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What I Loved: A Novel
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780312421199
ISBN: 0312421192
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: March 01, 2004
Publisher: Picador
Studio: Picador
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Editorial Review:
What I Loved begins in New York in 1975, when art historian Leo Hertzberg discovers an extraordinary painting by an unknown artist in a SoHo gallery. He buys the work; tracks down the artist, Bill Wechsler; and the two men embark on a life-long friendship. Leo's story, which spans twenty-five years, follows the growing involvement between his family and Bill's--an intricate constellation of attachments that includes the two men, their wives, Erica and Violet, and their sons, Matthew and Mark.The families live in the same New York apartment building, rent a house together in the summers and keep up a lively exchange of ideas about life and art, but the bonds between them are tested, first by sudden tragedy, and then by a monstrous duplicity that slowly comes to the surface. A beautifully written novel that combines the intimacy of a family saga with the suspense of a thriller, What I Loved is a deeply moving story about art, love, loss, and betrayal.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - What I Loved
This is a cerebral and compelling book, I think especially for those who are interested in art and the art scene. It is also very, very sad. A story of losing everything that mattered to the central character. Most in our book club liked it, but not all.
Rating: - Absence makes the heart shrivel
Hustvedt's third novel revolves around problems of desire and fear, identity and merger, but one of its most important themes is absence, whether it's the wrenching absence experienced by grieving parents, the emotional absence of a distant father or mother, or the absence of understanding that bedevils people who miss the truth about themselves or each other. After the art-historian narrator, Leo, loses his son Matt in a freak accident, he tries to forge a friendship with Mark, the same-age son ... Read More
Rating:  - Meh....
(A detailed review, but without spoilers)
I rate this book somewhere between 2 and 3 stars. Like some other reviewers mentioned, I found this book disjointed. The first 2/3 is like a completely different novel from the last third. The book isn't divided into chapters, but rather parts 1, 2, and 3. Parts 1-2 focus on the strange intertwining intimacy of two families-- one of an artist, one of an art critic. Its nice enough although quite long and drawn out while being uneventful. ... Read More
Rating: - Simply too boring
I thought I'd like this for the New York, art and pretension, but I had to abandon it only after a few dozen pages.
It's unimpressed. I like books written with passion, striving for expression and being true to the author's ideas. Here it seems that the author is half there, half somewhere else, writing out of necessity, just trying to pull together something, no longer touched vividly by life but definitely not coolly pessimistic either. Or comfortably mature. Just writing and I don't ... Read More
Rating: - Good
Fine book, I couldn't let it down until finished. I won't remember it all my life either!
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