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    Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader
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    Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader
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    Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader
    Ebook141 pages2 hours

    Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader

    By Vivian Gornick

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    I sometimes think I was born reading … I can't remember the time when I didn't have a book in my hands, my head lost to the world around me.

    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.

    ‘Literature knows few champions as ardent or insightful — or as uncompromising — which is to readers’ good fortune.’ —Kirkus
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBlack Inc. Books
    Release dateFeb 4, 2020
    ISBN9781743821268
    Unavailable
    Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-Reader
    Author

    Vivian Gornick

    VIVIAN GORNICK is a writer and critic whose work has received two National Book Critics Circle Award nominations. Her works include the memoirs Fierce Attachments—ranked the best memoir of the last fifty years by the New York Times—The Odd Woman and the City, and Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader, as well as the classic text on writing, The Situation and the Story.

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    Reviews for Unfinished Business

    3.5/5

    30 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Gornick reminds me of all the books I don't remember, and all those that surprise me when I reread them and realize what I either have forgotten or didn't really understand in the first place. It is good to know that I'm not the only one who rereads to find new perspectives.
    • 3/5
      A lovely read for those of us who reread books with a passion. I have books that I have read and reread for my whole reading life - one that spans more than six decades. Then there are other books that I have encountered in the early years of this century and I have already reread them; for example Call Me By Your Name is one of those.The title of Gornick's short book belies the joy that I believe all re-readers gain from their literary habit. It is one worth pursuing and, I believe, it does not deter the continued exploration of new reading, but rather spurs you onward to more reading in a search for your next favorite great read; one that you can add to your rereading list.
    • 3/5
      Vivian Gornick is one of my favorite writers. And in spirit I completely appreciate what she is doing here, telling the story of her life through books she has reread throughout it. And yet, its a little hard to embrace this book with a full heart if you aren't familiar with the authors or novels she's talking about. If you're new to Gornick, start with Fierce Attachments or Odd Woman in the City instead.