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The Blindfold

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The Blindflod was a very beautifully descriptive and passionate account of what it is like to be a young woman, a poor grad student, a newcomer to New York, and a migrane sufferer. If these are themes that interest you the book will be a pleasure to read. I read it straight through in one day, I was so entranced. Hustvedt has a knack for making the mundane appear incredibly bizarre, and the oddities of life appear normal in some way. The only thing I found a little disorienting is the order of the different chapters. Why are the readers left struggling with chronolgy? It is like a novel that begins in the middle of the story, or perhaps more like short stories woven together in the hope to form the full breadth of the novel form. One of the most memorable aspects of the novel is the exploration of an important, and all-too-overlooked, psychological theme of the secret human love of committing small evil acts.

I had drifted away from American writing for a while and this book re-acquainted me with the brilliance of modern American writers. Intriguing and insightful, it made a lasting impression on me and I have recommended it to many. Although the heroine is hard to identify with, I think everybody who has ever been a poor student, struggling with self-awareness and coming-of-age angst will find one of their chords being struck by this narrative.

ingeniously constructed novel following the path of impoverished graduate student iris, a highly intriguing character who runs into men who tend to take out their cruel fantasies on her
my second novel by siri hustvedt - am thorougly allured

i thought it was very psychalogical. it was strange, like nothing i've ever read before. although, i also thought it was wonderful!!

The Blindfold is really an interesting book. It is interesting that the reader is often unaware of the intentions and situations of Iris Vegan, the main character, who throughout the novel, struggles to find her identity. Iris originally from Webster Minnesota, is a graduate student of literature at Columbia University, she is exposed to a variety of different people, at both Columbia and New York city in general. In the beginning of the novel she finds a job posted on a bulletin board in Philosophy Hall. "Wanted. Research assistant for project already under way. Student of literature preferred. Herbert B. Morning." Herbert B. Morning is a strange man, he wants Iris to orally describe objects that have once belonged to a woman, who is now deceased, into a tape recorder. Iris Vegan lies about her name and becomes Iris Davidsen. "It was a defensive act, a way of protecting myself from some amorphous danger, but later that false name haunted me; it seemed to move me elsewhere, shiftng me off course and strangely altering my whole world for a time. When I think back on it now, I imagine that lie as the beginning of the story, as a kind fo door to my uneasiness" (Page 11) It was that lie that began the identity troubles for Iris. Much later in the novel Iris identifies with and in a strane way becomes Klaus, a character in Der Brutale Junge, a German novella written by Johann Krueger in 1936. It is about a troubled boy, who is overcome by evil intentions. It is very confusing, yet fascinating when Iris becomes Klaus; she does things she does not understand. She even tells a bartender that her name is Klaus. She goes out at night in men's clothes because it makes her feel safer and more secure. The reader must make many assumptions in this novel; much of the novel is left unexplained. However, the reader is greatly enriched by the mood of the novel.

Hustvedt writes with a rare and beautiful emotional intelligence, and a searching mastery. She has an acute sense-memory. This novel is so quiet in its style it gets you hearing dog frequencies. Amazing. Buy this book.

That the book is dedicated to Paul Auster, you will find in the first chapter. The tone is similary to that of Auster's New York Trilogy. But after this it is really her own style of writing and with every word you read the atmosphere of mystery and adventure turns more and more to hopelessness and cruelty. But this cruelty is not expressed in cruel pictures as one is used to but in words and moods much more subtle so that you are not able to escape from. That's what makes this novel so fascinating. I wonder why the covertext speaks only of the heroines search of identity but not of the cruelty, the underlying theme of every word.

WHile Ms. Hustveldt clearly has a command of her own territory, you will be reminded on early Paul Auster. It's odd and disturbingly beautiful.

The third chapter of this book is one of the best short stories I have ever read. (It is in the 1991 Best American Short Stories - titled "Houdini"). I laughed out loud at almost every line. Siri Hustvedt has a way of reporting preposterous events with in a matter of fact tone, that is funny, but it also provides an undercurrent of alienation/disconnection that gives the story gravity. Her characterizations are simultaneously absurd and real.

Having been touted by seemingly every magazine possible, I decided to try my luck with this novel. While the prose was definitively poetic, the plot was disconnected and often incoherent. Leave this one for the true "critics" if your a regular person just looking for a good read.