Memories of the Future
Author: Siri Hustvedt
Published by: Sceptre
Pages: 318
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★★
Remember this: the world loves powerful men and hates powerful women. I know. Believe me, I know.
New York, 1978. A dangerous city then, but one burning with ideas…
A young woman arrives from Minnesota looking for adventure: to live, love, become a writer and to suffer the slings of fortune, as all true adventurers must.
Four decades on, S.H. unearths the journal she kept that exhilarating, sometimes frightening year and the past springs to life: the kindred spirits she found in smoke-filled bars; the mysterious neighbour, whose disturbing monologues penetrated her apartment’s paper-thin walls; the men who patronised her – and worse.
As S.H. measures her memories against the record, she regards her younger self with often rueful amusement, but also with anger. Why didn’t she break the rules? And why are women still fighting to make their voices heard?
My thoughts:
Memories of the Future is Hustvedt’s recount and reflection on one very important year of her life, aided by the help of her rediscovered diary.
Fresh from Minnesota and hungry for all New York has to offer, twenty-three-year-old S.H. embarks on a year that proves both exhilarating and frightening – from bruising encounters with men to the increasingly ominous monologues of the troubled woman next door. Forty years on, those crucial moments come back to vibrant life when S.H. discovers the notebook in which she recorded her many adventures alongside drafts of a novel.
Hustvedt’s seventh novel is a multi-layered portrait of the artist as a young woman. A perfect set up. It is a complex novel with many reflections on memory and self-exploration. This book is truly a gem on so many levels. It is provocative, funny, and brilliantly precise. Every page is writing to savour. It makes for such an original and engrossing read, further enriched by Siri Hustvedt’s own little illustrations and doodles which pop up every now and then. I loved how these personal details reflect what a deeply personal read this is and remind readers that much of the writing has been lifted directly from her old diary.
Carrying echoes of Hustvedt’s own life, the novel follows a young woman as she attempts to find her identity and her voice amidst the noise of New York. During the book we read of how she becomes totally obsessed with her neighbour, a woman named Lucy. S.H. even gets a stethoscope sent by her father so that she can listen better through the walls to her regular rantings. This eventually leads to a meeting with Lucy and others who have formed a coven of witches. S.H. also has an awful encounter with a man that she meets, and much of the novel is about her coming to terms with this encounter.
References to great writers and thinkers occur throughout the book. One of the characters mentioned throughout is "The Baroness" a real-life poet and artist who apparently was probably responsible for the urinal sculpture that has been attributed to Marcel Duchamp. This acts as a springboard for the author to ponder on how men have often overtaken women in pretty much all fields, taking credit for the accomplishments and inventions of the women on many occasions.
I love this author for her intelligence and her well-formed feminist views. What she has done is created a fascinating fictional memoir. In the process she examines memory, the female in the arts, a #MeToo incident, and perhaps most importantly, the power of imagination, anger and rebellion.
Memories of the Future is a compelling and beautiful read, one I would highly recommend for people who love a book that will make them think.
Overall reaction:
