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Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader
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Check link for latest rating. ( 1,156 ratings, 232 reviews)
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Description
The acclaimed author of The Odd Woman and the City celebrates the joys of rereading and the electrifying works of literature that have shaped her life.
A celebration of passionate reading from the acclaimed author and critic.
In nine stunning essays, the inimitable Vivian Gornick returns to the books that have shaped her. From a reporter in 1970s New York, to a feminist negotiating love and independence, to a writer in the jubilant sanctity of older age—Gornick's life is compelling, and in the characters of literature, she finds versions of herself through the years, each time she opens the page.
Gornick finds solace in the contradictory figures of D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, assesses womanhood in Colette, and reflects on Marguerite Duras's The Lover. She revisits Great War novels by J.L. Carr and Pat Barker, uncovers the psychological complexity in Elizabeth Bowen, and soaks in Natalia Ginzberg, 'whose work ... made me love life more'. When two erratic, highly strung cats enter her life, she discovers Doris Lessing's Particularly Cats.
Infused with Gornick's trademark verve and insight, this collection is a masterful appreciation of literature and its ability to illuminate.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Vivian Gornick's Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader combines memoir and literary criticism, exploring how rereading books can reshape one's self-perception. Critics praise it for its insightful and lively essays, where personal reflections intersect with literary analysis. Gornick's passionate engagement with literature is noted for its depth and thoughtfulness, making the book a compelling read for those interested in the transformative power of literature.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781760641887
Publisher: Black Inc.
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 04 February 2020
Country: Australia
Imprint: Black Inc.
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 15.0mm
Width: 128.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 168g
Pages: 192
About the Author
Vivian Gornick is the author of several books, including Fierce Attachments and The Odd Woman and the City, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography. Her work has appeared widely, including in The New York Times, The Nation, The New York Review of Books and The Atlantic.
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“Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class.” So begins Vivian Gornick’s exploration of how the world of socialists, communists, and progressives in the 1940s and 1950s created a rich, diverse world where ordinary men and women felt their lives connected to a larger human project. Now...Paperback$3299Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Taking A Long Look
For nearly fifty years, Vivian Gornick’s essays, written with her characteristic clarity of perception and vibrant prose, have explored feminism and writing, literature and culture, politics, and personal experience. Drawing writing from the course of her career, All That is Given illuminates one of the driving themes behind Gornick’s work: that the painful process of understanding one's self is what...Hardback$4500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Fierce Attachments
Vivian Gornick's relationship with her mother is difficult. At the age of forty-five, she regularly meets her mother for strolls along the streets of Manhattan. Occasionally they'll hit a pleasant stride—fondly recalling a shared nostalgia or chuckling over a mutual disgust—but most often their walks are tinged with contempt, irritation, and rages so white hot her mother will stop strangers...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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In her introduction to this year’s The Best American Essays, guest editor Vivian Gornick states that her selections “contribute materially to the long and honourable history of the personal essay by way of the value they place on lived experience.” Provocative, daring, and honest at a time when many writers are deliberately silencing themselves in the face of authoritarian and...Paperback$5100Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
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For nearly fifty years, Vivian Gornick’s essays, written with her characteristic clarity of perception and vibrant prose, have explored feminism and writing, literature and culture, politics and personal experience. Drawing writing from the course of her career, All That is Given illuminates one of the driving themes behind Gornick’s work: that the painful process of understanding one's self is what...PaperbackSold Out -
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Vivian Gornick's writing has always explored the hard truths of existence: the nature of human loneliness, and the struggle to love, work, and connect. In these seven seminal essays, Gornick chronicles the New York streets that energise her and looks back on the dangerously charged atmosphere of the Catskills where she waitressed as a student in the late fifties. She...PaperbackSold Out
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