Quote of The Week No. 16

 “Except by prejudice there is no sentiment in the arts banned from expression and no story that cannot be told. The enchantment is in the feeling and in the telling, and that is all.”

So says the narrator, Mia, in Siri Hustvedt's The Summer Without Men, one of the many books I enjoyed in my long summer break of holidays and celebrations. The quote is a good reminder, as I settle back to writing my novel, that voice and viewpoint is all!

Siri Hustvedt [Mrs Paul Auster, not that that should matter] is a writer I've been circling around, feeling I should read her but never quite manging to. In some ways The Summer Without Men, is a light read but it's also witty, intelligent and thoughtful about love, women across the generations, aging, dying and writing. I'm looking forward to working my way through her backlist.

It seems that The Summer Without Men has been shortlisted for the French literary prize, The Prix Femina. The winner to be announced in the first week of November. 

Comments

[Pamela Johnson]

Kellie, thanks for this. I seem to be having an extended holiday from WU, nose buried deep in the new novel I'm working on ... Yes, which books to keep, which to pass on? I've just got a Kindle which solves the problem in part but now I think: do I want the physical book or the kindle edition?

[Kellie Jackson]

I'm glad you have had a lovely long summer of celebrations and holidays & reading by the sounds of things. I enjoyed reading this book too - it had an interesting premise. The narrator's breakdown following her marriage collapse was lightly drawn but the humour buoyed up what could have been a potentially bleak novel. I liked how the female experience, in all it's ages and stages was visited. Sometimes I felt the author's academic credentials bled a little too heavily into the narrative and got in the way....but then that probably say more about me than Siri Hustvedt. I sent it on to my best friend in Australia - so I can't go back and have a flick through to remind myself about it. Due to a lack of space I've decided unless I LOVE a book to bits I have to pass it on to a new home.