How Should a Person Be?

How Should a Person Be?

Written by: Heti, Sheila

A brilliant portrayal of finding a beautiful life by one of Canada's most exciting literary talents, now available as an Anansi Book Club edition featuring discussion questions.

How Should a Person Be? is an unabashedly honest and hilarious tour through the unknowable pieces of one woman’s heart and mind, an irresistible torn-from-life book about friendship, art, sex, and love. Part literary novel, part self-help manual, and part racy confessional, it is a fearless exploration into the way we live now by one of the most highly inventive and thoughtful young writers working today.

A brilliant portrayal of finding a beautiful life by one of Canada's most exciting literary talents, now available as an Anansi Book Club edition featuring discussion questions.

How Should a Person Be? is an unabashedly honest and hilarious tour through the unknowable pieces of one woman’s heart and mind, an irresistible torn-from-life book about friendship, art, sex, and love. Part literary novel, part self-help manual, and part racy confessional, it is a fearless exploration into the way we live now by one of the most highly inventive and thoughtful young writers working today.

Published By House of Anansi Press Inc — Apr 5, 2014
Specifications 320 pages | 5 in x 7.75 in
Supporting Resources
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Excerpt
Written By Sheila Heti is the author of five books, including How Should a Person Be?. She lives in Toronto. Visit Sheila Heti's website: http://www.sheilaheti.net/ Visit Sheila Heti's blog: http://sheilaheti.tumblr.com Follow Sheila Heti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sheilaheti
Written By
Sheila Heti is the author of five books, including How Should a Person Be?. She lives in Toronto. Visit Sheila Heti's website: http://www.sheilaheti.net/ Visit Sheila Heti's blog: http://sheilaheti.tumblr.com Follow Sheila Heti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sheilaheti

Long-listed, ReLit Awards: Novel, 2011

Commended, Huffington Post Best Books, 2012

Commended, New York Times Notable Books, 2012

Long-listed, Women's Prize for Fiction, 2013

“Original, contemplative, and often tangential, this is an unorthodox compilation of colorful characters, friendship, and sex that provides an unusual answer to Heti’s question.” —Publishers Weekly

“Part confessional, part play, part novel, and more -- it's one wild ride. The upfront and unabashed sex makes for a voyeuristic, sometimes hilarious, read. Think HBO's Girls in book form.” —Marie Claire

“...a self-conscious, darkly funny exploration of the strained complexities of female friendship, the makings of bad art, and the finer points of awkward sex...[Heti] celebrates the extraordinary imperfection in ordinary life.” —The Georgia Straight

“...a portrait of the artist as a young woman, a postmodern self-help book and an autobiography of the mind.” —Vancouver Sun

“...an unforgettable book: intellectually exacting, unsettling in its fragility, bodily as anything painted by Freud, experimental yet crafted as hell, and yes, very funny.” —National Post

“...the good kind of genre muddle...How Should a Person Be? emerges as part of an entirely different genre: the realistic self-help book. You might not want to follow in Sheila's footsteps, but tagging along on her quixotic mission will be as useful as anything else you're likely to read this year.” —Vue

“Heti flails out in all directions, employing a winsome flexibility and an underlying sadness that deflates any pretension and focuses on the big questions of life. The exuberance of youth is shot through with magic threads of wisdom.” —Edmonton Journal

“From pithy quotables ('Night fell, but then, there are always holes to fall into,') to the oddly profound ('If now in some ways I drink too much, it's not that I lack a reverence for the world'), this is a novel that rewards reading, sitting with, and rereading.” —Quarterly Conversation