From the author of "The Enchantment of Lily Dahl" comes a powerful and heartbreaking novel that chronicles the epic story of two families, two sons, and two marriages.
Read More
From the author of "The Enchantment of Lily Dahl" comes a powerful and heartbreaking novel that chronicles the epic story of two families, two sons, and two marriages.
Read Less
Add this copy of What I Loved: a Novel to cart. $0.99, fair condition, Sold by ZBK Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Woodland Park, NJ, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Picador.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. May contain writing notes highlighting bends or folds. Text is readable book is clean and pages and cover mostly intact. May show normal wear and tear. Item may be missing CD. May include library marks. Fast Shipping.
Add this copy of What I Loved: a Novel to cart. $1.47, fair condition, Sold by Orion Tech rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Arlington, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Picador.
Add this copy of What I Loved: a Novel to cart. $1.91, good condition, Sold by Goodwill of Colorado rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Picador USA.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
This item is in overall good condition. Covers and dust jackets are intact but may have minor wear including slight curls or bends to corners as well as cosmetic blemishes including stickers. Pages are intact but may have minor highlighting/ writing. Binding is intact; however, spine may have slight wear overall. Digital codes may not be included and have not been tested to be redeemable and/or active. Minor shelf wear overall. Please note that all items are donated goods and are in used condition. Orders shipped Monday through Friday! Your purchase helps put people to work and learn life skills to reach their full potential. Orders shipped Monday through Friday. Your purchase helps put people to work and learn life skills to reach their full potential. Thank you!
Add this copy of What I Loved: a Novel to cart. $1.91, fair condition, Sold by Goodwill of Colorado rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from COLORADO SPRINGS, CO, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Picador USA.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Fair. This item is in overall acceptable condition. Covers and dust jackets are intact but may have heavy wear including creases, bends, edge wear, curled corners or minor tears as well as stickers or sticker-residue. Pages are intact but may have minor curls, bends or moderate to considerable highlighting/ writing. Binding is intact; however, spine may have heavy wear. Digital codes may not be included and have not been tested to be redeemable and/or active. A well-read copy overall. Please note that all items are donated goods and are in used condition. Orders shipped Monday through Friday! Your purchase helps put people to work and learn life skills to reach their full potential. Orders shipped Monday through Friday. Your purchase helps put people to work and learn life skills to reach their full potential. Thank you!
Add this copy of What I Loved to cart. $1.99, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Picador USA.
Add this copy of What I Loved to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Picador USA.
Add this copy of What I Loved to cart. $1.99, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Picador USA.
Add this copy of What I Loved to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Picador USA.
Add this copy of What I Loved to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Picador USA.
Add this copy of What I Loved: a Novel to cart. $2.00, good condition, Sold by Blue Vase Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Interlochen, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Picador USA.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
The item shows wear from consistent use, but it remains in good condition and works perfectly. All pages and cover are intact (including the dust cover, if applicable). Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May NOT include discs, access code or other supplemental materials.
I read Hustvedt's 2003 novel "What I Loved" on the strength of several reviews from fellow- reviewers whose writings I enjoy. I was moved by a great deal of the book upon reading it; but I also had mixed feelings. I read further in the online reviews and looked as well at the reviews Hustvedt's novel received in various papers. These reviews helped me in my understanding of a book susceptible to many different readings. Hustvedt's book invites an engaged reader. Various characters in the story observe more than once that a work of art or a novel require a viewer or reader for completion. So it is with this book. Each reader will bring something to this book that may differ from the author's understanding of her story.
My short summary of "What I Loved" would be: "Life is very sad. With effort, it is possible to attain to a degree of inner peace." The remainder of this review elaborates on this summary.
The novel involves broad themes of love, friendship, grief, loss, and rejection with many subtle undercurrents and parallels throughout. The story is set in New York City and involves the friendship between two men and their families. The narrator, Leo Hertzberg, writes the story in 2000 recounting his experiences of the prior 25 years. Hertzberg is an art historian who marries in mid-age an English professor, Edith, ten years his junior. Both Leo and Edith are the children of Holocaust refuges who assimilated and abandoned Jewish religious beliefs generations earlier. Leo becomes the first commercial purchaser of a painting by the struggling artist Bill Wechsler; and this purchase becomes the basis for the friendship. Wechsler is married to a poet, Lucille. Each couple has a son born about a month apart: Matt Hertzberg and Mark Wechsler. When Bill's marriage ends, he marries his former model, Violet, who is earning her PhD. Violet writes books about eating disorders and other forms of social pathologies.
There is a great deal of intellectual and artistic discussion throughout the book as the five main characters (Leo, Edith, Bill, Lucille, Violet) get to know each other and discuss their various endeavors in detail. In particular, Leo(Hustvedt) gives the reader a great deal of the nature of Bill's art as it progresses over the years from paintings on canvas through collages and boxes and allegorical storytelling which mirror's the artist's internal life. There is also much about literature and philosophy throughout as the novel, especially in its opening third takes a highly intellectual tone intertwined with sexuality.
Some readers have observed an apparent disconnection and shift as the novel progresses.The book has been described as breaking into two parts, but I think it breaks into three and that they develop from each other coherently, if surprisingly. The first and primarily intellectual part is discussed above and it continues throughout the novel. In the second part of the novel grief intrudes and requires the characters in the story to deal with it. The grieving changes the character of the book. Then in the third part the book transforms itself into a lurid crime novel in the underbelly of New York. The characters again have to adjust their intellectualized lives. The reader is invited to unravel the relationship between the apparent shifts in the story.
The first part of the book tells the story of rather arid over-intellectualized individuals who are self-absorbed and more interested in their work and ideas than in life. Although they discuss a great deal, their lives seem to lack connectedness (a term the characters bandy about a good deal), purpose, and, for all their efforts, erotic passion. With the deaths and violence that comes to the forefront in the latter part of the story, the novel suggested to me the primary characters, for all their intellect and accomplishments, all had a certain vacuity. I felt for them and was engaged with their losses and their sufferings. The sufferings brought them into contact with a part of life they portrayed in their artistic or literary endeavors but to me didn't understand.
This is a story of highly intelligent people, but nobody in this book, whether the author or the characters, wears their learning lightly. There are many self-conscious mannerisms in this book, revolving around issues such as gender identity and the nature of telling a story, that tease the reader and that sometimes distract more than they add. But the book poignantly shows the nature of grief, loss, and the passage of time. There is a sense of character development, as the reader sees different aspects of some of the protagonists that are not readily apparent even to the narrator himself. The pain of callous rejection never eases, regardless of age.
There is a degree of lack to most of the characters in the book in spite of their intellects. None of the characters show any religious sense, but lack is more one of self-knowledge rather than of religious affiliation or spirituality. There is a certain inhibited inability to laugh or to enjoy oneself. I am not sure how much the characters, even the likable and much-suffering Leo, ever learn from their experiences. The book is sad, thoughtful, painful, and engaging but less than fully satisfying.
