A review by emdavis4
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt

2.0

I did not finish this book. Which rarely happens! I read about the first 1/4, and decided to put it down. It's possible I'll pick it back up eventually, but there were other books on the shelf that seemed more interesting. I was intrigued by the premise - a female artist puts up her work under the front of 3 separate male artists to see how audiences respond differently - but thus far the character has been painted as unstable and weird, which was hard for me to get on board with. The book is structured so each chapter is a different piece of writing, whether from the artists journals, some newspaper interview of one of her contemporaries or art critics, family members, etc., all to try and examine the life of this woman. Normally I like a story that changes styles throughout, but for whatever reason this time I just couldn't enjoy it. This might be more interesting if you were more involved in the art world and were familiar with the ins-and-outs of the industry; or maybe it builds up and comes together more further into the book, but for now, it will go back up on the shelf.