ThoughtGallery.org > Siri Hustvedt: Memories of the Future

Siri Hustvedt: Memories of the Future

Prizewinning, internationally bestselling author Siri Hustvedt’s new novel, MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE, is a wildly funny, elaborately structured, and provocative novel about time, memory, and desire.

Fans of Hustvedt’s earlier work will recognize her playful exploration of issues—memory, gender identity, violence of patriarchy, and the biases that shape perception—that have dominated cultural discourse over the past few years. MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE reads, not like a novel for the moment, but rather like the moment is catching up to Siri Hustvedt at last.

It tells the story of a young Midwestern woman’s (dubbed “Minnesota”) first year in New York City in the late 1970s, in which she has set out to write her first novel. Her year proves both exhilarating and frightening, from increasingly ominous monologues of the eccentric woman living next door, to the everyday adventures of new independence, to a bruising and indelible assault at her apartment. The relationship she develops with the small coven of women who come to her rescue that night introduces a new understanding of violence, anger, power, identity, and memory.

Meanwhile, forty years later, S.H., now a veteran author, discovers her old notebook, as well as early drafts of a never-completed novel while moving her aging mother from one facility to another. Ingeniously juxtaposing the various texts, S.H. measures what she remembers against what she wrote that year and has since forgotten.

Dayna Tortorici is a writer and co-editor-in-chief of the literary magazine n+1. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere.











When: Tue., Apr. 30, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Where: 192 Books
192 Tenth Ave.
212-255-4022
Price: Free
Buy tickets/get more info now
See other events in these categories:

Prizewinning, internationally bestselling author Siri Hustvedt’s new novel, MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE, is a wildly funny, elaborately structured, and provocative novel about time, memory, and desire.

Fans of Hustvedt’s earlier work will recognize her playful exploration of issues—memory, gender identity, violence of patriarchy, and the biases that shape perception—that have dominated cultural discourse over the past few years. MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE reads, not like a novel for the moment, but rather like the moment is catching up to Siri Hustvedt at last.

It tells the story of a young Midwestern woman’s (dubbed “Minnesota”) first year in New York City in the late 1970s, in which she has set out to write her first novel. Her year proves both exhilarating and frightening, from increasingly ominous monologues of the eccentric woman living next door, to the everyday adventures of new independence, to a bruising and indelible assault at her apartment. The relationship she develops with the small coven of women who come to her rescue that night introduces a new understanding of violence, anger, power, identity, and memory.

Meanwhile, forty years later, S.H., now a veteran author, discovers her old notebook, as well as early drafts of a never-completed novel while moving her aging mother from one facility to another. Ingeniously juxtaposing the various texts, S.H. measures what she remembers against what she wrote that year and has since forgotten.

Dayna Tortorici is a writer and co-editor-in-chief of the literary magazine n+1. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere.

Buy tickets/get more info now