A review by lonestarwords
The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Every night when I turn the lights out in my sixteenth-floor room before I go to bed, I experience a shock of pleasure as I see the banks of lighted windows rising to the sky, crowding round me, and feel myself embraced by the anonymous ingathering of city dwellers…The pleasure it gives soothes beyond all explanation.
The Odd Woman and the City
Vivian Gornick
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I can't remember who recommended this book to me, but if you're out there, thank you! This is my kind of memoir. It's a love letter to NYC, it's the story of a "fiercely independent woman's engagement with city life" (quoted because I could not put that any better), and along with a love of city life, Gornick loves literature.
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Vivian Gornick is a memoirist whose writing earned her the title of "Ambassador for those most contested, conflicted of American genres: the personal essay and the memoir" by Emily Stokes - high praise indeed. I'd never heard of Gornick but I now plan to read her other works because I connected with her so strongly.
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This is a niche memoir, meaning if you're not smitten with NYC and care to hear what leading a life there looks like (for a single and very self-sufficient woman), this probably won't interest you. Gornick weaves her story around her love of walking and how that seemingly simple exercise is a balm to her entire life. "...nothing healed me of a sore and angry heart like a walk through the city. To see in the street the fifty different ways people struggle to remain human...I was never less alone than in the crowded street." She writes about the way the city has shaped and supported her - we are privy to her running internal dialogue as she shares her days, the people she encounters, the places she goes.
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It's also a lovely story of friendship and Gornick introduces us to her best friend: "For more than twenty years now Leonard and I have met once a week for a walk…we hardly ever do anything else but talk. It's the way we feel about ourselves when we are talking that draws us so strongly to each other."
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Gornick is one of those women I would love to have a glass of wine with and I will definitely be thinking of her on my next stroll in nyc.
The Odd Woman and the City
Vivian Gornick
•
I can't remember who recommended this book to me, but if you're out there, thank you! This is my kind of memoir. It's a love letter to NYC, it's the story of a "fiercely independent woman's engagement with city life" (quoted because I could not put that any better), and along with a love of city life, Gornick loves literature.
•
Vivian Gornick is a memoirist whose writing earned her the title of "Ambassador for those most contested, conflicted of American genres: the personal essay and the memoir" by Emily Stokes - high praise indeed. I'd never heard of Gornick but I now plan to read her other works because I connected with her so strongly.
•
This is a niche memoir, meaning if you're not smitten with NYC and care to hear what leading a life there looks like (for a single and very self-sufficient woman), this probably won't interest you. Gornick weaves her story around her love of walking and how that seemingly simple exercise is a balm to her entire life. "...nothing healed me of a sore and angry heart like a walk through the city. To see in the street the fifty different ways people struggle to remain human...I was never less alone than in the crowded street." She writes about the way the city has shaped and supported her - we are privy to her running internal dialogue as she shares her days, the people she encounters, the places she goes.
•
It's also a lovely story of friendship and Gornick introduces us to her best friend: "For more than twenty years now Leonard and I have met once a week for a walk…we hardly ever do anything else but talk. It's the way we feel about ourselves when we are talking that draws us so strongly to each other."
•
Gornick is one of those women I would love to have a glass of wine with and I will definitely be thinking of her on my next stroll in nyc.