The Summer Without Men
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Review
'Siri Hustvedt is a novelist of great intelligence. She knows the ways of the world and of the heart . . . THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN is a new departure. Despite its painful subject matter - marital rupture, encroaching death, the tormenting antics of malice-ridden girls - the novel is a mordant comedy.' (Lisa Appignanesi, The Observer )
'a rich and intelligent meditation on female identity, written in beguiling lyrical prose . . . heady and intoxicating' (Lucy Scholes, Sunday Times )
'Hustvedt is a writer of luminous perception' (Jane Shilling, Telegraph )
'It's a warm, affecting tale about love, loss and finding consolation in female friendship. Hustvedt captures both the absurdity and the tragedy of life' (Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler )
'Hustvedt's intensely visual writing spans the generations. She can conjure up a child's realm of imaginary friends as evocatively as the brave face adopted by the elderly living in "a world of continual loss". The story of one woman regaining her own identity, it's by turns funny, moving and erudite, playfully reminding us of a contemporary Jane Austen.' (Claire Colvin, Daily Mail )
'[Mia] is alarmingly funny and her narrative toys with the immediacy of the epistolary novel . . . Events are coupled with commentary, commentary leads into event and temporal sequence is delightfully confused. Such digressive freedom is one of the pleasures of THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN, in which fiction, fantasy, and historical fact are interweaved.' (Stephanie Bishop, TLS )
'THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN shows a mind alive, at work and boundlessly curious about the way people live and love. It is the kind of book with which to grapple and argue, to challenge and fight, but also with which to engage and at which to marvel.' (Jennifer Levasseuer, The Age )
'Siri Hustvedt is an intelligent, intuitive, talented writer' (Lionel Shriver, Financial Times )
'Distinctive and enthralling...The Summer Without Men is satire, full of brilliant disquisitions on all manner of things - the nature of love, the difference between men and women, the question of madness. But it is satire with a heart, a great big glorious heart, and I loved every minute of it.' (Sara Dowse, Canberra Times )
'Spirited and intelligent.' (Sydney Morning Herald )
'a rich and intelligent meditation on female identity, written in beguiling lyrical prose . . . heady and intoxicating' (Lucy Scholes, Sunday Times )
'Hustvedt is a writer of luminous perception' (Jane Shilling, Telegraph )
'It's a warm, affecting tale about love, loss and finding consolation in female friendship. Hustvedt captures both the absurdity and the tragedy of life' (Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler )
'Hustvedt's intensely visual writing spans the generations. She can conjure up a child's realm of imaginary friends as evocatively as the brave face adopted by the elderly living in "a world of continual loss". The story of one woman regaining her own identity, it's by turns funny, moving and erudite, playfully reminding us of a contemporary Jane Austen.' (Claire Colvin, Daily Mail )
'[Mia] is alarmingly funny and her narrative toys with the immediacy of the epistolary novel . . . Events are coupled with commentary, commentary leads into event and temporal sequence is delightfully confused. Such digressive freedom is one of the pleasures of THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN, in which fiction, fantasy, and historical fact are interweaved.' (Stephanie Bishop, TLS )
'THE SUMMER WITHOUT MEN shows a mind alive, at work and boundlessly curious about the way people live and love. It is the kind of book with which to grapple and argue, to challenge and fight, but also with which to engage and at which to marvel.' (Jennifer Levasseuer, The Age )
'Siri Hustvedt is an intelligent, intuitive, talented writer' (Lionel Shriver, Financial Times )
'Distinctive and enthralling...The Summer Without Men is satire, full of brilliant disquisitions on all manner of things - the nature of love, the difference between men and women, the question of madness. But it is satire with a heart, a great big glorious heart, and I loved every minute of it.' (Sara Dowse, Canberra Times )
'Spirited and intelligent.' (Sydney Morning Herald )
Product Description
Out of the blue, your husband of thirty years asks you for a pause in your marriage to indulge his infatuation with a young Frenchwoman. Do you:
a) assume it's a passing affair and play along
b) angrily declare the marriage over
c) crack up
d) retreat to a safe haven and regroup?
Mia Fredricksen cracks up first, then decamps for the summer to the prairie town of her childhood, where she rages, fumes, and bemoans her sorry fate as abandoned spouse. But little by little, she is drawn into the lives of those around her: her mother and her circle of feisty widows; her young neighbour, with two small children and a loud, angry husband; and the diabolical pubescent girls in her poetry class. By the end of the summer without men, wiser though definitely not sadder, Mia knows what she wants to fight for and on whose terms.
Provocative, mordant, and fiercely intelligent, The Summer Without Men is a gloriously vivacious tragi-comedy about women and girls, love and marriage, and the age-old war between the sexes - a novel for our times by one of the most acclaimed American writers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Siri Hustvedt in experimental mode,
By Sabina (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Summer Without Men (Hardcover)
Following a breakdown after her husband asks for a 'pause' in their 30-year marriage, Mia (an award-winning poet) spends the summer in her old Minnesota town, close to her mother's Rolling Meadows retirement home. The initially confused and fragile Mia ponders her situation, while she also observes the generations behind and before her. She is hired to teach poetry to a group of teenage girls at the local Arts Guild. The group (The Coven) develop some disturbing behaviour, despite their commitment to the poetry classes. Mia's mother's 'Five Swans' are also literary and creative, despite their age-related limitations of body. Mia befriends a neighbour, a young married woman with two small children and a difficult husband. She also indulges in a correspondence with her "annonymous tormentor," an emailer who calls himself 'Mr. Nobody.'However interested we are in these characters, we are kept at a distance from them by Mia's constant musings. Despite the book's title Mia's mind is full of references to learned men whom she quotes or whose ideas come to her mind as she observes her life: Kant, Spinoza, Hume, Plutarch, Diogenes, Becket, Ibsen, Derrida, Winnicott, Vygotsky et al, while Freud and Kierkegaard feature several times. There are references to films, Cary Grant, Antigone, Jane Austen, ruminations on neuroscience and the nature of orgasm, the two Columbuses, the nature of bullying. Siri Hustvedt seems to be in experimental mode with form, there are letters, diary entries, poems, a few drawings and a curiously intrusive though playful narrator who suddelny steps aside to address 'Dear Reader.' The learning does not weigh heavily within the novel, but the cumulative effect made me wish the author had kept a stronger focus on the plot and sub-plot. But you could argue that the apparent interruptions and frequent changes from description to contemplation are very much the plot, because the drama is in Mia's head - what will be her conclusion about married life and her own future? I quite enjoyed the book, and I think that established fans of Siri Hustvedt will be interested to see what she has done here, but if you are new to this author, I would recommend one of her previous novels as a first read.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Evocative and compelling,
By
This review is from: The Summer without Men (Paperback)
I devoured this book in one sitting over the course of an afternoon.It's a subtle blend of stream of consciousness writing combined with a realistic narrative.The plotline is not unusual:husband leaves wife for younger woman;woman retreats back to her family of origin.What really lifts this out of the ordinary is the inner dialogue of the wife,deserted by her husband of 30 years.She's a poet who's aware of her relative perspective on what reality is.That's at head level.We also feel her devastation quite viscerally.The setting moves to the residential home where her 90 year old mother now lives amongst several other aged women.Their life stories are told without sentimentality but with empathy.At the same time,she gets to know a younger woman with 2 small children and becomes an important part of their life.As the title indiates,it's a novel about women;always tender,sometimes raw.Highly recommended.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read for 2011!,
By Book Worm (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Summer Without Men (Hardcover)
I read What I Lovedby Hustvedt last year so was really excited to read her new book and I think it is even better. Hustvedt tells Mia's pain of being wronged by her husband in an excellent manner and she steers away from the clichéd approach of turning all men into the anti-heroes of the book nor does she have another male character sweep in to mend her heroine's pain. How Hustvedt does introduce males into the story is immensely creative and clever, by keeping them on the periphery of the story she further emphasises the importance of her key characters and the relationships that they share. Hurstvedt creates an excellent account of the female support that women can give and receive from each other when they have been hurt by their partner. Any women who has ever been in a position akin to Mia's will recognise the feeling of being pulled into a female only circle and being helped to mend as you learn your problem is not new or unique. Hustvedt captures the characters emotions and personalities so clearly that you feel a very strong connection to them - as in What I Loved. The Summer Without Men is excellently written and flows fantastically. Although I have said that women will relate to the main character's story this should not put men off reading this book. The Summer Without Men is in no way an attack on men rather a study of the relationships that women develop together through different stages in life and whilst the men may not be physically present it is their interactions with women that much of the storyline grows from. This book is so multi-layered and brilliantly written that it will leave you thinking about it for days.
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