Rating: 
Summary: The Art World, Drama and Darkness
Review: "What I Loved" by Siri Hustvedt is a juxtaposition of two stories in one book. It is an amalgamation of the art world, the lurid underworld in the late 70's and 80's, and the human story of two families.Leo Hertzberg, an art historian in New York City, discovers a painting by an unknown artist that catches his eye. He buys the painting, tracks down the artist Bill Wecshler and they become life long friends. This painting has a story of its own, and he needs to understand. He brings the painting home to his wife Erika who also becomes entranced with it. Bill and his wife, Lucille invite Erika and Leo into their lives. Lucille is a bit reticent, and we are unable to get to know her. Something is missing in her. Astoundingly, both women become pregnant within the same period of time, and Matthew is born to Leo and Erika and Mark to Lucille and Bill. But something is awry in the life of Lucille and Bill. Bill has fallen in love with the model, Violet, that was in the original painting that attracted Leo to Bill. Bill leaves Violet and his son Mark and marries Violet. They are happy, so very happy, and life is so good. A tragic death foretells the dark drama of the lives of these people in the next twenty-five years. The lovely story of the art world and the art critics in New York, and the lives full of fun and love have taken a mysterious turn by one of the children born to these couples. A psychological drama overtakes this story. At once erringly familiar and so out of place. I have difficulty sorting the sudden change in fortune of these families, and the loss of family and love. The sense of betrayal is at every corner. The discovery of the dark, deep secrets that need to be fleshed out from corridors that we do not want to go down, is an area best left alone. The lives of Leo, Erika, Bill, Lucille and Violet are changed irrevocably. Nothing can ever be the same again. The art world has come undone, and the crimes that are committed are too ghastly. We are left to try and contemplate the psyches of all involved. How could this happen? Was there something to be done?
I am not sure that I really liked the second half of this novel. It is difficult to place the latter half of the novel with the lives of the couples we have come to know so intimately. We are asked to move from one world into another without time to analyze what is happening. A dark, deep novel that needs to be savored to fully understand. prisrob
Rating:
Summary: The Art World, Drama and Darkness
Review: "What I Loved" by Siri Hustvedt is a juxtaposition of two stories in one book. It is an amalgamation of the art world, the lurid underworld in the late 70's and 80's, and the human story of two families. Leo Hertzberg, an art historian in New York City, discovers a painting by an unknown artist that catches his eye. He buys the painting, tracks down the artist Bill Wecshler and they become life long friends. This painting has a story of its own, and he needs to understand. He brings the painting home to his wife Erika who also becomes entranced with it. Bill and his wife, Lucille invite Erika and Leo into their lives. Lucille is a bit reticent, and we are unable to get to know her. Something is missing in her. Astoundingly, both women become pregnant within the same period of time, and Matthew is born to Leo and Erika and Mark to Lucille and Bill. But something is awry in the life of Lucille and Bill. Bill has fallen in love with the model, Violet, that was in the original painting that attracted Leo to Bill. Bill leaves Violet and his son Mark and marries Violet. They are happy, so very happy, and life is so good. A tragic death foretells the dark drama of the lives of these people in the next twenty-five years. The lovely story of the art world and the art critics in New York, and the lives full of fun and love have taken a mysterious turn by one of the children born to these couples. A psychological drama overtakes this story. At once erringly familiar and so out of place. I have difficulty sorting the sudden change in fortune of these families, and the loss of family and love. The sense of betrayal is at every corner. The discovery of the dark, deep secrets that need to be fleshed out from corridors that we do not want to go down, is an area best left alone. The lives of Leo, Erika, Bill, Lucille and Violet are changed irrevocably. Nothing can ever be the same again. The art world has come undone, and the crimes that are committed are too ghastly. We are left to try and contemplate the psyches of all involved. How could this happen? Was there something to be done?
I am not sure that I really liked the second half of this novel. It is difficult to place the latter half of the novel with the lives of the couples we have come to know so intimately. We are asked to move from one world into another without time to analyze what is happening. A dark, deep novel that needs to be savored to fully understand. prisrob
Rating:
Summary: An Examination of Loss and Moral Bankruptcy
Review: "What I Loved" is a story about the friendship between an art historian and an artist, and their two families including their two sons who are nearly the same age. It is a novel of loss - the loss of children, spouses, friends and lovers over a span of twenty-five years. It reminds us that change is an inevitable part of life. It is also an indictment of the vacuity and moral ambiguity of modern day life, particularly in the trendy, fast paced New York art world and club scene, where an artist who creates art works of cleverly violent moral bankruptcy can rise to the pinnacle of success; and where the club scene is filled with teenagers whose parents are absent while they chase success, leaving their kids rudderless, rootless and literally and figuaratively empty. A large part of the novel explores one of the teenage sons and his descent into the hellish netherworld of the club scene. Another segment of the book follows one of the characters as she writes a book on 19th century hysteria and it's late 20th-21st century equivalent, anorexia. This is a gripping and atmospheric novel of complex ideas on art and modern day life, and what it means for us and our children. Sometimes sinister, sometimes wrenchingly painful, this is a novel definitely worth reading and reflecting upon.
Rating: 
Summary: "Beautiful book!!
Review: Dear Siri, I'm 45, I'm Italian and just finished reading your book "What I loved". What a delight! Beautiflu story, beautifully written. The ending is superb. Please, do write another book soon. I am here waiting for it. Giuseppe
Rating: 
Summary: Not True to Life
Review: From the outset, the narrator in "What I Loved" did not sound like a man. Sure, when writing in the first person, the author can assume any personality she wants, but the character Leo never convinced me of his identity, though I gave him until the very last page. Not only that, but there wasn't much about Leo that was remarkable or even likable; he seems to exist only to react to the other characters.
Ms. Hustvedt tries really hard, but the sudden death of Matt at the end of Part I didn't make me cry or even feel sad. The character Matt was poorly delineated, for one thing. Another problem was that I never got the sense of any of these fictional people belonging to families. So the loss of a son seemed to be just a writer's trick to get on to the next part.
Leo's attempts to straighten out his best friend's son Mark were sometimes ridiculous. That cross-country chase was inexplicable. Who would spend so much time and money, and who would irreparably damage his own health, to follow this selfish, ungrateful adolescent from airport to airport, when he's proved over and over that he's untrustworthy, unlovable, and dangerous?
The relationships between Leo and Erica, then Leo and Violet, were not evocatively portrayed. I never identified with any of the characters. In fact, all seemed selfish and shallow.
The most annoying aspect of "What I Loved" were the unnecessarily long and detailed descriptions of Bill's artwork. This gave me the feeling that the author was saying to her readers, "Look at this! Watch me write!" I hope that wasn't her intention, but that was its effect on me.
And this book starts out as one sort of novel, but finishes as another. Most editors would reject a manuscript that does that. This is a very horrible thing to say: but I wonder, if Siri Hustvedt's husband were not Paul Auster, would this book have been published?
Rating:
Summary: Jerry Seinfeld meets Leonard Cohen
Review: From the very outset, this is a book that draws the reader in with tender prose and gentle tones. Despite some of the grittiness of the subject matter, it remains poignant and dignified. Through the eyes of Leo, who seems both aloof and immersed in the tale, we watch as a small group of New York artists and academics struggle with real-life and the people and topics that compel them. The novel swings pendulously through a range of emotions, not formulaically, but naturally and realistically. It is not a book about "closure" and epiphanies. Moreso, it seems to show that the adult world does not get less confusing and easier as time goes by.
The main characters are painstakingly illustrated, sometimes their absence is more glaring than their presence. Unfortunatley this attention to detail may give the impression of infatuation from time to time, but then again, maybe he is obsessive. Each character does seem slightly neurotic in one way or another. Mostly in a good sense. From the naive, benevolent Leo to the kramer-esque Lazlo to the bizarre behaviour of Mark, they form an interesting troupe.
Sometimes, the personal details and tone given seem so private that it is as though we are reading someone's diary. No one is glorified without being debased, no one is villified without being complimented. These are people who are as fickle and selfish and benevolent as all of us. I don't want to give anything away about the book. Just read it.
Rating:
Summary: Very sad book
Review: I have found this book really wonderfully written, the style is very beautifull. But the book brought me into a very deep depression!!! Everything in this novel is completely hopeless!! The book gives one a feeling that life is ONLY sad: children die or go wrong way in their lives, adults also die, divorce, separate, become un-happy. There is not even one positive event happening in this book!!!! I am really wondering what drives the author to write such a book. Is this an expression of Siri Hustvedt's own un-happiness?.. After reading this book (and after reading a lot of other books from modern literature) I decided to stop reading modern literature at all, and to read only books on history: those will al least give knowledge and information about our past. But the books like "What I loved" give no information, but only disturb one's psychological status and bring one to a very bad mood.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: I was so disappointed by this book.
The enthusiastic reviews I read made me believe this book was going to be something other than it was. In fact, the book itself tried to accomplish a similar sleight-of-hand. It sells itself -- both physically and in terms of the reviews but also in its outset -- as a traditional modern novel about the relationships between a group of adult friends. Hustvedt abandons this thread about halfway through the novel, choosing instead to turn it into a surreal detective story that's far too literally about investigation, absence and reality for my taste. It's two books mashed into one and unfortunately neither is successful. I've given it two stars because either of the books this one could have been would have been great; the writing is sharp and the characterizations vivid (though Bill I found one-note). I fear readers will be disappointed if they head into this work expecting a riveting modern novel; expect instead erudition and gamesmanship and the hollow feeling that comes at the end of the long, unfulfilling exercise of reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: In the past three weeks, I've read all three of Hustvedt's novels (in reverse order of when they were written). Each time I've been deeply impressed. I was first a fan of Paul Auster, and kept seeing "people who bought X by Paul Auster also bought Y by Siri Hustvedt," so I gave her a shot, not knowing that they were married until I got the book in my hot little hands and read the jacket. What a vivid, vital novel! Of the three she has penned, it is my favorite, if only for the truly haunting characters and amazingly detailed and tactile descriptions of art work. After finishing "What I Loved," I found myself continually "remembering" Bill, one of the main characters. I still think of him, a tragic and charasmatic character illustrated so sensitively and realistically I feel I know him or want to know him. I wish I could refrain from drawing parallels to Auster's work, but there are similarities: the story centers around writers, professors, and artists and questions of representation and narrative in art and writing; there is a writer-as-detective subplot, and a dark underrent reminiscent of pulpy Hammett or Chandler. These elements turn a telling and touching story of the complexities of family and loss into a postmodern novel that still shows empathy towards its protagonists. A complex page-turner with compelling characters, this one is not to be missed!
Rating:
Summary: Sparkling prose with emotion to boot
Review: This book knocked my socks off -- literally and figuratively. It is a story to crawl into bed with, not because it is pleasant, or happy, or overly touching, but because it is a read that plays on your heart while appealing to your intellect. It is a book to love, a smart book, a novel that ponders the meaning of various types of art forms without bending to over-intelletualism or pretension. But is also uncommonly suspense-filled, considering that it comes from a writer with great literary ambition. Siri Hustvedt has taken on what few others have tried -- setting a modern novel with a backdrop of the New York intellectual scene of the late 70's through the 80's. He main characters are writers and artists, New Yorkers through and through whose public lives form on a thin red line to their private ones. And ultimately, as with most people, the private lives are the most interesting. This very private story centers around Bill, an artist, and Leo, the narrator, an art critic and friend who truly admires Bill's work. The lives of the two become intertwined when geographical closeness leads to a friendship as hard as a rock against time. Throw in a couple of intelligent wives, some children with their own cumbersome problems, and you have a group of people struggling with life and loving each other through it all. There is a plot twist in this book that utterly changes the direction of the story. It might bother some -- I for one found that it acted like a catalyst propelling me to the book's conclusion. Final judgement: without a doubt the best book I've read in months.
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