SUNDAY, January 11
It’s universally acknowledged that any discussion of Siri Hustvedt must be in want of a mention of her husband, Paul Auster. Done.
Ms. Hustvedt’s long, impressive career stands on its own merits, and her most recent novel, The Blazing World, may be her masterpiece. Like much of her work, The Blazing World centers on art and its role in defining its creators, its critics, and its viewers. Her wrenching 2004 novel, What I Loved even features a portrait that is battered itself as the characters fall apart, like a mutilated Dorian Gray.
The Blazing World gives us Harriet “Harry” Burden, an artist obsessed with gender, who believes her work has been ignored because she is a woman. She gives the credit for her new art to three different male artists, seethes as they receive her accolades, and is stunned when her trick doesn’t end well.
Hustvedt will read from, discuss, and sign copies of The Blazing World this Sunday at the Brooklyn Museum, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Forum, 4th Floor at 2 p.m.
