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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
Some absolutely gorgeous sections on New York here. Had to circle end underline vigorously.
This book wasn’t my cup of tea, pointless rumblings and nonsense IMO. I try to avoid stream of consciousness narratives but this was part of a challenge and it was a short book so I push myself to finish it, I did, but only just .
Es la segunda parte del anterior libro que leí. Mantiene el estilo y la sensibilidad, que es de lo que más me gustó; además del flaneurismo por las calles de Nueva York.
Vaya que muy bien, pero no logra igualarse al primero. :(
Vaya que muy bien, pero no logra igualarse al primero. :(
ADORED ADORED ADORED. easily one of my fav books I’ve read. Will be reading more for Vivian!!
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
reflective
fast-paced
I thought I would love this - a memoir, an ode to urban life - but too many things irritated me. Many characters that we know so little about, her best friend Leonard (so pretentious, so pedantic), her occasional racism, her Karen attitude of commenting on everyone's habits and actions and being astonished when she's called a b****... It's well written but too pretentious and self-important.
A pleasant, if forgettable, amble through both New York City and Gornick's musings on her life lived there. A quick, fun tour of intersections I know and museums I've frequented, interspersed with some truly beautiful prose on city life and city living.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
"the most vital form of of connection other than sex, is conversation"
I've been wanting to read Vivian Gornick for a very long time now and when I saw a pristine copy of The Odd Woman and the city in a second-hand bookstore I took my chance and read it straight away. Of course, I knew I was going to like this book, it had everything I love.
One of my favorite genres of movies is the one where cities are almost made like characters, like Lost in Translation or even Sex and The City. And what better way to embody that of course than New York City, surrounded by its myths and legends. Our narrator is almost part of this trance so particular to new york city, it's precisely by getting lost in this crowd that she finds herself. Who she is is almost intrinsically linked to new york. She can find a sense of self only around a street corner in manhattan, during discussions between strangers overheard on the bus, by the divine signs that NY seems to sent her or by the long walks with Leonard, her best friend, when it looks like that is only together that they really know who they are individually.
I found a bit of joan didion in those personal writings, besides the obvious similarity with the form and the city of new york, I also found the same authenticity towards one's inner feelings and the same intense introspective tendency, although it is much more incisive and biting in Didion's writing. Here Gornick is much more witty and melancholy. She constantly looks for herself, observes who she becomes even at 50 years old. A very inspiring self-quest in that it was unashamed and intelligently conducted.
She traces her journey from the Bronx, her relationship with her mother which heavily made what she has become, the importance she gave to intelligence and conversation, her incessant need to engage, to discuss. It was interesting to read about her ambivalent relationship to love and feminism but above all I adored finding myself in the importance she gave to friendship.
Finally, I have to say that I really loved the energy that this book left on me, a feeling of peace. It really was as if she managed to perfectly say what for a long time I myself was having difficulty articulating. A testament that we were all trying to found what we are, what we want to be, and what we seem to be meant to be. We are all looking for these connections with others, to exist among the crowd but also sometimes get lost in it. A very inspiring read and I can't wait to read more of Gornick, especially when it comes to her relationship to literature and feminism.
"I can't do men", I said
"What the hell does that mean" he said
"I'm not sure"
"When will you be sure ?"
"I don't know"
"So what do you do in the mean time ?"
"Take notes"
I've been wanting to read Vivian Gornick for a very long time now and when I saw a pristine copy of The Odd Woman and the city in a second-hand bookstore I took my chance and read it straight away. Of course, I knew I was going to like this book, it had everything I love.
One of my favorite genres of movies is the one where cities are almost made like characters, like Lost in Translation or even Sex and The City. And what better way to embody that of course than New York City, surrounded by its myths and legends. Our narrator is almost part of this trance so particular to new york city, it's precisely by getting lost in this crowd that she finds herself. Who she is is almost intrinsically linked to new york. She can find a sense of self only around a street corner in manhattan, during discussions between strangers overheard on the bus, by the divine signs that NY seems to sent her or by the long walks with Leonard, her best friend, when it looks like that is only together that they really know who they are individually.
I found a bit of joan didion in those personal writings, besides the obvious similarity with the form and the city of new york, I also found the same authenticity towards one's inner feelings and the same intense introspective tendency, although it is much more incisive and biting in Didion's writing. Here Gornick is much more witty and melancholy. She constantly looks for herself, observes who she becomes even at 50 years old. A very inspiring self-quest in that it was unashamed and intelligently conducted.
She traces her journey from the Bronx, her relationship with her mother which heavily made what she has become, the importance she gave to intelligence and conversation, her incessant need to engage, to discuss. It was interesting to read about her ambivalent relationship to love and feminism but above all I adored finding myself in the importance she gave to friendship.
Finally, I have to say that I really loved the energy that this book left on me, a feeling of peace. It really was as if she managed to perfectly say what for a long time I myself was having difficulty articulating. A testament that we were all trying to found what we are, what we want to be, and what we seem to be meant to be. We are all looking for these connections with others, to exist among the crowd but also sometimes get lost in it. A very inspiring read and I can't wait to read more of Gornick, especially when it comes to her relationship to literature and feminism.
"I can't do men", I said
"What the hell does that mean" he said
"I'm not sure"
"When will you be sure ?"
"I don't know"
"So what do you do in the mean time ?"
"Take notes"