UNFINISHED BUSINESS: NOTES OF A CHRONIC RE-READER By Vivian Gornick


I confess: I’m not a big re-reader. In fact, I might reread only a couple of books per year. I do know a couple of prodigious re-readers: Art Scott and Steve Stilwell have reread the entire Nero Wolfe series over 50 times!

Vivian Gornick calls herself a chronic re-reader in this slim volume (161 pages) that mimics a memoir. I’m surprised at the books Gornick feels compelled to reread. Here’s a sample of what Gornick rereads:
Chapter One: D. H. Lawrence especially Sons and Lovers
Chapter Two: Collette especially The Vagabond and The Shackle
Chapter Three: Marguerite Duras especially The Lover
Chapter Four: Elizabeth Bowen especially The Death of the Heart, The Home in Paris and The Heat of the Day
Chapter Five: Delmore Schwartz especially The World is a Wedding and the short stories of A. B. Yehoshua
Chapter Six: Natalia Ginzburg especially Voices in the Evening and Family Sayings
Chapter Seven: J. I. Carr’s A Month in the Country and Pat Barker’s Regeneration
Chapter Eight: Doris Lessing’s Particularly Cats
Chapter Nine: Thomas Hardy especially Jude the Obscure

Interspersed with Gornick’s feelings about these books are details of Gornick’s life: her marriages, her divorces, her jobs, her travels, her cats. Gornick makes her case for re-reading, but it fell on deaf ears in this house. Are you a re-reader? What do you re-read? GRADE: B

21 thoughts on “UNFINISHED BUSINESS: NOTES OF A CHRONIC RE-READER By Vivian Gornick

  1. Steve Oerkfitz

    I do reread but not as much as I would like since I usually am too far behind on books I haven’t read a first time. I have reread Huckleberry Finn and Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness multiple times. All of Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald at least three times. A lot of Philip K. Dick, Eric Ambler, Jack Vance and the earlier Michael Connelly’s. All the Martin Beck novels. I would guess I reread about 10 to 15 books per year. That’s about ten percent of my reading.
    Can’t say any of her choices would be on my list.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Steve, I reread maybe six or seven books in a typical a year. There just too much new stuff to read! The only books I’d consider rereading on Gornick’s list is Elizabeth Bowen’s short story collection.

      Reply
  2. Michael Padgett

    I must confess that I’m not much of a re-reader, and when I re-read it’s much more likely to be stories than novels. There are Flannery O’Connor stories that I’ve read many times. Also J. D. Salinger’s “Nine Stories”. The only thing on Gornick’s list that I’ve read at all is “Sons and Lovers”, and it was hard enough getting through that once.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Michael, like you I struggled through SONS AND LOVERS. I much prefer Lawrence’s STUDIES IN CLASSIC AMERICAN LITERATURE.

      Reply
  3. Deb

    There was a time that I reread…but now it’s hard to keep up with all the new-to-me books I want to read, let alone visit old favorites. If I do reread, it’s likely to be a reread of a favorite section of a book, rather than a straight first-page-through-last-page read.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Deb, 2019 was an unusual rereading year for me because I re-read 12 (of the 25) volumes of Asimov & Greenberg’s THE GREAT SF STORIES series. I only have five more volumes to reread in 2020. I originally read THE GREAT SF STORIES series when they were first published in the 1980s. Those stories bring back a lot of memories.

      Reply
  4. Jeff Meyerson

    What have I reread? Not a lot. If I reread one book a years it is a lot. Like Michael, I reread short stories mostly. If I am reading a collection (Ed Hoch’s latest comes to mind) or anthology (DEEP WATERS was the latest), and there is something I’ve already read – in the latter it was stories by Conan Doyle, Freeman, Innes, and Crispin – I will reread it as I go along.

    I did reread HUCKLEBERRY FINN when I first got into the internet, just to see how reading a few chapters a day online went for me (fine, obviously). I’ve reread all of the Holmes stories at least once (HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES more than that), King’s THE STAND (when he released his “uncut” version I read that), some Christie (AND THEN THERE WERE NONE comes to mind), Hammett (especially the stories), some Robert Silverberg stories, probably others I can’t think of at the moment. But this makes it sound like more than it is. I have picked up books I intend to reread “some day” – the Martin Beck books by Sjowall & Wahloo that Steve mentioned, Jack Finney’s TIME AND AGAIN – but there is always something new (as Deb said) first. Jackie reread the first few J. D. Robb (Nora Roberts) books as new ones came out, but since the series is now up to #50… She also reread the first three Harry Potter books as the next ones came out.

    As for the Gornick (which I thought you would like), I’ve only read one on her list, Pat Barker’s REGENERATION trilogy. I have read some Lawrence and Colette and Lessing and Hardy (under extreme duress; I’d have to be forced to read any more), but have no interest in rereading them.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Jeff, I read a ton of Thomas Hardy novels (and his poetry) for my PhD Qualifying Exams. Not a task I’d like to repeat. I struggled through Pat Barker’s REGENERATION (1991) and didn’t feel motivated to read the other two books in her trilogy. I read THE STAND when it was first published and was not enticed by King’s “uncut” version. Like you, I have plenty of Good Intentions on rereading the Martin Beck books, the Judge Dee mysteries, Chandler and Hammett, Jack Vance, etc. But too many new books arrive each week and the stacks of books around here continue to grow!

      Reply
      1. Jeff Meyerson

        Exactly! Jackie used to reread more, but even she has a long list of books and authors (I recommend certain mysteries that I think she would like) these days. Plus, there are books I loved that are Just.Too.Long. to reread now, like SHOGUN.

      2. george Post author

        Jeff, as you know I’m prone to reading an occasional Big Fat Book. But rereading SHOGUN or any 1000 page book would be daunting. I’m also feeling a sense of time running out (for all of us!) so reading choices become more important.

  5. Michael Padgett

    Although I’m generally pretty good at picking new books to read, sometimes I’ll get into a real turkey, where the plot is stupid or the writing is godawful, and I need an antidote to remind me of how good writing can be. When that happens I have a few things I can turn to that restore my optimism. The two that work best for me are the last paragraph of Joyce’s “The Dead” and the first chapter (two pages) of “A Farewell to Arms”.

    Reply
  6. Rick Robinson

    I don’t reread a lot, but now and then, mostly for “comfort reads”. I’ve read all of the original Sherlock Holmes stories and novels several times, and all of McCaffrey’s Pern books at least thrice. Like Jeff, I reread stories in anthologies when I get to them, rather than skipping them. I’ve read Tolkein’s Hobbit and LOTR several times, and Fritz Leiber’s Grey Mouser stories as well.

    The only book on this books’ list that I’ve reread is the Doris Lessing.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Dan, true. I do listen to music over and over. But, I’m always more interested in the music I haven’t listened to yet. The thrill of the hunt!

      Reply
      1. Dan

        Well why do you spend any time at all listening to music you’ve heard before when there’s so much new music to be heard?

  7. Beth Fedyn

    Although I’ve read – and enjoyed – Elizabeth Bowen, Doris Lessing, and Thomas Hardy, I would not choose to read any of those books again.

    My go-to rereads are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird although the Harry Potter and Louise Penny series might be coming around again. Recently I’ve read a lot of REALLY good books. That scares me. The dreck is probably lurking just around the corner.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Beth, I enjoy reading Mark Twain. I’ve read a lot of his work, but not all of it. I try to read an Anthony Trollope novel each year, too. Diane loves Louise Penny’s mysteries and is looking forward to the new one coming in September!

      Reply

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