A review by caitlynmeadow
The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt
4.0
I probably wouldn't have picked this up if it wasn't a set book for my contemporary fiction class but I'm very glad I got the chance. It is written quite differently to most other books out there, Hustvedt's voice comes through Mia who is narrating the story directly to the reader.
Mia's husband asked for a 'pause' in their 30 year marriage to take up with a much younger colleague; Mia has a nervous breakdown and finds herself in hospital. To help with her recovery Mia heads back to her small home town of Bonden, here we meet a diverse array of female characters, the Five Swans - Mia's mother and her friends who live the independent living area of an old people's home, the young mother who lives next door and the teenage girls in Mia's poetry class.
Mia tells us about the happenings of the characters, is reflective of her marriage and makes her feminist opinions clear.
The Summer Without Men stretches the boundaries of what the expectations of a novel are and it did it well at that.
Mia's husband asked for a 'pause' in their 30 year marriage to take up with a much younger colleague; Mia has a nervous breakdown and finds herself in hospital. To help with her recovery Mia heads back to her small home town of Bonden, here we meet a diverse array of female characters, the Five Swans - Mia's mother and her friends who live the independent living area of an old people's home, the young mother who lives next door and the teenage girls in Mia's poetry class.
Mia tells us about the happenings of the characters, is reflective of her marriage and makes her feminist opinions clear.
The Summer Without Men stretches the boundaries of what the expectations of a novel are and it did it well at that.