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Mothers, Fathers, and Others

Essays
3.84 goodreads logo

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( 1,134 ratings, 164 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Mothers, Fathers, and Others by Siri Hustvedt is a profound and scintillating essay collection that blends feminist philosophy with intimate family memoir. It explores motherhood, the maternal, and misogyny through a wide-ranging investigation including artistic mothers like Jane Austen and Louise Bourgeois, psychoanalysis, science, literature, and ethnography. This polymathic work challenges rigid boundaries and invites readers into urgent discussions of familial love and hate, prejudice, and the transformative power of art, all conveyed with wit, fierceness, and humanity.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers interested in feminist philosophy, family and identity memoirs, psychoanalysis, and cultural criticism, as well as those who appreciate erudite and richly textured essay collections that challenge societal preconceptions.

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Feminist philosophy meets family memoir in a fresh essay collection by the award-winning essayist and novelist Siri Hustvedt, author of the bestselling What I Loved and Booker Prize-longlisted The Blazing World.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Dizzyingly flexible, deeply human, often funny, it blasts aside our preconceptions and urges us to see the world as it is.

Feminist philosophy meets family memoir in Siri Hustvedt's most personal essay collection yet, a scintillating and profound exploration of motherhood, the maternal and misogyny.

Ranging across artistic mothers such as Jane Austen and Louise Bourgeois, psychoanalysis, science, literature and ethnography, this is a polymath's journey into urgent questions about familial love and hate, human prejudice and cruelty, and the transformative power of art. Fierce, moving and witty, it warns against drawing hard and fast borders where none exist.

The voice is consistent, combining assured erudition with more playful questioning, always thoughtful and capable of surprising shifts of register and even genre β€” Lara Feigel, Guardian

Praise for Siri Hustvedt:

'Hustvedt is that rare artist, a writer of high intelligence, profound sensuality and a less easily definable capacity for which the only word I can find is wisdom' β€” Salman Rushdie

'It is Hustvedt's gift to write with exemplary clarity of what is by necessity unclear' β€” Hilary Mantel

'Her novels have received a deserved acclaim. But to my mind, she is even more to be admired as an essayist . . . in this regard I feel that she resembles Virginia Woolf' β€” Observer

'Few contemporary writers are as satisfying and stimulating to read as Siri Hustvedt' β€” Washington Post

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Critics praise the book for its thoughtful, flexible, and deeply human essays that combine memoir, psychoanalysis, feminist theory, and literary criticism. The Guardian highlights Hustvedt's fresh and direct approach to motherhood amidst contemporary debates, while the Independent appreciates her skillful, gem-like prose. Described as dazzlingly flexible and often funny by the i, and precise yet luxuriant by the New Statesman, the collection is celebrated for urging readers to re-examine their assumptions.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529376715

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 13 October 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Sceptre

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 24.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 240g

Pages: 304

About the Author

Siri Hustvedt is the author of seven novels, five collections of essays, a poetry collection and a memoir. Her books have been listed for major prizes, including the Booker Prize, the Women's Prize and the PEN America Literary Award. She holds a PhD from Columbia University and has been awarded honorary PhDs from Johannes Gutenberg University, Stendhal University and the University of Oslo. She is a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and has written on art for the New York Times and the Daily Telegraph. Born in Minnesota, she lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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