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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
reflective
slow-paced
this is unusual and well written
It is as she says a Memoir
It interested me to read it as I knew the name her name vivian Gornick as a writer
And I liked the title
As I began it I liked it more since she is a New Yorker (I grew up there lived there for years)
also she was talking about her life as a somewhat single woman in NYC
I could relate to some of what she said yet not really enough to make this book right for me
I did read it and it held my interest
Yet after reading it I had to ask myself what it all meant
How was this relevant for me and for others?
It's not me she is not me we do not have the same life issues and interests
what I will say tho is that she has written well about herself
Judy
It is as she says a Memoir
It interested me to read it as I knew the name her name vivian Gornick as a writer
And I liked the title
As I began it I liked it more since she is a New Yorker (I grew up there lived there for years)
also she was talking about her life as a somewhat single woman in NYC
I could relate to some of what she said yet not really enough to make this book right for me
I did read it and it held my interest
Yet after reading it I had to ask myself what it all meant
How was this relevant for me and for others?
It's not me she is not me we do not have the same life issues and interests
what I will say tho is that she has written well about herself
Judy
A fucking revelation! Spiky and bracing and surprising and true.
reflective
fast-paced
The Odd Woman and the City is perhaps one of the most beautiful memoirs I've ever read. There is an introspective tone to it, a poignant writing style. Gornick's writing is reportive, journalistic as defined by her trade, exacting and sharp. She digs deep and analyzes. I can't help but be taken aback every few pages by the observations she makes of her own experiences with the people she knows and in the city she has lived in for most of her life.
There isn't a clear plot or a clear timeline, what it has consistently are: recurring people that tie it all together, Gornick and her thoughts, New York City, and people in the streets and in everyday life. Gornick writes about the familiar scenes of New York City in a very loving and discerning way. She talks about her acquaintances with candour.
The book is written in fragments. Or rather vignettes, it's a stylistic choice you will only realize she makes decisively once you're pages in.
There are so many things to talk about regarding the content of the book. For one, I deeply adore her retrospective on her radical feminism back in the day. There is a passage in the book where she relates the character Rose in Gypsy, her motives, to the motives behind radical feminism. There are also moments where she talks about the movement's flaws, the gap between theory and practice and where she falls. Reading her words on the topic really feels like facing a now-informed and experienced lecturer, telling me the ways in which her experiments in the lab fall short. In the book, Gornick also writes about her friend Leonard and their friendship with one another, how constant it is and how they fill one another up in a very special way. In the first pages, Gornick talks about how she and Leonard cannot meet too often, and that there is a certain distance of time the two must go through before falling back into each other's company. On the last page, she waits for that distance of time to pass. Throughout the book, Leonard is a voice in her head telling her his observations and takes and quips. He is there, her great friendship. Gornick's love of New York City is also palpable in the book. It reminds me of myself and my own love for Jakarta. I wish I could one day write of Jakarta in a voice as beautiful as Gornick's New York.
I also find myself relating to Gornick. Her want for sophistication, her wish to be cultured and to belong to the other refined crowd, her fantasies as she calls it. But in the end, I too like her realize that I'll never truly be that other class, that the fantasies are fantasies and the reality is what I live and end up loving.
In the end, I am also an odd woman and Jakarta is also the city.
There isn't a clear plot or a clear timeline, what it has consistently are: recurring people that tie it all together, Gornick and her thoughts, New York City, and people in the streets and in everyday life. Gornick writes about the familiar scenes of New York City in a very loving and discerning way. She talks about her acquaintances with candour.
The book is written in fragments. Or rather vignettes, it's a stylistic choice you will only realize she makes decisively once you're pages in.
There are so many things to talk about regarding the content of the book. For one, I deeply adore her retrospective on her radical feminism back in the day. There is a passage in the book where she relates the character Rose in Gypsy, her motives, to the motives behind radical feminism. There are also moments where she talks about the movement's flaws, the gap between theory and practice and where she falls. Reading her words on the topic really feels like facing a now-informed and experienced lecturer, telling me the ways in which her experiments in the lab fall short. In the book, Gornick also writes about her friend Leonard and their friendship with one another, how constant it is and how they fill one another up in a very special way. In the first pages, Gornick talks about how she and Leonard cannot meet too often, and that there is a certain distance of time the two must go through before falling back into each other's company. On the last page, she waits for that distance of time to pass. Throughout the book, Leonard is a voice in her head telling her his observations and takes and quips. He is there, her great friendship. Gornick's love of New York City is also palpable in the book. It reminds me of myself and my own love for Jakarta. I wish I could one day write of Jakarta in a voice as beautiful as Gornick's New York.
I also find myself relating to Gornick. Her want for sophistication, her wish to be cultured and to belong to the other refined crowd, her fantasies as she calls it. But in the end, I too like her realize that I'll never truly be that other class, that the fantasies are fantasies and the reality is what I live and end up loving.
In the end, I am also an odd woman and Jakarta is also the city.
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
adventurous
funny
inspiring
slow-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
funny
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
I really enjoyed the Odd Woman and the City. Vivian Gornick has the most interesting stories and great insights on being a woman in New York. I would definitely recommend.
reflective