Our book choice for April 2013 is The Blindfold by Siri Hustvedt. This will be our second Hustvedt choice, our Christmas 2005 selection was The Enchantment of Lily Dahl. Iris Vegan, a young, impoverished graduate student from the Midwest, finds herself entangled with four powerful but threatening characters as she tries to adjust to life in New York City.
The Blindfold is a novel by Siri Hustvedt that tells the story of Iris Vegan, a young graduate student who moves to New York City to study philosophy. Iris is a bright and independent woman, but she is also deeply insecure and searching for her place in the world.
Soon after her arrival in New York, Iris becomes entangled with four powerful but threatening characters:
- Mr. Morning, an inscrutable urban recluse who employs Iris to tape-record verbal descriptions of objects that belonged to a murder victim.
- George, a photographer who takes an eerie portrait of Iris, which then acquires a strange life of its own, appearing and disappearing without warning around the city.
- Mrs. O., a woman who has lost her mind and memory to a stroke, but who nevertheless retains both the strength and energy to torment her fellow patient.
- Professor Rose, Iris’s teacher and eventually her lover.
These four characters represent different aspects of Iris’s own identity. Mr. Morning represents Iris’s dark side, her hidden desires and fears. George represents her creativity and her ability to see the world in new and unexpected ways. Mrs. O. represents her vulnerability and her fear of aging and death. And Professor Rose represents her intellectual side, her desire to understand the world around her.
As Iris becomes increasingly involved with these characters, she begins to lose her sense of self. She is drawn into a world of violence, obsession, and madness, and she begins to question her own sanity.
Discussion Questions for The Blindfold
- How long did it take to get into the book and to understand what it is about?
- Did you find it unsettling? Why or why not?
- What would you say this book is about?
- Did you like Iris?
- How did you interpret the suit?
- What did you make of the names used in the book?
- Which sections stood out most?
- What do you think Siri Husvedt is saying about the soul of others? How essense is embodied in an object?
- What was the sequence of events in the book? Does your awareness (or not) of this sequence impact your enjoyment of the book?
- Would you recommend this book?
Individual Ratings
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Miranda's Rating
Baljit's Rating