A riveting collection of essays on a wide variety of topics ranging from memoirs to cultural criticism to art history. As someone not well-versed in visual arts, the latter essays fell flat. However, the remaining essays were well-written and thoughtful, with astounding insights that recontextualized so much of contemporary culture

Siri Hustvedt's essay collection, "Mothers, Fathers, and Others" was my first introduction to this very intellectual and cerebral feminist writer, and although a few of the interdisciplinary essays included were a little too specialized to be of general interest to me, all were well written and the vast majority were very enjoyable and/or thought provoking. My favorites were the lovely piece in which Hustvedt remembers her grandmother, which was richly evocative of the lives of Norwegian immigrants in Minnesota in the early part of the 20th century, and the essay about her mother, who among her many other attributes also defied the Nazis during their occupation of Norway. Fans of the Emily Bronte classic "Wuthering Heights," as I am, will enjoy Hustvedt's probing piece dissecting the many questions and problems that novel poses, and there are several interesting essays on art (including a piece on Louise Bourgeois) that I also appreciated. I'm definitely late in finding this author, but the writing in "Mothers, Fathers, and Others" has inspired me to delve into Hustvedt's backlist.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

I’m judging the L.A. Times 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book read even though it’s nonfiction and not one of the 296 other books I’m charged to read.

It took a while but I finally discovered Siri Hustvedt. And I think this discovery came at the exact right time. “We are all, to one degree or another, made of what we call “memory,” not only the bits and pieces of time visible to us in pictures that have hardened with our repeated stories, but also the memories we embody and don’t understand—the smell that carries with it something lost or the gesture or touch of a person who reminds us of another person, or a sound, distant of course, that brings with it unknown dread. And then there are the memories of others that we adopt and catalog with our own, sometimes confusing theirs with ours. And again, there are memories that change because the perspective has been wrenched into another position—my grandmother has returned to me in a different guise. She has been remembered and reconfigured.”

It might be that I am in a specific place right now, that this reading feels like an affective exchange, one that I need in order to continue on. Someone close to me was murdered the other day by her husband, someone else who was also close to me. I am trying to find a space for grief and rage in a world that keeps on changing shape. I think I need to now read everything Hustvedt’s ever written.

Hustvedt writes about the identity and roles of women, using her family as her frame of reference. She explores gender roles, heritage, trauma, to ultimately show how it is that we come to define ourselves. Each essay assembles a piece of that bigger picture of self (individual and collective), and it’s absolutely brilliant. I will be looking into her other work
.

I have been a longtime fan of Hustvedt's work, but this group of essays is among one of her best.
The collection moves through a number of topics -- and even though they're not necessarily related
they somehow all seem to fit together in terms of presenting a single body of thought.

The writing is beautiful -- particuarly the piece about her family -- and pushes one to reflect on issues
and experience within one's own life.

There are few works that I feel could be longer -- this is one of them.

this is actually so so so amazing. i would highly recommend to anybody and everybody. definitely a 5/5.

So first off - I want this cover on a hoodie or merch of some sort. Phenomenal writing and would like to read it again. I found these essays really interesting. Instead of just exploring the effect of our immediate surroundings on our ideologies, Hustvedt looks further and draws us into realms we never would have thought of on our own.

This book of essays is further proof of the seemingly limitless reach of Siri Hustvedt's brilliance. I particularly liked the early ones, more biographical than the others, that concerned her life and family, her history, her grandmother's life in Minnesota. Her mother's life in Nazi occupied Norway. Many of these works which could comprise an in-depth study of art and feminism, were fascinating in their attention to detail particularly with regard to iconic examples of literature, and the chapter on Wuthering Heights could be the cornerstone for an entire symposium. Hustvedt's range of knowledge is not limited to art and literature, but she has presented papers on neuroscience, and has been described by her husband, Paul Auster, as the "intellectual of the family." This in defense of her own work which critics have tended to credit to her husband since men are viewed as being the more fiercely brilliant. Whether it's novels, in which work by women authors is approached differently than those of men, or art installations, women are expected to produce works of domesticity while men, works of intellect. She proves this an erroneous concept. I am fascinated by her range of knowledge and expression. The only one that I really couldn't read was the final piece that dealt with a notorious murder of a young woman in 1965 by some kids and a hellish woman. I remember that case when it broke, and couldn't read about it then either. But then Hustvedt was making a point about crowd mentality, so it is valid.

Mothers, Fathers, and Others is a collection of essays focusing on the connections we have, both consciously and unconsciously, with the world around us. Hustvedt explores everything from our families to society to true crime.

I found these essays really interesting. Instead of just exploring the effect of our immediate surroundings on our ideologies, Hustvedt looks further and draws us into realms we never would have thought of on our own.

My only wish is that the essays would have been tied together better. A few of the entries felt more like tangents that were unconnected to the overall message.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the ARC!

Siri Hustvedt writes with powerful, imagination, and honesty. An essay collection worth considering, savoring, and quoting.

Deeply grateful to the author, publishers, and NetGalley team for the opportunity to review advanced readers' copy of the memoir.
"Mothers, Fathers, and Others" is a work of non-fiction that depicts the deep impact and influence our immediate family, relatives, people surrounding us from early childhood through physical presence or even through stories and memories are having on the formation of our consciousness and self, motivation and interests and most of all traumas we are born to and get into...
Through the stories of family, family trauma, and immediate interaction or the absence of interaction with our families, through the lens of her own family, we see how small moments or interactions change us, define us, make us...
The author masterfully brings in her heritage and even national trauma to herself and depicts the complexity and deepness of self, family, and love, in any form we know it.
Devotion, sacrifices, and knowledge passed through verbal and non-verbal interactions, through attitudes and expectations make us and we need to acknowledge the importance of our expressions as parents, kids of just bypassers... It may have a huge impact on the formation of one-self...