The Shaking Woman or a History of My Nerves, (Paperback)

from Eoin

3.25 Neuropsychoanalysis is my kind of subject and personal experience is the way to bring it home, but despite the frequently apt and well formed sentences, the over-all structure seemed lacking. A quick and enjoyable, if a little rambling, read. Worth it for the disambiguation between narrative...

from flydodofly

what IS going on in our minds, and our bodies? we have no idea, most of the time. and yet - we function. well, at least most of the time. hustved is a smart lady and an excellent writer, who asks herself all the obvious questions and keeps scratching on the body/mind surface to see what is undern...

from annith

About a year after her father died, while Siri Hustvedt was giving a memorial speech, she experienced a seizure. Her arms and legs shook uncontrollably, although she was able to continue speaking. This episode, which was followed by other seizures in similar circumstances, led her to write this e...

from allthesedarnbooks

This was an interesting and thoughtful book, if not exactly what I expected. The title lead me to believe that it would be more of a personal memoir of illness, while, although Hustvedt talks about her life and her shaking incidents somewhat, it focuses more on the history of "hysteria" and the b...

from petterw

What a truly extraordinary book, unlike anything else I have read. Hustvedt takes us on a personal medical/neurological/psychological/cultural detective chase, but it is a chase that has a meaning for the reader as much as for the author. She discusses her own frightening experience, an unexplain...