How Should a Person Be?
Published on 6. March 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-09-958356-1 (ISBN)
Description
'It made me want to write' Sally Rooney
'A seriously strange but funny plunge into the quest for authenticity' Margaret Atwood
'A classic in the making' Stylist
Sheila's twenties were going to plan.
She got married.
She hosted parties.
A theatre asked her to write a play.
Then she realised that she didn't know how to write a play.
That her favourite part of the party was cleaning up after the party.
And that her marriage made her feel like she was banging into a brick wall.
So Sheila abandons her marriage and her play, befriends Margaux, a free and untortured painter, and begins sleeping with the dominating Israel, who's a genius at sex but not at art. She throws herself into recording them and everyone around her, investigating how they live, desperate to know, as she wanders, How Should a Person Be?
Using transcripts, real emails, plus heavy doses of fiction, Heti crafts an exciting, courageous, and mordantly funny tour through one woman's heart and mind.
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
'A seriously strange but funny plunge into the quest for authenticity' Margaret Atwood
'A classic in the making' Stylist
Sheila's twenties were going to plan.
She got married.
She hosted parties.
A theatre asked her to write a play.
Then she realised that she didn't know how to write a play.
That her favourite part of the party was cleaning up after the party.
And that her marriage made her feel like she was banging into a brick wall.
So Sheila abandons her marriage and her play, befriends Margaux, a free and untortured painter, and begins sleeping with the dominating Israel, who's a genius at sex but not at art. She throws herself into recording them and everyone around her, investigating how they live, desperate to know, as she wanders, How Should a Person Be?
Using transcripts, real emails, plus heavy doses of fiction, Heti crafts an exciting, courageous, and mordantly funny tour through one woman's heart and mind.
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
Reviews / Votes
Witty, unusual, raw...a powerful read...a classic in the making * Stylist * Original...hilarious... Part confessional, part play, part novel, and more-it's one wild ride...Think HBO'S Girls in book form * Marie Claire * Amazing -- Lena Dunham A shamelessly funny read * Grazia * Funny, bawdy and fiercely original * Easy Living * A sharp and unsentimental chronicle of what it is like to be a 20-something now * Economist * A book that risks everything... Complex, artfully messy, and hilarious -- Miranda July Uniquely honest, funny and clever... Heti is superbly truthful and shockingly funny - no words were minced in the making of this strange, brilliant book -- Kate Saunders * The Times * Joyously self-conscious...profoundly ironic...or, perhaps more accurately, it is a production profoundly concerned with how to live authentically in a world saturated by irony -- Olivia Laing * New Statesman * Utterly beguiling: blunt, charming, funny, and smart. Heti subtly weaves together ideas about sex, femininity and artistic ambition. Reading this genre-defying book was pure pleasure -- David Shields, author of Reality HungerMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 193 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
227 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-958356-1 (9780099583561)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Sheila Heti
How Should a Person Be?
E-Book
01/2013
1st Edition
Vintage Digital
€8.99
Available for download
Person
Sheila Heti is the author of ten books, including the novels Pure Colour, Motherhood and How Should a Person Be?, which New York magazine deemed one of the 'New Classics' of the twenty-first century and which was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. Her novels have been translated into twenty-four languages. She lives in Toronto and Kawartha Lakes, Ontario.