What I Loved (original 2003; edition 2003)

What I Loved - was not this book. What I liked was the writing style - good flow, captivating descriptions and the characters felt real and complex. But the overall plot had a meandering feel and reading the book felt like seeing the middle part of a good movie. Interesting story, but not sure exactly what was the overall purpose or direction of the story. The plot centers around two families, the Hertzbergs and the Weschlers. Leo Hertzberg, an art historian, discovers a remarkable painting and tracks down the artist, Bill Weschler. The two form a lifelong friendship that evolves into an intricate web of ties between their two families. Their wives, Erica and Violet, and their sons, Matthew and Mark, each develop their own close friendship. They live in the same building, spend their summer vacations together, and they seem inseparable. But their close friendship becomes strained when a tragedy strikes and changes everything. I thought the way Hustvedt dealt with the feelings of grief and betrayal was excellent - I could definitely feel that sense of loss and anger. But everything seemed to deteriorate up to a point and then just stagnate. I'm not looking for a happy ending, but I didn't feel like there was a reason for the ending. Why not continue the story for another 20 pages of sadness and blahness. Or end it 20 pages earlier. Overall I was left with that dissatisfying feeling of reading a story and not quite 'getting it'. ( )

What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt

Intelligent novel about the decades-long friendship between art historian, Leo Hertzberg, and painter, Bill Wechsler, and their families. Their friendship was forged by their mutual enjoyment of art and the discussions surrounding it in its variations and how people perceive it. They were both married to intellectuals. Bill's first wife, Lucille, was a poetess; his second wife, Violet, and Leo's wife, Erica, were both writers of very deep and serious subjects, i.e. hysteria, mental illness, eating disorders, etc. There is a lot of time spent listening to their discourses about all of these subjects in great detail. As the years passed, the troubles in their lives pushed these writers, I think, into focusing on some of these subjects as a means to solve the mysteries in their own lives.

There is a discussion at one point about a facet of Bill's work that seems to include the "intermixing" of people, man portrayed as a woman, the merging of two into one, the use of synonyms as puns, etc., and throughout the book, you see how this actually happens amongst the characters themselves. Their importance to each other becomes like a need to hold onto someone so tightly that you become part of them, or the compulsion to love what another loves just to feel closer to the person who loves it.

I really enjoyed the descriptions of the actual artwork created by Bill and even the drawings made by Leo's son, Matthew. The hidden meaning of their art (never fully explained but guessed at) and the correlation between the art and what actually happened in all of their lives over the years was given a lot of importance in the story. Their art seemed to have a prescient quality to it that revealed a knowledge about people and events long before they had to face their frustrations, misery and grief.

I perceived what I thought was foreshadowing in this book that never seemed to come to fruition, i.e. hints about Lucille's young son, Oliver's, paternity. I was also frustrated by some teasing suggestions that there were some new truths to be revealed surrounding the death of an 11-year-old boy, especially when it seemed (possibly, potentially) connected to the deviance shown by his best friend years later. ( )

This cautious, detailed novel, set in New York City, is slow but well worth reading. It’s about the NYC art world, about marriage, and about understanding and being understood. The narrator, Lev Hertzman, is an art historian, and it’s the story of his friendship with an artist, Bill Wechsler. Surrounding both men are their wives and sons, and each character is drawn vividly through small expressive gestures.

Bill, the artist, depicts what he loves symbolically, while Lev, the art historian, interprets these constructions. Their wives, Erica and Violet, are academics, who find their own ways of connecting to the world around them. Bill’s first wife, Lucille, is a poet who chooses very carefully what and how to love, and leaves all the rest behind.

This novel makes the point that we often love what is wounded, and these flaws in others provide soft openings for our own feelings. But one of the characters is flawed to the extent that he cannot take in or return love. And so this is also a novel about the rejection or denial of love, and about mental illness.
( )

I didn't love this book. I liked the author's style and the plot reminded me of We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver, which I quite liked, but What I Loved just didn't quite do it for me. The plot was meandering and the resolution kind of convoluted and unlikely. I really liked most of the characters, especially Bill and Violet, and I really enjoyed the first half of the book. So, good but not awesome. ( )

At times a heartwarming and diverting depiction of the friendship of Bill and Leo, their wives, their sons, and art and literature at the core. The descriptions of Bill's art pieces and how his art intermixed elements of their lives was intriguing. The major events took a sad turn and then this novel about relationships and art became a psychological thriller, which deviated from what appeared to be the major premise of the book based on the title. Some great concepts and overall an interesting read, but lacked some finesse in direction and execution. ( )