How Should a Writer Be?
Sheila Heti Attempts to Reconcile the Personal and Artistic Selves
A Künstlerroman is a novel that traces the development of an artist figure. Ideally, by the time the artist reaches creative potential at the end of the novel, he or she is isolated and living in a world of subjective thoughts and observations. But the ending leaves many of us asking just how this person is going to survive in real time.
Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be? attempts to reconcile the two sides of any artist, but doesn’t settle on an easy, straightforward answer. This is reflected in the structure of the novel—which is divided into four acts, since it was originally a play—that protagonist and author Sheila cannot seem to write.
Within the four acts are chapters, because this is also a book about not being able to write a play. So the novel lies somewhere in between fiction and nonfiction: all events and conflicts took place outside of the realm of this book, and Heti has made a concerted effort to weave memories and conversations into something that will allow both art, meaning, and—perhaps?—an answer.
Heti’s strategy is effective since, unlike other central characters, Sheila isn’t trying to fulfill any predestined purpose—she is far too flawed, humble and self-deprecating. She is a challenge to Lawrence Breavman (Leonard Cohen) and Stephen Dedalus (James Joyce), two artist figures who often take themselves far too seriously and try to control the entire universe with laurel wreaths around their heads.
Sheila is, at times, stagnant, stuttering, and confused. Heti grounds Sheila’s questions in real life, while recording her best friend over breakfast, or giving a blowjob. Sheila is no golden girl poet set high up on a pedestal; she is far too real and aware for that. In fact, she and Margaux (artist Margaux Williamson, friend to Sheila and to Heti) reflect on the art world, but mock pretentious performance and question the identity of the artist.
But Sheila doesn’t shy away from making the same mistakes as those other artistic counterparts. Like Breavman and Dedalus, she does try to use private recordings of her conversations with Margaux for the play. Breavman gets away with this by rewriting dialogues and scenes in his favor, and then makes the sources of those lines read themselves, essentially.
These characters never respond, but only passively comment on how he has rewritten them. Breavman is happy because writing is a way of controlling the unpredictable universe. Sheila is not so lucky: Margaux, hurt and deceived, rejects Sheila. Margaux is human, not some character to be interpreted. Sheila’s characters are not tools to help her grow and develop, but are seminal figures in the story, and their perspectives must also be considered. This, in part, is why Heti blurs the distinction between fiction and nonfiction: the characters are real people and not just tools to advance a plotline.
So, with no plot or plan, does Heti ever answer the question? No, but does anybody ever answer this question? Heti has crafted a novel that presents life as it is: disordered, random and, on a bad day, meaningless. We piece together unrelated events in an effort to find some significance and purpose in life. If you were expecting a self-help book, look elsewhere. How a person should be is up to them, ultimately.
How Should a Person Be? / Sheila Heti / Anansi Press / 288 pp / $29.95
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