What I Loved is a slow-moving novel that tells the 30-year story of two families who are friends and neighbors in Manhattan. The first-person male protagonist, his thoughts, and his personality are consistent and totally convincing. I can only imagine the deep and sustained concentration it must take to develop such a real-seeming character in a long work of fiction like this one. In this way, the book reminded me of Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha with its incredibly real, though fictional, female narrator.

The lives of Hustvedt's characters are filled with the dramatic and the quotidian alike, but the significant, plot-moving events are usually sad or tragic ones. The characters' lives progress in a thickening haze of disappointment and helplessness to change situations. Still, the book was an enjoyable read because of the author's apparent affection for her characters and the details of their lives. The portrayal of the New York art world was entertaining as well.