I really like Siri Hustvedt as a novelist. I started with A Summer without Men and moved to The Blazing World, which was just incredible. What I Loved is one of her most famous, and I was eager to read that. Last year, crystalclear got me this book, and I was happy to put it on my TBR shelf. Now that I have read it, I can get to the review! Hooray! Hustvedt writes from a male protagonist’s perspective this time. Leo is an academic […]
Cerebral and unapologetically feminist.
Taking myself as a reader out of the “ratings game” for a moment, The Blazing World deserves five stars for its ambition, passion, ferocity, and intelligence. It’s a complex book about a complex woman who is consistently undermined and undervalued (probably because she is a woman, and certainly because she’s an older one), and who vows to expose to the world the bias and hypocrisy of those who do so. It’s told after her death through a series of her journal entries, along with written […]
A Blazing World of Feminism, Art, and Masks
My friend M has been at me to read Siri Hustvedt’s The Blazing World for a few months. She even texted me at 8 am on a Sunday morning, “You really need to read this book. The fact that I am texting you this early is a sign.” I had read The Summer without Men two years ago and loved it, so I was willing to be indulgent. Boy, I am so glad I finally cracked it open. I devoured it in less than three […]
This Is A Man’s World
“No one rejoices more in revenge than women, wrote Juvenal. Women do most delight in revenge, wrote Sir Thomas Browne. Sweet is revenge, especially to women, wrote Lord Byron. And I say, I wonder why, boys. I wonder why.” I read What I Loved last year and absolutely loved it. I thought I had found a new girl-crush in Siri Hustvedt, who is clearly a super-smart lady. But what should I read next? Well, The Blazing World was longlisted for the Booker Prize, was mentioned on numerous “Best of 2014” lists, […]