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The Blazing World: A Novel Paperback – November 4, 2014
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Winner of the 2014 LA Times Book Prize for Fiction
Finalist for the 2014 Kirkus Prize
Hailed by The Washington Post as “Siri Hustvedt’s best novel yet, an electrifying work,” The Blazing World is a masterful novel about perception, prejudice, desire, and one woman’s struggle to be seen.
In a new novel called “searingly fresh... A Nabokovian cat’s cradle” on the cover of The New York Times Book Review, the internationally bestselling author tells the provocative story of artist Harriet Burden, who, after years of having her work ignored, ignites an explosive scandal in New York’s art world when she recruits three young men to present her creations as their own. Yet when the shows succeed and Burden steps forward for her triumphant reveal, she is betrayed by the third man, Rune. Many critics side with him, and Burden and Rune find themselves in a charged and dangerous game, one that ends in his bizarre death.
An intricately conceived, diabolical puzzle presented as a collection of texts, including Harriet’s journals, assembled after her death, this “glorious mashup of storytelling and scholarship” (San Francisco Chronicle) unfolds from multiple perspectives as Harriet’s critics, fans, family, and others offer their own conflicting opinions of where the truth lies. Writing in Slate, Katie Roiphe declared it “a spectacularly good read...feminism in the tradition of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex or Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own: richly complex, densely psychological, dazzlingly nuanced.”
“Astonishing, harrowing, and utterly, completely engrossing” (NPR), Hustvedt’s new novel is “Blazing indeed:...with agonizing compassion for all of wounded humanity”(Kirkus Reviews, starred review). It is a masterpiece that will be remembered for years to come.
- Print length384 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateNovember 4, 2014
- Dimensions5.5 x 1.2 x 8.38 inches
- ISBN-101476747245
- ISBN-13978-1476747248
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"The Blazing World offers a spirited romp...constructed as a Nabokovian cat's cradle....Hustvedt's portrait of the artist as a middle-aged widow is searingly fresh. It's rare to encounter a female protagonist who throws her weight around quite so grandiloquently as Harriet Burden, a heroine who is—well, more like the hero of a Philip Roth or a Saul Bellow novel." ― New York Times Book Review
“Ingeniously and energetically put together. . . . The Blazing World never runs out of steam in dispensing ideas and peeling back layers of truth.” ― Chicago Tribune
“The Blazing World is Siri Hustvedt’s best novel yet, an electrifying work with a titanic, poignantly flawed protagonist. Harriet Burden’s rage, turbulence and neediness leap off these pages in a skillfully orchestrated chorus of voices both dark and brilliant.” ― The Washington Post
“Incandescent. . . . Hustvedt’s greatest triumph here is not the feminist argument she makes. It’s that we ache for her characters. This is a muscular book, and just enough of that muscle is heart.” ― The Boston Globe
“A glorious mashup of storytelling and scholarship. . . .[The Blazing World’s] touching conclusion ‘blazes hot and bright’ from the perspective of an aura reader, Harriet's caretaker, whose vision of the artist's work is at once spiritually charged and whimsical.” ― The San Francisco Chronicle
"In certain respects, The Blazing World is a didactic novel, presenting arguments about the place of gender in American cultural life, yet it avoids preaching or settled judgments by putting at its center a figure whose strongly held beliefs are undermined by the hazards of real life. The effect is more fluid and nuanced than any scholarly study or political diatribe could be." ― The Wall Street Journal
“The Blazing World is unique and recognizably so, a bracing examination of the act of creation, of fame and identity, gender bias and feminism, love and desire, psychology and philosophy. . . . Full of life and ideas and intellectual prowess, it’s also a compelling story with richly drawn characters. . . .[An] extraordinary puzzle.” ― The Miami Herald
"Complex, astonishing, harrowing, and utterly, completely engrossing." ― NPR
“This is feminism in the tradition of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, or Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own: richly complex, densely psychological, dazzlingly nuanced. And at the same time, the book is a spectacularly good read. Its storytelling is magnificent, its characters vivid, its plot gripping; it’s rare that a novel of ideas can be so much fun.” ― Slate
"Siri Hustvedt has earned her reputation as a brilliant thinker and articulate writer. This is not her first work of fiction, and The Blazing World is strong proof that her talents are unmatched in the genre. . . a delightful, quirky story that shares many truths about women in the arts, and the struggles they encounter in rising to fame." ― Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“Dazzling. . . ingeniously constructed. . . . The Blazing World is a serious, sometimes profound book, tackling head-on the knotty issues of identity and sense of self, and our unconscious ideas about gender and celebrity. It offers an exhilarating reading experience for anyone willing to meet its challenge.” ― Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Siri Hustvedt has a rare gift for finding the human heart in what might be cerebral musings and rarefied settings.” ― Columbus Dispatch
“Immediately engrossing. . . . None of the narrators, even Harriet, are precisely reliable, and this ingeniously supports Harriet’s own theory that we are all just monsters wearing masks.” ― San Antonio Current
"The absence of women artists in the history of painting is an old feminist topic, but it is one The Blazing World approaches head-on." ― The Guardian
"Hustvedt’s novels – What I Loved, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl, The Summer Without Men, among others – have always been smart, accomplished, critically acclaimed but this one feels like a departure. There is more heat in it, more wildness; it seems to burst on to a whole other level of achievement and grace." ― Financial Times
"Densely brilliant, but terrifyingly clever too... you don’t need a PhD in Kierkegaard to enjoy Hustvedt’s writing, and it’s a pleasure to feel your brain whirring as it forges links and finds the cracks across differing accounts. Even if The Blazing World is about ambiguity and mutability in everything from authorship to gender to memory, Hustvedt’s text is carefully, impressively constructed: she’s as convincing in each fictional voice as Harriet is in her masks." ― The Independent
"An exuberantly clever piece of work.... [A] novel that gloriously lives up to its title, one blazing with energy and thought." ― The Times
“Masterful. . . .[Hustvedt’s] long-running explorations have rarely been merged together as fluidly as they are here, an achievement that has everything to do with rendering the novel’s abundant intellect in a deeply felt and accessible manner. Six novels and more than two decades into her career, it is altogether fair to argue that Siri Hustvedt is quietly becoming one of North America’s most subversive and fearlessly intelligent writers.” ― Toronto Star
"Both intellectually and emotionally gripping… the generosity of the storytelling leads to full and often affecting backstories for all the main characters… [it] feels like one of those novels in which a well-established author triumphantly sums up, and possibly even surpasses, everything they’ve done before." ― The Spectator
“The Blazing World is poundingly alive with ideas, personalities, conviction, fear, fakery, ambition, and sorrow. The reading mind is set on high, happy alert.” ― The New York Journal of Books
"A heady, suspenseful, funny, and wrenching novel of creativity, identity, and longing." ― Booklist (Starred Review)
“Larger-than-life Harry reads vociferously, loves fervently, and overflows with intellectual and creative energy….Hustvedt dissects the art world with ironic insight….This is a funny, sad, through-provoking, and touching portrait of a woman who is blazing with postfeminist fury and propelled by artistic audacity." ― Publishers Weekly
“Readers of Hustvedt’s essay collections (Living, Thinking, Looking, 2012, etc.) will recognize the writer’s long-standing interest in questions of perception, and her searching intellect is also evident here. But as the story of Harry’s life coheres . . . it’s the emotional content that seizes the reader . . . As in her previous masterpiece, What I Loved (2003), Hustvedt paints a scathing portrait of the art world, obsessed with money and the latest trend, but superb descriptions of Harry’s work—installations expressing her turbulence and neediness—remind us that the beauty and power of art transcend such trivialities . . . Blazing indeed: not just with Harry’s fury, but with agonizing compassion for all of wounded humanity.” ― Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
“Intelligent and . . . knowledgeable about the world of modern art, theory, and philosophy, Hustvedt describes in detail the insular world of the New York City art scene.” ― Library Review
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (November 4, 2014)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1476747245
- ISBN-13 : 978-1476747248
- Item Weight : 11.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.38 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #440,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,089 in Political Fiction (Books)
- #22,686 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #25,074 in Suspense Thrillers
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Siri Hustvedt's first novel, The Blindfold, was published by Sceptre in 1993. Since then she has published The Enchantment of Lily Dahl, What I Loved, The Sorrows of an American, The Summer Without Men and The Blazing World, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2014. She is also the author of the poetry collection Reading To You, and five collections of essays: Yonder, Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting, A Plea for Eros, Living, Thinking, Looking, and A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women: Essays on Art, Sex, and the Mind. She is also the author of The Shaking Woman: A History of My Nerves.
Born in Minnesota, Siri Hustvedt now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She has a PhD in English from Columbia University and in 2012 was awarded the International Gabarron Prize for Thought and Humanities.
www.sirihustvedt.net
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Harriet Burden, also known as Harry, by old friends and a select new friends, is 62 years old.
Her husband Felix has been dead for about a year. Felix was a giant dealer to the stars in the art world.... Harriet, had been an artist wife.
When they married - she was twenty-six. Felix was forty-eight.
"It was love"
"And orgasms, many of them, and soft damp sheets"
"It was a haircut, very short"
"It was marriage. My first. His second".
"It was talk --paintings, sculptures, photographs, and installations. And colors, a lot about colors. They stained us both, filled our insides. It was reading books aloud to each other and talking about them".
"It was babies I loved looking at, the little lords, sensuous delights of pudgy flesh and fluids. For at least three years I was awash in milk and poop and piss and spit-up and sweat and tears. It was paradise. It was exhausting. It was boring. It was sweet, exciting, and sometimes, curiously, very lonely".
Maisie and Ethan were her children.
Nannies were hired so Harriet could work. She built tiny crooked houses with lots of writing on the walls.
Both her parents died. She missed all three: Felix, and her parents. She was an only child - a WASP and Jew.
Her old friend - Rachel.... Dr. Rachel Briefman, pschoanalysis, referred Harriet to a psychiatrist – psychoanalysis after Felix died as she went into depression. She wept and talked and wept some more".
In time, her therapist said:
"There's still time to change things, Harriet. Don't let anyone say there aren't magic words"
And the story takes off.......AND ITS SOOOOOO GOOD!!!
The parts I LOVED were intimate and personal! There are challenges - but it's soooo worth it. I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! I LIKED HARRIET!!!
I wasn't familiar with the name of many artists mentioned - but there were footnotes. Having the physical book was much more helpful to me than the kindle. ( I could take my time- look up information I wanted- go back and re-read sections easier). Some 'names' -- I just let go-- as it wasn't a drive- for me- in the context of the larger story - I wasn't interested 'enough' to study each artist....( it would have taken too much time). It's the OVERALL STORY I LOVED!!!!
Harriet, ( I don't know if I could call her Harry... if she'd consider me a privileged friend... but I hope so...I love this woman). 'Harry' is not 'harsh' at all....yet she is a feminist. She is also sensitive - she really misses her husband. She knew he had affairs. It hurt her, but she never felt she would lose him and in their later years - he fully came back to her--there was nobody else. She misses her mother ( from before she was sick). I didn't get the feeling that she minded "being-in-the-shadow" of her husband when he was alive....or that she hated domestic life. I don't think she thought that way of herself ever. She was happy - in love with her family: always in love with life - even when sad. Harriet was versed in history, philosophy, science, art, and literature - she was an educated bright talented woman!! She was eccentric... and kinda one of those bigger-than-life-fabulous females whom I would have loved to have enjoyed being friends with. If I were in 'her' shadows it would be alright with me.
She even reminds me - a little - of a great female I know ....( which added to my personal reading pleasure).
After Felix died...she couldn't live her life through her adult children- and she was 'aware' of the reality of the times -'not' having a penis as an artist was at a dis-advantage. I, myself have read enough novels about artists in just the last few years... and have learned ..."FEMALE ARTISTS ALL OVER THE WORLD WERE NEVER AS RESPECTED AS MEN". So, of course, why 'would' Harriet have felt any different- that she would have been 'so special' to ease into the art world as a female.
At the same time---with the grief ( loss), of her husband and parents....she also felt as if her life was collapsing on her. Dead and imaginary people played a bigger role in her life then the living did. In 'that' space, of loss, I think it's extraordinary that Harriet did what she did towards the end I'd her life. Harry kept climbing mountains. It wasn't perfect- but inspiring. Her creative juices kicked in her later years. She did it the way she did it- period!
Harry's daughter Maisie ( married a therapist who worked with foster kids and they had children of their own), worried about her mother. Maisie was a wonderful daughter - wife and mother herself.
Harriet's son, Ethan felt a little angry watching his mother change...taking on a new life. He felt it she was vaguely indecent and was a betrayal to his father's memory.
Her friend Rachel Briefman shared what Harriet was like as a child towards the start of the book - ( always always drawing ). Rachel land Harry were best friends growing up-- both had dreams. Rachael wanted to wear a white coat with a stethoscope around her neck, and Harriet saw herself as a great artist or poet, or intellectual-- or all three. "
They were intimates as girls can be, unhampered by masculine posing that plagues boys. They were a team of two girls against a hostile world of adolescent hierarchies".
We know early into this book, that Harriet has died. Volumes of notebooks written by Harriet are compiled into a book called "The Blazing World"...edited by a professor named Hess. There are interviews with various people about her projects. Through these notebooks - truths get revealed....most of her work was exhibited around New York City. Excerpts of Harriet's journals, reprints of magazine articles, and best of all were statements ( feelings really) from the the people who 'knew' what Harriet was doing all along.
Harriet's project as a whole was "Maskings". It was meant not only to expose the anti-female biased at the art world, but to uncover the complex workings of human perception and how unconscious ideas about gender, race, and celebrity influence a viewers understanding of given work of art.
The question which could be asked....did, by Harriet using a pseudonym - -change the character of the art she made?
Three projects: three different men...each completely different...The men agreed to show the work as if it were there's. The idea in itself fascinated me-I mean, I wondered what good did it do to give credit to somebody who doesn't deserve it... and why? Harry seemed to think there 'was' a reason. Harry actually saw it as a fable -- and magic needed to unfold slowly and eventually be turned into a fable that could be retold in the name of a higher purpose.
It was at this point in the book when 'I' shifted ... I looked deeper to see this project from Harriet's point of view. She was into enlightenment before 'it was cool'. [ full moon, new moon, psychic, Tantric sexual practices, fasting, chakras, candle lighting, healing, wholeness and unity].
I laughed a little to myself -- on one end, Harriet was into discovering 'the truth'...
( zen Buddhism?) ... And on the other hand her project was a disguise. So, for me... that's where the 'fable' comes in to play.
I suppose there are MANY WAYS to read this book - each reader brings their own experience, and their own educational background, or lack there of in my case.
Like the book "The Martian", by Any Weir... which this book has nothing in common....there were parts ( science and math details) , that some readers glossed over and 'still' thoroughly enjoyed the book.
There ARE challenges in "The Blazing World", but WONDERFUL intimate storytelling also. Did I comprehend every detail? Of course not....but I feel I got to know the characters -and the story as a whole.
I was crying at the end - real tears....I didn't want to let Harriet go. I wanted her to see all that she was and 'had' accomplished.
I started thinking of other artists in my lifetime, who died before their work became famous. One of the first names that comes to mind is Jonathan Larson, Composer and playwright -- famous for the Broadway play, "RENT".
Even Steig Larsson, the Swedish author who died young before he saw the huge hit his books "The Dragon Girl" series became around the world. There are so many more.
Good men die young! This was one of the most absorbing books I've read!!!
5 strong stars from me! I don't think I'll stop thinking about several characters for a long time....and Harriet pulled my heartstrings!!
Elyse jody
The novel is different in both form and structure. To begin with, it presents itself like non-fiction. It pretends to be the work of an "editor" who has put together a biography/portrait of a recently deceased contempory artist, Harriet Burden. The (fictitious) editor uses, as is always done in this kind of work, testimonials from art critics, family and friends and extracts from the artist's personal diary.
This format enables the author to tell Harriet Burden's story from various points of views. I was struck by the novelist's remarkable ability to change "voice" and convincingly draw a highly sensitive portrait, as Harriet is differently perceived by the people who knew her.
From the start, you are told that she has recently shaken the New York art scene, putting on highly successful shows using male artists as "screens" or pseudonyms for her work. She has used three artists, two unknowns and one well-known, for this bizarre project that she has called "maskings" - a project intended to "prove" that one's perception of the art one sees is governed by one's knowledge of the artist. In particular, she wants to show that art made by a man sells better than art made by a woman; that there is a diffuse gender bias in the art world. Harriet Burden's art had never attained prominence when it was shown under her own name but now it suddenly achieves success simply because it is seen by the public as the work of a man.
Harriet Burden's plans go awry when Rune, the third artist who is a celebrity in his own right, refuses to reveal that she is the author of the show. He takes on all the critical acclaim, leaving her in the dirt. She smarts from the injustice and as a reader, you smart along with her - which shows how effective the author's writing is.
No spoilers and I won't give out more of the plot, except to say that the story is practically known from the start. That's another peculiarity of this novel: there is next to no suspense. You know from the first page that Harriet is dead and you know very soon what happens to the man who betrayed her (the third artist in her "maskings" project).
So why do you keep reading? Because of the superb writing of course, and because of something else too. Questions are asked that you never thought of asking. The book is filled with gems - insights into life and art and the human condition. The sort of thing that gives you arresting moments of self-revelation and a deeper understanding of the world around you. To give you an idea:
- "...it is not what is said that makes us who we are. More often, it is what remains unspoken" (this came up in connection with Harriet's upbringing and difficult relationship with her father);
- "It is my time, and I will not let them take it away from me. The Greeks knew that the mask in the theater was not a disguise but a means of revelation. And now that I have started, I can feel the winds behind me...(Harriet, commenting on her "maskings" project);
- "Mostly, the art business has been about men. And when it has been about women, it has often been about correcting past oversights. It is interesting that not all, but many women were celebrated only when their days as desirable sexual objects had passed."
- "Human beings are the only animals who kill for ideas."
- "Celebrity is life in the third person."
Is there anything wrong with this novel?
Yes, for anyone looking for suspense. There is none. There is even a slowdown in the middle of the book when it becomes a little too "academic". There's a little too much about art, perception and gender. To a large extent - you're warned! - this is a feminist book. Harriet Burden makes a lot of allusions to philosophers in her diaries, allusions that would get lost or misunderstood without (very academic) footnotes. So you find yourself reading the footnotes. Actually, there's a certain, perverse pleasure in reading them but at times, it does become heavy-going. And perhaps, while the footnotes make sense in a book that pretends to be non-fiction, they certainly detract from the pleasure of reading the book as a novel - in principle, a form that never has any footnotes (unless it's a classic for school use). Hence the 4 stars though I had set out to give it five.
My conclusion? It is well worth reading and I highly recommend it. But it really isn't a novel as such - more an intellectual joy ride. Many of the same questions that animate "The Blazing World" recur in Hustvedt's essays, notably in "Living, Thinking, Looking": How do we see, remember, and feel? How do we interact with other people? What does it mean to sleep, dream, and speak? What is "the self"?
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SPOILER/QUOTES ALERT!
About the art world: a character of the critic comments: 'If there's one thing that doesn't fly in the art world, it's an excess of sincerity. '
Character of Rosemary Lerner:' It is interesting that not all, but many women were celebrated only when their days as desirable sexual objects had passed.'(as artists)
'The thing that is truly wanted must always be missing. Art dealers have to be magicians of hunger.'
'..but I doubt anyone can actually separate talent from reputation when it comes down to it.'
'Art is not allowed to arrive spontaneously unauthored.'
And I am sure there have been many many women thinking about a male alter ego. The first time it came in my mind was in the 90's when I was an art student, in a party with older artists, and an old fart shook the hand of my friend, male, but gay, but not mine, because he thought that I was apparently only a girlfriend...Harriet: 'It is so dull, so familiar, so unjust being treated as a woman first, always as a woman. I rebel. Why womanliness first? Why this trait first?'
Sorry, digressing. I feel for Harry, I get her. The constant fight because people do not get you could be intelligent, creative, because you are a woman. How DO we perceive? The almost ( but only almost) charicature writings of the male critics and gallerists about the 'situation' were a tragicomedy. But the book is not just setting up opposites of masculine and feminine. There is the mystery of creation, the blending of personalities, the subconscious needs, the traumas that affect everybody. Then there is the thought about the accuracy of memories, which I can also relate to - I mix my memories and tv-series already! With maturation, some 'dear' memories become unimportant or vague stamps of childish moments in one's life. And some other, like a smell of a forest after rain, become dear.
I like this every character gets a voice– form. I liked the description of the urge to create, and the importance of validation. Harry was obsessed to get it 'from all' which, understandable, was also hubris. As was Rune's whole career. What part is a need for exhibitionism, and what an creative act? Where do you draw the line with some artists?
There were funny moments as well, Bruno's parts, the crystal girl. And the dying scene was great!
I underlined a lot of things:
'All thoughts of revenge are born of the pain of helplessness.'
'Human beings are the only animals who kill for ideas.'
About Singularity: 'A Zeus dream that avoids the organic body altogether. Brand-new creatures burst forth from men's heads. Presto! The mother and her evil vagina disappears.'
Life is multifaceted. Harry had her children, love, creativity, talent, wit, and a few good friends. I really came to like her character. She had even brutal ambition, but not enough compared to the beast of the art world. I recommend.
Siri Hustvedt est une très grande auteure américaine contemporaine
Although I've very much enjoyed Siri Hustvedt's other work, to me, this is the masterpiece. It's all just come together a lot better - which is strange in that the manuscript is made up of so many different kinds of texts. Anyone who has ever kept a notebook (or dozens at the same time) will love Harriet Burden's own notebooks, and the literary ventriloquism on display with the other voices in the novel is bravura stuff.
Elsewhere, people have mentioned that there are a lot of references (and there are) but for my money, they are delivered so expertly they never intruded (although I read a Kindle version, and had I realised there would be so many, I would have preferred the ease of an actual book to flick through). The references all contribute to the verisimilitude of the academic voices, and it never hurts to be gently reminded that it's never too late to take another look at Kierkegaard and Husserl.
The language is sublime. Sublime, I tell you. My Kindle highlighting feature just could not keep up. So rich, inventive, evocative, playful, and wise. I can't think of where I've ever seen lexicon as leitmotif, or the cumulative effect of synonyms used with such virtuosity. Oh, wait, it's just hit me. It was in Joyce's 'Portrait of an Artist'. But actually, Hustvedt's 'Portrait' is infinitely more readable. This is the 'Portrait' for the 21st Century, and without wishing to deploy spoilers, the less said about the young man, the better for now.
The art world is not new territory for Hustvedt, and although I would never have believed it before I read this, it turns out that in 'What I Loved' (which I also loved) she was just warming up. She excels at creating the art-works on the page, and I came away from each of Harry's gallery openings feeling I knew the shows inside and out. At one point the inimitable Louise Bourgeois is name checked, and it struck me that the pervading feelings I experienced while reading the novel were very much akin to those I'd felt the first time I heard about 'Precious Liquids' for Dokumente, or while seeing the Bourgeois retrospective a few years ago at Tate Modern. Or indeed, Judy Chicago's 'The Dinner Party' or Niki de St Phalle's 'Tirs' or 'Hon', or her exuberant Nana's, which Harry's works seemed to be inviting us to re-rejoice in.
In sum, I loved it, and I'll be looking out for a paper copy for my next read.