Siri Hustvedt Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Siri Hustvedt

Siri Hustvedt

How to pronounce Siri Hustvedt: hoost-ved

Siri Hustvedt Biography

Siri Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, three collections of essays, a work of non-fiction, and six novels, including the international bestsellers What I Loved and The Summer Without Men. Her most recent novel The Blazing World was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and won The Los Angeles Book Prize for fiction. In 2012 she was awarded the International Gabarron Prize for Thought and Humanities. She has a PhD in English from Columbia University and is a lecturer in psychiatry at Weil Cornell Medical College in New York. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages.

Siri Hustvedt's website

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Interview

Siri Hustvedt discusses the role of gender perception and feminism in relation to her novel, The Blazing World.

How did you come up with the idea for this novel?

I have been immersed in questions about human perception for a long time, including how works of art are received in the culture. Pseudonyms have also been a longstanding interest of mine, especially Søren Kierkegaard's use of them in his work. By adopting various pseudonyms, the philosopher explored points of view he didn't necessarily share but which nevertheless fascinated him. I knew I wanted to write a story about a woman artist who hides behind three male masks, but it was Harry herself who became the burning catalyst for the book. Once I began to hear her voice, see her, and feel her, I found the heart of the novel. And yet, I did not want the book to belong only to Harry. She is an explosive character, and her view had to be tempered and framed by other perspectives. I knew that an unstable, polyphonic form was the only one that could embody the book's themes as a whole.

While this is a work of fiction, you present it as a true collection of writings on the subject. Why did you decide to present the story in this form?

Journals, diaries, letters, published texts, and art works can survive the person who made them. Once the author/artist is dead, "...

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Books by this Author

Books by Siri Hustvedt at BookBrowse
Mothers, Fathers, and Others jacket Memories of the Future jacket A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women jacket The Blazing World jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Siri Hustvedt but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Paul Auster

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    Paul Auster was the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1Sunset ParkThe Book of Illusions, Moon Palace, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Memories of the Future

    Try:
    Invisible
    by Paul Auster

  • John Banville

    John Banville

    John Banville, the author of seventeen novels, has been the recipient of the Man Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, and ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Blazing World

    Try:
    The Blue Guitar
    by John Banville

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