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How Should a Person Be?

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How Should a Person Be?

Written by: Sheila Heti
Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
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About this listen

Sheila's 20s 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 and real emails plus heavy doses of fiction, Heti crafts an exciting, courageous, and mordantly funny tour through one woman's heart and mind.

©2013 Sheila Heti (P)2016 Tantor
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At the onset it seemed like a philosophical excercise on conditioning, variables and invariables that determine how a person thinks they should be. The story is primarily anchored in Margot and Sheila's friendship after the latter's divorce that influences their creative pursuits and lives. Through the friendship the author addresses many existential and philosophical questions. However, while there's a sprinkling of these questions and possible answers, the author doesn't dive deep and create a transformative or powerful experience. In many places the story drags its feet as events and coincidences or mundane continuities dominate the preoccupation of the author. So if you're expecting a chill read, pick this one up. But not if you're seeking a deep read.

Margot and Sheila's friendship

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