Approaching Eye Level - Hardcover
This collection of brave personal essays finds a quintessentially contemporary woman (urban, single, feminist) trying to observe herself and the world without sentiment, cynicism, or nostalgia.
Whether walking along the streets of New York or teaching writing at a university, she is a woman exploring her need for conversation and connection - with men and women, colleagues and strangers. She recalls her stint as a waitress in the Catskills and a failed friendship with an older woman and mentor; she reconsiders her experiences in the feminist movement, while living alone, and in marriage.
Turning her sharp eye on herself, Gornick struggles to see her part in things - how she has both welcomed and avoided contact, and how these attempts at connections have enlivened and, at times, defeated her. Unrelentingly honest, her essays remind us that we can come to know ourselves only by engaging fully with the world.
Whether walking along the streets of New York or teaching writing at a university, she is a woman exploring her need for conversation and connection - with men and women, colleagues and strangers. She recalls her stint as a waitress in the Catskills and a failed friendship with an older woman and mentor; she reconsiders her experiences in the feminist movement, while living alone, and in marriage.
Turning her sharp eye on herself, Gornick struggles to see her part in things - how she has both welcomed and avoided contact, and how these attempts at connections have enlivened and, at times, defeated her. Unrelentingly honest, her essays remind us that we can come to know ourselves only by engaging fully with the world.
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Review:
In this collection of essays, Vivian Gornick describes battling the unique loneliness that only living alone in a big city can bring. Drawing upon her experience of living on her own in New York after a failed marriage, Gornick characterizes the city's loneliness as, "hot with shame, a loneliness that tells you you're a fool and a loser. Everyone else is feasting, you alone cannot gain a seat at the table." In the essay, "On Living Alone," she writes, "This is a population in a permanent state of intermittent attachment. Inevitably, the silent apartment waits." Recommended reading for anyone who still glamorizes single, metropolitan living.
About the Author:
Vivian Gornick, "one of the most vital and indispensable essayists of our cultural moment" (Phillip Lopate), has written for The New York Times, The Village Voice, and other journals.
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- PublisherBeacon Pr
- Publication date1996
- ISBN 10 0807070904
- ISBN 13 9780807070901
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages163
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