 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Siri Hustvedt |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Sceptre |
Publication date | 2003 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 370 pp. |
| ISBN | 978-0-340-83072-7 |
| OCLC | 163625217 |
What I Loved is a novel written by American writer Siri Hustvedt first published in 2003 by Hodder and Stoughton in London. It is written from the point of view of Leo Hertzberg, an art historian living in New York. The author herself grew up in Northfield, Minnesota, and then moved to New York in 1978. In a discussion of the September 11 attacks, she describes New York as "as much an idea as an actual place".[1]
The work follows the relationship between Leo and artist, Bill Wechsler and the close ties between each of the characters' families. It explores themes of love, loss, art and psychology.
Some specific psychological themes explored in the novel are grief, eating disorders and hysteria. Hustvedt discusses hysteria further in a talk entitled, "A writer's adventures in psychiatry and neuro-science"[2] and her sister, Asti Hustvedt, has written a book about the state entitled Medical muses : the culture of hysteria in nineteenth-century Paris.[3]
- ^ Siri Hustvedt, "Siri Hustvedt raconte le 11 septembre", booksmag, 11 September 2009
- ^ Siri Hustvedt, A writer's adventures in psychiatry and neuro-science, Key West Literary Siminar audio archives, 14 January 2007
- ^ Asti Hustvedt, Medical muses : the culture of hysteria in nineteenth-century Paris.OCLC Number 712132172, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011