This is the story of two men who first become friends in 1970s New York, of the women in their lives, and of their sons, born the same year. Both Leo Hertzberg, an art historian, and Bill Weschler, a painter, are cultured, decent men, but neither is equipped to deal with what happens to their children - Leo's son drowns when he's 12, while Bill's son Mark grows up to be a delinquent, and the acolyte of a sinister, guru-like artist who spawns murder in his wake. Spanning the hedonism of the eighties and the chill-out nineties, this multi-layered novel combines a plot of mounting menace with a deeply moving account of familial relationships and a superbly observed portrait of an artist, set against the backdrop of a society reaching new depths of depravity in its frenetic quest for the next fashion, drug and thrill.

Welcome to the What I Loved bookray.


We now have 5 members. I am sending the bookring to arturogrande on Tuesday June 7 and hope it reaches you all safely :-) Happy Bookring Reading!
Any problems, please PM me.
The list is as follows:

arturogrande, Coalville
chelseagirl, Farnborough
sunflowergirl, Pocklington
angellica, Worksop
Lobodyke, Bardstown, Kentucky, USA
...then to be released.

Please remember to journal the book BOTH when you have received it (so we all know where it is) and once you have read it (so we all know what you thought of it).

I am really looking forward to hearing your feedback, thanks for participating.

Caroline

This looks aboslutely wonderful. Thanks so much for letting me join the ring.

As a book which is as much about art as it is about life, it's fitting that the narrative should be made up of many layers, like the layers of paint on a canvas, or the layers of meaning in Bill's work.
The writing is beautiful and rich, effortlessly conjuring up every detail of the New York lofts, gallery openings, lifelong friendships, idyllic summer holidays, loss and heartbreak.
It's always quite hard for a female author to write convincingly as a male narrator, but Hustvedt never puts a foot wrong.
I truly believed in Leo Hertzberg. He felt at all times like a real person, not just a character in a novel.
The section dealing with the death of Matthew and the raw, gaping hole his death leaves in the lives of Leo and Erica is heartbreaking and in parts almost unbearable to read.
This book could equally well have been called What I Lost, as Leo loses people and things dear to him over and over again during the 25 years covered by the novel.
My only criticicm was that I felt the narrative lost its way somewhat in the section dealing with Leo's quest to find Mark and save him from the sinister life he had allowed himself to be dragged into.
But on the whole, this is a beautiful work of art and I hope other rwaders enjoy it as much as I did.

It's now on its way to chelseagirl.

This arrived a couple of days ago, sorry I haven't journalled it sooner! I've jsut started a book but this is next to be read.

I was going to start by apologising for having this book for so long but it's been less than a month - just!

What a fantastic book. I can't really add much to what caro1 and arturogrande have said about the storyline. the characterisation is fantastic and I really felt I knew Bill, Leo and Violet as friends; many of the other charactrs were also really solid and those that weren't were meant to be cloaked in mystery (Lucille and Teddy, for example). The novel is set over 25 years and for a long time it jsut meanders along, talking about day to day life - in other hands this could have been really boring, but Hustvedt manages to make even the banal intriguing. I loved the art background and kept wanting to go and look up the art gallery where I could see Bill's work! This is one of those books that I enjoyed so much, I really can't put in words what I thought of it.

Thank you so much for setting this ring up - I actually had my own copy of What I Loved on the shelf for months, but as I hadn't got round to reading it I passed it on to someone else. At least with this being a ring it has forced me to get on with it, and I'm so glad I did!

Passing on to sunflowergirl as soon as I have an address.

I've just got home from a couple of days away to find this book waiting for me. I'm afraid that it's joining a queue, I have two ring books to read that arrived before it, but I will read it as soon as I can.

Thanks for sharing it.

I've just finished reading this book and wanted to write my thoughts about it straight away, but now I'm sat here at the computer I'm not sure how to say exactly what I want to say. I just couldn't put this book down, it was one of the most involving books that I've read in a long while. The characters were all so real, especially Leo. All the way through the book I really believed in him. His emotions after losing his son were so painful to read, it was as if Leo was a real person who had lost their child. And then when Bill died, Leo's reactions and feelings were again so believable. I now feel like I want to go out and buy my own copy of this book, I am sure it is a book I will seek out again in the future. This is not a book I had heard of before, so had it not been for this ring I never would have read it. And that would have been a real shame. Thanks you so much for sharing this book.

*****

I PM'd angellica 2 days ago and am now waiting for her address.

I posted this book to angellica on Friday by 2nd Class Post.

Received in the post today. Looking forward to reading it

What can I say? This is the second book my Siri Hustvedt I have read and it certainly didn't disappoint.

The characterisations are great. How all the characters lives are interwoven and changed by events that are beyond their control.

Once I started to read this, I couldn't put it down. Thanks for sharing this great book.

Will be posted to Lobodyke today

What a great Valentine's Day gift to receive this in the mail:) I have another book to polish off, and then I'll start reading this one. I like that there's a "reading guide" with questions included, but probably won't look at it until I finish the book. I want to read the book without seeing it through the filter of those questions. Thanks, Caro1, for starting this ray.

I just finished reading this book, and will journal more later when I have time. For now, I just want to set the status on reserved for either a possible trade or insertion into a bookbox.

I should have journalled about this book some time ago, when I first finished reading it, but never quite got to it with my new job and so on. I, too, would never have known about this book were it not for Book Crossing, but I absolutely adored it. Right after I finished reading it, I spent a week telling all the book lovers I know that they HAVE TO read it. The characters and the plot were described so well that I felt as if I knew them personally and was right in the middle of everything that was happening. There are not many books that make me cry, but there were parts of this one that did. Having volunteered for hospice at various times, I found the repeating theme of love and loss engrossing. Definitely a superb read. Thanks for starting the bookray, Caro1. I'll now be sending this on to BCer veruca, as part of a trade.

I'll finally be sending this book on to veruca on 5/24 of this week, in trade for a Harry Potter book!

I got this book in the mail this week. Thanks!

I'm sending this via PaperBackSwap. Enjoy!