READING TO YOU

by Siri Hustvedt

A small collection of poems originally published in 1982 with Station Hill Press.

Genres: Poetry

32 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1983

About the author

Hustvedt was born in Northfield, Minnesota. Her father Lloyd Hustvedt was a professor of Scandinavian literature, and her mother Ester Vegan emigrated from Norway at the age of thirty. She holds a B.A. in history from St. Olaf College and a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University; her thesis on Charles Dickens was entitled Figures of Dust: A Reading of Our Mutual Friend.

Hustvedt has mainly made her name as a novelist, but she has also produced a book of poetry, and has had short stories and essays on various subjects published in (among others) The Art of the Essay, 1999, The Best American Short Stories 1990 and 1991, The Paris Review, Yale Review, and Modern Painters.

Like her husband Paul Auster, Hustvedt employs a use of repetitive themes or symbols throughout her work. Most notably the use of certain types of voyeurism, often linking objects of the dead to characters who are relative strangers to the deceased characters (most notable in various facits in her novels The Blindfold and The Enchantment of Lily Dahl) and the exploration of identity. She has also written essays on art history and theory (see "Essay collections") and painting and painters often appear in her fiction, most notably, perhaps, in her novel, What I Loved.

She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, writer Paul Auster, and their daughter, singer and actress Sophie Auster.

Reviews

[Paula Bonnet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amo a Siri Hustvedt. Es tan cerebral y conmovedora a la vez. En este poemario trenza la infancia con la muerte el amor Nueva York Noruega la basura el velorio y así y así y así. Lo resaltaría todo si pudiera.

[Raquel Casas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitivamente, prefiero la Hustvedt narradora o ensayista que la porta. La traducción tampoco ayuda mucho... Como suele pasar con cualquier poemario, es preferible leerlo en versión original si se puede.