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I was happy to see that I was not the only one to have thought that the main character was a female at the beginning of The Sorrows of an American.  It is possible we all thought the character was a female at first because of the assimilation with his sister at the beginning of the book and maybe also since the writer is a woman, the main character might be “thinking like a woman”.   Siri Hustvedt said that her book was going to deal with an immigrant story; however, I did not find this idea very imposing in the story.  The representation of consciousness and unconsciousness seems to be more prominent.  I also enjoyed the fact the Erik was a psychiatrist that way I could understand who these people think and how they do not understand their own selves and need to figure out who they really are before they can help other people.