What I Loved

  WHAT I LOVED

Author: Siri Hustvedt

This book ran me over with its restrained intensity, its insight, and its near-perfect execution. Here are my splattered thoughts from 2005 when I read it.  I'm having a difficult time reviewing this book because I feel that in no way will I do this beautifully written novel justice.

What I Loved is told through the point of view of Leo, an art historian who befriends an artist, Bill in 1970s New York, and the relationships that Leo and Bill form over the span of 25 years with each other, their wives, their two boys. As tragedy strikes, the tone of the novels switches from that of a chronicle of relationships to a creepy psychological thriller.

I found Hustvedt's writing style to be very similar in tone and the themes covered to her husband, Paul Austere love, loss, identity, which added to my enjoyment of the novel. I thought that the four adults, Leo and Erica and Bill and Violet were utterly fascinating, cultured people and I wanted in on their inner circle as they discussed modern art, art history, literature, Violet's medical research. I loved the detail in which Bill's artwork is discussed and how it progresses throughout the novel, especially his fairy tale phase. Violet's research though is what stole the show for me. Eating disorders, hysteria, the decline of popular culture. I hung mesmerized by everything that violet said or did.

                   

 I thought the second half of the novel was very subtle and disturbing. This slow feeling of creepiness and foreboding of what happens next left me unable to put this book down. Everything in this book felt authentic, real. I felt like I knew the characters in this book, I could relate to them, and as each event takes places I felt myself reeling by each loss, each betrayal. I will certainly be reading Hustvedt's other novels. There are the same shifting identities, extremities of violence, sex and drugs. The same world, it seemed to me. Only in New York do these things happen, you see. I like the scope of the book; it isn’t a simple narrative, it has the breadth and complexity of life. The title bears more thinking about. It is explained by Violet at the end where she asks what it is that she loved. Was it Mark or the idea of Mark? I feel like I haven’t understood Siri properly here. But the title sounds elegiac, sounds like the book feels, this beautiful remembrance of things past.

Once I got into this book which did take ninety pages but that had more to do with me than it I found it compulsive, un put down able. I cared and wondered about the fate of the characters – even the minor ones.

 She is married to my favorite author, Paul Austere, and yet until now I have not read her. I may have to admit she is as good as him, or better. I wonder if they get insecure. It should be made into a film, and by a great director. I think Sofia Coppola.Cheers XALV!S

REVIEWED BY

KEVIN XALVIS