The Sorrows Of An American by Siri Hustvedt

Well it has been quite awhile since I sat down and wrote one of these. Life has been rather busy and not overly fantastic in the past couple of weeks. But the sun is out and it's time to review again. I can hear you all cheering in the stands. Please, please I am not worthy. I have realised how this blog can sometimes be a mix of me telling you about my life as well as reviewing books. I'm thinking maybe I'll change the description a bit, so as not to lure you book fans into a false sense of security... SO on with the review.

I am going to put this out there from the outset, I think this book goes into my top five favourite books of all time. I couldn't put it down and I truly loved it. I have always been a massive fan of American literature, especially the classics like In Cold Blood and Tender Is The Night. Even though this was released in the 2000s, it felt like it was written in that 1900s era, minus the use of aeroplanes and mobiles phones of course.

The Sorrows Of An American follows Erik Davidsen, a psychiatrist who is struggling to cope with lonliness, his new tenant as well as his complex family. Having recently divorced from his wife, Erik struggles to deal with being lonely, slipping into the typical male mind set of fantasising  about women. It is quite hard to describe this plot and do it justice, but reading it is a completely different story. Hustvedt writes with such ease and beauty that demonstrates the weaknesses of the human mind set, that the plot fades into the background as we become enamored with the thought processes in all of Erik situations, be it the family side, his relationships or his relationship with his new flatmate Miranda.

There are some great moments to do with his job too, when we get an insight into his patients and how they end up effecting him at a low point for Erik. But it the issues with his family that eventually take precedence, as him and his sister discover a letter from their recently deceased father and they go on the trail for discovering the lady at the centre of the content of the letter. It goes onto effect their relationship with their mother, each other and even other relationships. There is so much plot that I can't even go into detail about with confusing you, but Hustvedt handles it with such care and attention, you are never confused and always wanting more.

Considering that it is written by a female author, Siri Hustvedt sure does know how to get into the male psyche. She has for sure written in some of her own life into the book, crossing over the Norwegian family living in America, so bringing a real authenticity to the book. The images of their father during the war through his diary entries is also truly touching. It is not often I am moved by a book, but I couldn't help be by this beautiful book. I think even just writing this review has moved it up into my second favourite book of all time. There I said it. I apologise for the brief review, but I just don't think I can do it proper justice. The beauty is in the words.

The Sorrows Of An American by Siri Hustvedt is published by Sceptre, an imprint of Hodder and Stoughton in the UK.