Dec 2017 BOTM: What I loved

[Pip]

I found the book stimulating but hard going in the first part and I put it aside when I was busy. I picked it up again last night just before Part Two and read through the night. I had not expected it to become such a page turner. I finally slept with the denouement to come and woke early to finish it this morning. How you read a book often has implications for how you rate it. I haven't felt so invested in a novel for ages. I so enjoyed the setting, the way that Bill, Violet and Leo interacted with Mark, and the themes of mental illness and suggestibility were so thought-provoking I expect that this novel will resonate with me for quite some time.

[Dree]

So, I finally finished this today after taking a 5-or-so day break in the middle.

I ended up giving this 4 stars, but not because I actually liked it. The first part was good (but too much weird 3D art for me, I prefer paintings and textiles not modern stuff that makes no sense). The second section (the beginning certainly) was brutal. The third section was also brutal. I have had to deal with adult sociopaths, I cannot imagine trying to raise one.

And I just feel so so much for Leo. I man who has worked hard, had success, is nice and kind, and looses every single thing he has loved. By death, by leaving/emotional detachment, by illness.

Urgh.

[Diane]

What I Loved: A Novel by Siri Hustvedt
4/5 stars

This was a gut wrenching, emotional novel about love, loss, family and relationships. I have not read such an emotional roller coaster in quite some time. The story is told in three sections, no chapters, with each part taking the reader on a different journey. Leo is the voice of the novel and my favorite character. Many of the characters are artistic and the art scene of New York is featured prominently.

“...I continually found myself at a loss – either I didn't know what I was seeing or I didn't know how to read what I saw. Those experiences have left their traces in me as nearly perpetual disquiet. Although there are times when it vanishes altogether, usually I can feel it, lurking beneath the ordinary activities of my day- an inner shadow cast by the memory of having been completely lost.”

“It's odd the way life works, the way it mutates and wanders, the way one thing becomes another.”

“Every true story has several possible endings.”