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Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader
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About This Book
Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader is Vivian Gornick's celebration of passionate reading, of returning again and again to the books that have shaped her at crucial points in her life. In nine essays that traverse literary criticism, memoir, and biography, one of our most celebrated critics writes about the importance of reading--and re-reading--as life progresses. Gornick finds herself in contradictory characters within D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, assesses womanhood in Colette's The Vagabond and The Shackle, and considers the veracity of memory in Marguerite Duras's The Lover. She revisits Great War novels by J. L. Carr and Pat Barker, uncovers the psychological complexity of Elizabeth Bowen's prose, and soaks in Natalia Ginzburg, "a writer whose work has often made me love life more." After adopting two cats, whose erratic behavior she finds vexing, she discovers Doris Lessing's Particularly Cats. Guided by Gornick's trademark verve and insight, Unfinished Business is a masterful appreciation of literature's power to illuminate our lives from a peerless writer and thinker who "still read[s] to feel the power of Life with a capital L."
Reviews
"As always, Gornick reveals as much about herself as about the writers whose works she explores; particularly arresting are her essays on Lawrence and on Natalia Ginzburg."
"Gornick recognizes that in that initial encounter, one might not be emotionally ready to appreciate a work fully, but with each rereading will recognize a new literary element or better understand a particular protagonist no matter how many times the book has been perused before ..."
"With its concentric rings of self-scrutiny, Unfinished Business shows that Gornick's commitment to altering consciousness—above all, her own—has only intensified with time ..."
"My own response to Gornick's insights varied."
"brief and characteristically pithy ..."
"for Gornick, rereading, like reading, is also about pleasure, good company, playful internal dialogue, and intimacy ..."
"We learn not just from a gifted critic, but from the interpretation of a person who lives life with a capital L ..."
"Unfinished Business is sneakily poignant ..."
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