The Sorrows of a Reader (The Sorrows of an American - Siri Hustvedt)

Member Name: burtybookworm

Product:	The Sorrows of an American - Siri Hustvedt
Date:	04/10/09 (114 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good premise....

Disadvantages: ...that didn't deliver

One of my standout reads of all time is "What I Loved" by this author, Siri Hustvedt; a clever book that was extremely well written and one that I enjoyed immensely. Her new novel, "The Sorrows of an American" was similarly billed as a spectacular read and I had high expectations that it would be an equally impressive book.

**~~** Story Synopsis: **~~**

Beginning with the death of his father Lars, Erik Davidsen unearths a secret that his father held for years - a promise that he had made to a woman called Lisa. Along with his sister Inga, Erik decides to find out more about the cryptic letter this woman had sent their father thanking him for keeping a secret that is now many years old.

Although this is the main plot, there are many subplots (as is the authors style) that keep the reader entertained throughout. Firstly, Inga and her teenage daughter have also suffered the loss of their husband/father who was a successful writer. His death attracted media attention and along with it, more skeletons that keep coming out of the closet. Erik himself is a middle-aged divorced psychologist who has a crush on his new tenant, Miranda who is young and beautiful and has her young daughter in tow. Getting himself entangled in her life also means that he finds himself the centre of attention from her ex-boyfriend who it becomes clear has obsessive stalker tendencies. Through the first person narrative of Erik, we hear how he copes with these things happening in his life.

**~~** Opinion... **~~**

I found it very interesting from "What I Loved" that this female author could so successfully create such a strong narrative from a male character, and once again I was blown away with how effectively she created the main character of Erik. I also read that this book is semi-autobiographical, the characters in this book are of Norwegian decent like the author and the sections which describe Lars' life during the war are from the authors fathers journal of his time during the depression.

At first, this book kept my interest. As promised, Hustvedt delivered on an incredibly well written and intelligent book. However, I found myself becoming frustrated with some of the storylines, and annoyed on occasion with some of the characters, in particular, Miranda and Erik.

All of the mysteries and secrets involving the characters in this book were well set up and like I said before, held my interest up until about half way through the book. After that, I suddenly realised I was reading this for the sake of reading and I actually didn't really care about any of the characters in the story, none of them were compelling or all that interesting to me at all.

Firstly, the way in which Miranda reacts to Erik and her stalker ex - boyfriend I found particularly odd and unnatural. Although Erik's clumsy advances towards Miranda are clearly unwelcome, I found that I didn't warm to her as a character due to how she constantly used him when it suited. Likewise, Erik's constant attention and border obsession was just as annoying.

With regards to Miranda's relationship with her ex, I found that even more difficult to comprehend. She constantly stuck up for him, despite the fact that he was tormenting and following her around, and the fact that he took pictures of her that bordered on invasion of privacy. Despite the almost limitless possible storylines this could have created, it became a total letdown. The outcome of this storyline didn't interest me much at all; I had completely lost interest, but even If I hadn't, I would not have missed much anyway.

The same could be said for the main story. There were some interesting plot twists and turns and I started off keen to find out what the secret was that Lars had promised to keep hidden all those years ago. The way in which the story was portrayed from the beginning was tantalising, so I expected a sordid secret or at least something fairly juicy - once it was revealed (I won't reveal what it was of course!) I re-read the chapter several times to double check that I hadn't missed anything....

...I hadn't and it really wasn't worth the big build up. It wasn't so much a let down, as a blink and you've missed it moment.

**~~** Writing Skills & Summary...**~~**

Obviously this author is an intelligent and talented lady, and this story isn't supposed to be about the revelation of a years old secret. I am reluctant to totally slate her style; her stories are about human interaction and always she throws up questions about the way we think and feel about things. Unfortunately for me, despite knowing this and appreciating how cleverly crafted MOST of the novel was, I felt utterly disappointed in the whole thing as I felt that these intelligent thoughts and sentences were constructed around nothing interesting at all. Intelligent writing alone was not enough to save this for me and It didn't have the impact I was expecting from the last of hers I read.

Having said that, It wasn't bad enough for me to give up reading the book, but I wouldn't recommend this one - if you are new to this author, please read "What I Loved" - and perhaps leave it there.

Summary: Not her best by far.