A review by unidentifiedgemstone
Mothers, Fathers, and Others by Siri Hustvedt

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

re strong were really strong, particularly in the second half and especially the second to last one, but the essays that were mediocre were completely forgettable. Hustvedt has a kind of upper-middle class, well-educated white cis woman feminism that I’m glad she expanded on in the later essays, because I was beginning to find it a bit annoying and out of touch. Mostly she’s concerned with women not being taken seriously enough in their careers, in academia, and in the art world, and while I have empathy for her certainly disheartening experiences of sexism, it’s the kind of problem you can only encounter if you’ve crossed the threshold into working in the corporate, academic, or art worlds, and as someone not in these spaces, I often found myself thinking that there are simply more pressing and tangible material issues at hand. The text was at times very dense and academic, but when I took the time to move through it slowly and carefully there was a lot of valuable insight to take away. I’m curious to see what her novels are like!