Sheila Heti's How Should A Person Be? was released in England this week with great anticipation. The book is one part fiction and one part memoir, providing a look into the life of a young Toronto woman's struggle with writer's block in a post-divorce art world. It's been applauded since its American release last year (it was released in Canada in 2010) -- and anticipated overseas since.
In January,
The Guardian named it one of
2013's must-reads. The publication describes the novel as a mix of, "real conversations and emails with bedroom confessionals, self-help mantras and doses of pure fiction, this portrait of Toronto playwright 'Sheila' and her artist friends has been characterized as 'Girls in book form.'"
The Guardian later
likened it to Helen Fielding's
Bridget Jones's Diary and Elizabeth Gilbert's
Eat Pray Love. Now, the publication has posted a feature with Heti praising her ability to ask tough questions and drawing further comparisons to producer/actor Lena Dunham, who explores similar topics via her hit television series
Girls.
"Like Dunham, Heti faces criticism for being part of a privileged (white) North American elite; but her writing asks important questions about roles for young women in late-capitalist society, and celebrates the power of female friendship," writes Liz Hoggart.
Hoggart interviews Heti and asks her about growing up, the inspiration for her book, and just how her life has changed since the book took off. Unlike the praised colloquial narrative, Heti's answers don't resonate as inspiring, but they do offer a look into the mind of one of Canada's fastest rising authors. Most interesting is Heti's response to Hoggart's question about character Sheila realizing she is in a destructive relationship with a man named Israel.
Heti tells her, "She eventually gets out of it, but I wanted to show her lose control; it's also part of her fantasy of wanting other people to tell her how to be -- she thinks Israel is going to be this promised land and it turns out to be a place of real destruction and pain."
Read the full story
here.
Original source: The Guardian