Siri Hustvedt’s work occupies a unique niche in the literary landscape. Her first novel, The Blindfold (1992) chronicles the unusual exploits of Iris Vegan, a young graduate student in New York City. The fractured narrative episodes are clearly representative of Iris’s identity issues. Siri’s second novel, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl (1996), is set in Hustvedt’s home state of Minnesota and traverses the physical and emotional territory unique to the almost-but-not quite adult heroine as well as exploring the mysteries that permeate the small town of Webster. While these two novels are accomplished in their own right, What I Loved (2003) is a powerful and complex saga that charts the quarter of a century relationship between two families inexorably intertwined by the binary fates of love and loss. She has also published two books of essays, Yonder (1998) and A Plea for Eros (2006); as well as a collection of poetry, Reading to You (1983) and a book about painting, The Mysteries of the Rectangle (2005).
The Sorrows of an American, published by Henry Holt, opens with a mysterious letter found by Inga and Erik Davidsen amongst their late father’s papers. This message is the beginning of “the year of secrets” which unfolds to reveal myriad mysteries that threaten to capsize the lives and subsume the identities of Erik, Inga and their loved ones. Hustvedt builds on the themes of her earlier work while crafting a unique story that gives equal weight to the living and the voices of the dead that echo and define them.
This interview was conducted via e-mail in the middle of April.
The Sorrows of an American is a very moving novel of loss, both personal and universal in scope. How do you adequately convey the complexity of this theme without it overwhelming the carefully constructed narrative arc?

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