt.

I pic More...

Many thanks to Caitlin for her review that led me to this wonderful book. I took notes so I would be able to write a review of my own, but a proper critique of something this good deserves much more time, thought, and probably skill than I can bring to it right now. I'll have to settle for the simplistic, cliched and overused, but I really mean it. This was awesome.

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Finished 2nd time. Just as wonderful as I remember.

The second half of What I Loved might have made an enjoyably-erudite ‘thinking man’s’ thriller set in the art world of the ‘80s and ‘90s, but the meandering first half – about affluent Manhattanites and their dull, pretentious lives – makes the book, as a whole, perhaps admirable, but hard to like.

One often comes across perfectly entertaining novels that seem to have trouble getting started. Instead of plunging their reader straight into the action, they begin with ten pages of backstory. What I More...

This celebrated novel took me a long time to start - one of those I have had intentions of reading but never got around to. A birthday gift settled the matter - and it is a very good book, spending the first third drawing a large canvas and the rest ripping it apart. Following two families (the connection formed between art historian Leo Hertzberg and artist Bill Wechsler, their wives and eventually sons) in New York over 25 years, it opens slowly and then gradually accelerates into a thriller o More...

Siri Hustvedt is married to author Paul Auster and is an amazing writer. This novel combines art, artists, friends, crime and psychology, all set in New York City and though it is something of a thriller, the pace ebbs and flows between page turner and literary beauty.

In 1975, art historian Leo Hertzberg begins a friendship with painter Bill Wechsler. They both marry and each has a son. The families, including both of Bill's wives, remain friends for 25 years. Through joys and tragedies, triumph More...

This cautious, detailed novel, set in New York City, is slow but well worth reading. It’s about the NYC art world, about marriage, and about understanding and being understood. The narrator, Lev Hertzman, is an art historian, and it’s the story of his friendship with an artist, Bill Wechsler. Surrounding both men are their wives and sons, and each character is drawn vividly through small expressive gestures.

Bill, the artist, depicts what he loves symbolically, while Lev, the art historian, inte More...

I was reading this for a while and said to dad at one point "It's very Paul Auster isn't it?" and then found out a) written by a woman and b) she is MARRIED to Paul Auster! So while it wasn't note-for-note or anything, and I realise they both write novels drawing from the kind of life they lead in New York, and are both obviously leading roughly the same life, still. Probably not a good thing that their tone and styles are overlapping so much.

Very much liked the first two thirds. A lovely, growi More...

Reading this book is just like watching a Big Brother TV show. Your interest from start to finish is hooked by author Siri Hustvedt's smooth, forceful, detailed and no-frills narrative even though there is nothing spectacular about the plot. You keep on reading because the characters are well-developed and you want to find out what happens to them next.

The narrator is one of the male protagonists, Leo. You know, however, that the author is a female [author Paul Auster's wife:]. She even has a lo More...