What I Loved is a deeply touching elegiac novel that mourns for the New York artistic life, which was of a time but now has gone--by extension, it is about all losses swept away by mischance and time. Half-blind and alone, Leo tells us of marriage and friendship, and makes the sheer fragility of what seemed forever not only his subject, but perhaps the only subject worth considering. Scholars Leo and his wife Erica admire, and befriend, artist Bill and his first and second wives--their respective sons Matthew and Mark grow up together until the first of a series of tragedies strikes. And things get gradually worse from then on, both because terrible things happen and because people do not get over them.
Part of the strength of this impressive novel is its emotional intensity and part is the context in which those emotions exist; these are smart and talented people, even the children, and we luxuriate, even when things are at their worst, in the sheer intelligence they bring to bear on their situations. It is also impressive that, for Hustvedt, intelligence is an end in itself rather than something that prevents tragedy or makes it more bearable. This is a powerful book because everything Leo knows makes him ever more the victim of exquisite pain.
from Amazon

Won by jillbe in the W Swap on BCUK. Enjoy.

Received in the post today, thanks very much. Looks a good one.

This is one of the most deeply moving books I have read in a long time. Unfortunately I found some of the writing a little tedious, and agree with some other reviewers that descriptions of Bill's artwork etc. were slightly boring and repetitive. However, I am glad to have had the chance to read this, for me, challenging book.....

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sending onto camis, BCUK Birthday Book Exchange (Feb), enjoy:0)

Thank you for this - looking forward to reading it when time allows!

I really wanted to enjoy this as the reviews are great, but having struggled through 50 pages I decided to give up. If I came across another copy at another time i would probably give it another go, but at this moment in time it wasn't for me.

Sending to MsJoanna for the October BallySwapper exchange - sorry for the delay!

I hope I like this one better than camis did. I got two copies for the Ballyswapper exchange, so I'll set this one available to get it moving more quickly and put the unregistered one on Mt. TBR.

Mailed to perfect-circle from the 1001 VBB.

Arrived safely today, thanks!

A moving tale, if a little over descriptive at times,.