Sunday, January 08, 2017

Siri Hustvedt's six favorite books

Siri Hustvedt is a critic, poet, and author. Her new book is A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women, a collection of 21 recent essays on art, psychology, literature, and feminism. One of her six favorite books, as shared at The Week magazine:
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

When I was 13, I paid little attention to the genius of Dickens' prose, but my identification with the young hero's suffering and joy was so complete that I decided to become a writer. Years later, I wrote my doctoral dissertation on the meanings of the self that were hidden in Dickens' metaphorical wilderness.
Read about another book on the list.

David Copperfield is among Janet Davey’s top ten schoolchildren in fiction, Frank Rich's top ten books, John Boyne's top ten child narrators, Lynn Shepherd's top ten fictional drownings and Elizabeth Gilbert's six favorite books. It appears on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best seductions in literature, ten of the best trips to Canterbury in literature and ten of the best valets in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue