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How Should A Person Be? A Novel From Life (2012)

by Sheila Heti(Favorite Author)

3.18 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1770892486 (ISBN13: 9781770892484)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

House of Anansi

review 1: I guess I'm not the target audience for this book, but it was just painful. Ms. Heti and her friends sit around mostly congratulating themselves on how smart, artistic, and evolved they are, but really are just self-involved, self-absorbed 30-somethings (yes, 30-somethings, sounding more like 20-somethings!). She is supposedly studying people to learn "how should a person be," but there are few life lessons learned here, other than the revelation she has, as another reader pointed out, while sticking her nose in some guy's hairy ass.There were some interesting moments. I enjoyed the dialogue in the chapter Sheila Wanders in the Copy Shop. And I have to admit, unlike most readers, and apart from said hairy ass from above, I enjoyed the sex scenes.
review 2: The ... moreprotagonist here is debating questions that authors have asked for centuries--how do I become an important artist? Is importance synonymous with fame? How do I create important art? The protagonist also asks questions of every 20-something--how should I live my life? Who are important in my life? The real difference between this book and a book that successfully poses these questions, however, is filter and distance. Heti is clearly a talented writer, but the writing here is too close and too raw. All ego without a good filtration system.Take Terrence Malick's Thin Red Line--great film. Take Terrence Malick's To the Wonder--POS. Why? Because Thin Red Line was craft and constraint. To the Wonder was just a lot of pretty things that sat next to each other.For some reason that is exactly how I feel about this book. It's a lot of honest and angst-y pieces that sit next to each other, without constraint. A brave venture into a personal understanding of Artist and Art and Person, but to a reader its hard to forgive its self-involvement. less

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