Hi there and thanks for this.

I have to report on his wife's, Siri Ustdvedt's book: 'What I Loved' whcih was recommende to me on this site. While it started well, and thought the setting could have allowed for a great narrative and characterisation, S.H's book is disapointing on both (if not more) accounts. I'm half way through it and find it really difficult to carry on to the point where I'm thinking of switching book. The narrative is soapy, with 'adultere' and the death of a loved child. The style is not bad but there's great work needed on the architecture of the narrative, and the sequences of intense XIX's century-style description of physical items such as the friend's Art seem very artificial and not integrating. their presence seem to exist just so that the writer gets a chance to show off her (average) writing style. All and all there's no way you can feel the daunting implacable immersing universes from Auster's books, nor the complexity of the introspection and behaviour of his characters. That's unfortunate, but I thought Auster fans should be aware of it.

Yet this is a book that some people might like, it's not bad. But its really nowhere near as good as an Auster novel, and it is simply very different and remote from one.

Hope this can help readers.

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