What I Loved
1 journaler for this copy...
A wonderful read, gripping, some sadness, some joy, love, friendship, loss...
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 --
If praise from one's peers is an indicator of success, then the fulsome jacket blurbs from no less than Salman Rushdie and Don DeLillo for Hustvedt's previous two books should give the casual reader a clue that here is no ordinary novel. DeLillo is, in fact, the writer who springs to mind when one tries to find a reference point for Hustvedt's elegant and lightly nuanced analysis of the human condition, and her characters, academics and artists engaged in unravelling the mysteries of the psyche, could have walked straight off the pages of, say, White Noise. This is not to imply that Hustvedt has been unduly influenced by other writers; her voice is very much her own, and her characters are certainly not drawn from anywhere but her own imagination. Leo, the narrator, is a New York art critic whose admiration for the paintings of one Bill Weschler turns into a lifelong friendship with the artist and his family. We first encounter Leo in early middle age, newly married to Erica. Bill and his wife Lucille first become neighbours, and the four are soon bound together by the birth of sons to both couples, Matthew and Mark. First, Bill's marriage to Lucille crumbles, then Leo's and Erica's marriage comes under the most dreadful strain imaginable when their son, Matthew, dies in an accident at summer camp. Leo becomes something of a father figure to Bill's son, Mark, but by the time Mark becomes a teenager on the cusp of adulthood, it is clear that all is not well. Bill's muse and lover, Violet, does what she can for Mark, but after Bill's death from natural causes, it is left to Leo to try and uncover the truth about Mark's sinister night-time activities and about his relationship with a controversial young artist who has been accused of sensationalism and, worse, murder. Violet's academic work on eating disorders and the American attitude towards food have ill-prepared her to accept that Mark is suffering from something worse than mere teenage angst and drug addiction, and slowly she and Leo come to accept that the boy may be suffering from some kind of sociopathy. This is a beautifully written and insightful novel about the way we live now. (Kirkus UK)
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 --
If praise from one's peers is an indicator of success, then the fulsome jacket blurbs from no less than Salman Rushdie and Don DeLillo for Hustvedt's previous two books should give the casual reader a clue that here is no ordinary novel. DeLillo is, in fact, the writer who springs to mind when one tries to find a reference point for Hustvedt's elegant and lightly nuanced analysis of the human condition, and her characters, academics and artists engaged in unravelling the mysteries of the psyche, could have walked straight off the pages of, say, White Noise. This is not to imply that Hustvedt has been unduly influenced by other writers; her voice is very much her own, and her characters are certainly not drawn from anywhere but her own imagination. Leo, the narrator, is a New York art critic whose admiration for the paintings of one Bill Weschler turns into a lifelong friendship with the artist and his family. We first encounter Leo in early middle age, newly married to Erica. Bill and his wife Lucille first become neighbours, and the four are soon bound together by the birth of sons to both couples, Matthew and Mark. First, Bill's marriage to Lucille crumbles, then Leo's and Erica's marriage comes under the most dreadful strain imaginable when their son, Matthew, dies in an accident at summer camp. Leo becomes something of a father figure to Bill's son, Mark, but by the time Mark becomes a teenager on the cusp of adulthood, it is clear that all is not well. Bill's muse and lover, Violet, does what she can for Mark, but after Bill's death from natural causes, it is left to Leo to try and uncover the truth about Mark's sinister night-time activities and about his relationship with a controversial young artist who has been accused of sensationalism and, worse, murder. Violet's academic work on eating disorders and the American attitude towards food have ill-prepared her to accept that Mark is suffering from something worse than mere teenage angst and drug addiction, and slowly she and Leo come to accept that the boy may be suffering from some kind of sociopathy. This is a beautifully written and insightful novel about the way we live now. (Kirkus UK)
