Vivian Gornick writes insightful reviews and the ones in her new collection, Taking a Long Look, sparkle. In “Herman Melville” Gornick reviews Andrew Delbanco’s Melville: His World and Work by pointing out “…a book saturated in quotations from other readers. On every other page…Lewis Mumford notes, Elizabeth Hardwick observes, Harold Bloom remarks. A rudimentary list of those quoted includes Edward Said, Walker Percy, E. M. Forster, Newton Arvin, W. H. Auden, John Updike, along with the lesser known but influential academics Frank Lentriccia, Richard Slotkin, and Dominic La Capra.” (p. 31-32)
In “Diana Trilling” Gornick focuses on the tragedy of a husband’s betrayal of his wife. No, not a sexual betrayal, but a more insidious act. “She devoted herself to cleaning up her husband’s writing and, quite early, convinced herself that without her his world would never have been fully realized. She was certain that after Lionel died and his manuscripts went public, her contribution to the famous essays would be made known to the world. But then Lionel did die, and she discovered he had destroyed all those drafts with her editing notes on them. Distraught is not the word for what she felt.” (p. 50).
In “James Salter” Gornick focuses on Salter’s erotic novel, A Sport and a Pastime, where women play very narrow roles. “Certainly it is true that most writers have only one story in them–that is, as Flannery O’Connor puts it, only one they can make come alive. Then again, it is also true that it is the writer’s obligation to make the story tell more the third or fourth time around than it did the first. For this reviewer, Salter’s work fails on that score. In his eighties, he tells the story almost exactly as he told it in his forties.” (p. 76)
Vivian Gornick ranges far and wide in her book reviews and her articles on cultural figures. If you’re looking for an intelligent series of articles full of ideas and analysis, I recommend you take a long look at Gornick’s new book. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction vii
Literature 1
1 Lore Segal 3
2 Alfred Kazin 14
3 Herman Melville 23
4 Kathleen Collins 35
5 Diana Trilling 46
6 Mary McCarthy 56
7 James Salter 70
8 Edna St. Vincent Millay 77
9 The Reading Group 84
Culture 91
10 Uncle Tom’s Cabin 93
11 Rachel Carson 100
12 Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? 110
13 Primo Levi 120
14 Hannah Arendt 131
15 Erich Fromm 140
16 The Americanization of Narcissism 151
17 The Second Sex at Fifty 160
Two New York Stories 169
18 On the Bus 171
19 Bobby’s Salon 178
Essays in Feminism 193
20 Consciousness 195
21 On Trial for Acting like a Man 225
22 The Women’s Movement in Crisis 234
23 Why Do these Men Hate Women? 245
24 Toward a Definition of the Female Sensibility 260
Acknowledgments 287
Very interesting/ I didn’t realize that Gornick was 85.
Jeff, Gornick has been around for a long time. Some of her early writing appeared in THE VILLAGE VOICE.
Although I’ve never read a book or collection by Gornick I’ve been reading her criticism and commentary for years, mostly in the better publications. She always has something interesting to say on any subject she writes about.
Michael, like you I’ve been a fan of Gornick’s work for years. She writes well and explores a variety of subjects.
Lecture on feminism? Open any newspaper, tune into any newscast, check most any website, it’s there, 24/7.
Rick, some of Gornick’s essays are from a time where feminism wasn’t as accepted as today.
Gornick is also a more profound assessor of feminism and the world than most contributors to papers, newschat or blogging. Not that there isn’t a lot to deal with in all the default chauvinisms in the world, and by everyone.
Lionel Trilling apparently understood posterity better than Diana did. Without the edited drafts, it’s just her word against his [published manuscripts]. Incidentally, that’s the type of setup Iris Murdoch would have really sunk her teeth into in the 1970s: a widow discovering all her contributions to her late husband’s work were entirely eradicated…by him!
Deb, I was astonished that Lionel Trilling would commit such a cruel act against Diana Trilling. Clearly, Diane made a huge improvement in his work and he didn’t want to acknowledge it. What a jerk!
I don’t get it. Once the final version was done, why would any writer keep all the drafts?
Two reasons–both to do with their place in history. One would be to demonstrate how they worked up the final drafts, and the other would be show how others might’ve helped them along…their biographers certainly would like to see those drafts, and some book and manuscript collectors salivate for “holographic” corrections in galleys, published works and other texts.
Lionel Trilling might’ve been utterly thoughtless, or might’ve been utterly selfish and pompous, or some bad mixture of both. Should’ve been crediting his wife for help all along, of course.
Todd, I agree. Lionel Trilling’s egregious behavior toward his wife is despicable.
Never heard of her! I echo Rick’s sentiments!
Bob, you and Rick seem to share a lot of similar sentiments.
Ha!
Except politics!
Rick, good point!
I caught up with Gornick in the 1980s with ESSAYS IN FEMINISM and WOMEN IN SCIENCE, and she’s been one of my favorite essayists and critics since. She holds a place for me that Susan Sontag and Joan Didion (in her nonfiction writing) seem to hold for many others.
“Mostly in the better magazines” is an interesting phrase, Michale. Thanks for the heads-up, George…I’ll need to pick this up.
Of course, Michael mentioned “better publications”, but I was talking about this Michale guy…
Todd, always happy to alert you to new books!
Nevr heard of her, but she must be a really strong woman.
This discussion showed me again how much interesting and important stuff has been written – no time for me to even enjoy a smaller percentage.
Probably I missed her because her articles weren’t translated into German.
When I was younger I used to visit regularly our “university book store” which had a large selection of high quality books, but later …
Wolf, I’m sure someday GOOGLE or some other tech company will develop an amp where you phone or tablet can translate any ebook in the world.
https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/6343/the-art-of-memoir-no-2-vivian-gornick
Todd, thanks for the link!