Title: Memories of the Future
Author: Siri Hustvedt
Publisher: Sceptre
ISBN: 978-1473694415
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pages: 336
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4 stars
I have always loved reading Siri Hustvedt. She writes with an urgency and lucidity that is rare and extremely engaging. Most of the time, I feel her works are meta, and likely so given art is after all inspired by life, and that works the most when it comes to her works. Whether it is The Blazing World or The Sorrows of an American or even What I Loved, every book has a trace of her life and that is the connecting factor for the reader.
Memories of the Future is a novel about time, memory, desire, and obsession at the core of it. It is a novel about New York in the late 70s – forever dynamic, changing, and bursting at the seams. At the same time, it is a novel of the present – of the diary SH kept in the 70s and reads it now – recalling the time she lived next to Lucy, and what transpired then.
The technique of a story within a story isn’t new, but just the way Hustvedt writes about it is seamless and original. Her observations on memory and how time wraps itself around it in all its vulnerability is touching. The book is about a narrator and a very strong one at that. You may not even come across many characters, but you do get used to the writing, which keeps you engaged and wanting more.
Memories of the Future is the kind of book that has a range of opinions, thoughts, and memories. I had to go back and forth multiple times, but it was truly worth it. Madness and sanity have a wonderful balance as well. It is an extremely stimulating novel, by a very intelligent writer. The kind that is crisp and on point with most things. A novel not to be missed at all.
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