![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The book is set in Toronto, where the cadre lives. The narrator of How is not so coincidentally called Sheila, and the cast of characters-Margaux, Misha, Sholem-share names with Heti’s real-life friends. In this case, their kid is an odd, artsy intellectual who breaks both ground and heart. How Should a Person Be?, which was chosen as one of The New York Times’s 100 Notable Books of 2012, is what happens when fiction goes to bed with autobiography. The result found me cross-legged and cramped over a cup of cold coffee in the aisles of Powell’s Books, where I stayed, totally absorbed, for the next who-knows-how-many hours as I gorged on 200-plus pages of Heti’s novel-from-life. My intention was normal enough: read the first page to see if I should buy it. How Should a Person Be? had been out for months, and yet I had not heard of it, or of Heti, until the title was mentioned in an essay Roxane Gay wrote on “How to Be Friends With Another Woman.” Her mention was enough to send me on a Google search (Lena Dunham, creator of “Girls,” cites Heti as one of her favorite authors), and then an actual search. Omething strange happened to me when I plucked Sheila Heti’s newest novel from its shelf at Powell’s Books. Aisles Fiction Goes to Bed With Autobiography ![]()
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