Approaching Eye Level

by Vivian Gornick

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Seminal essays on loneliness, living in New York, friendship, feminism, and writing from nonfiction master Vivian GornickVivian Gornick's Approaching Eye Level is a brave collection of personal essays that finds a quintessentially contemporary woman (urban, single, feminist) trying to observe herself and the world without sentiment, cynicism, or nostalgia. Whether walking along the streets of New York or teaching writing at a university, Gornick is a woman exploring her need for conversation show more and connection--with men and women, colleagues and strangers. She recalls her stint as a waitress in the Catskills and a failed friendship with an older woman and mentor, and reconsiders her experiences in the feminist movement, while living alone, and in marriage.Turning her trademark sharp eye on herself, Gornick works to see her part in things--how she has both welcomed and avoided contact, and how these attempts at connections have enlivened and, at times, defeated her. First published in 1996, Approaching Eye Level is an unrelentingly honest collection of essays that finds Gornick at her best, reminding us that we can come to know ourselves only by engaging fully with the world. show less

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3 reviews
Illuminating and invigorating, Gornick’s thought and expression of thought is stimulating.
Gornick's quite a good essayist - wish there were another collection of her work!
Como ya hiciera en Apegos feroces y La mujer singular y la ciudad, Vivian Gornick vuelve a mostrar, en las irresistibles viñetas que componen Mirarse de frente, su inigualable talento para aunar el recuento de sus propias vivencias y la reflexión, con esa mezcla de ingenio, frescura y sabiduría que ha hecho de ella una autora ya insustituible para tantos y tantos lectores.

En este nuevo libro, Gornick convierte el recuerdo de su experiencia como camarera en los Catskills no sólo en una agridulce aproximación al deseo juvenil y los trabajos veraniegos, sino en una indeleble toma de contacto con las desigualdades de clase y de género. Su periplo como profesora visitante por varias universidades estadounidenses le sirve para trazar show more una maravillosa y tragicómica radiografía del paisaje académico como suplicio para el espíritu: comunidades aisladas, con sus ritos y rencillas, con su peculiar dinámica de soledad y sociabilidad, donde el alma se enmohece rodeada de seres sólo en apariencia afines. Ya sea para hablarnos de su relación con la ciudad, de su evolución como feminista o para meditar sobre los recónditos motivos por los que una antigua amiga suya, pese a ser admirada y amada por muchos, evadía sistemáticamente cualquier atisbo de intimidad, Gornick vuelve a ofrecernos la singular mirada –valiente y feroz, empática y siempre de frente– con la que encara el mundo. show less

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19+ Works 3,304 Members
Vivian Gornick is a writer and critic whose work has received two National Book Critics Circle Award nominations and been collected in The Best American Essays 2014. Her works include the memoirs Fierce Attachments and The Odd Woman and the City and the classic text on writing The Situation and the Story.

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Genres
Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, Literature Studies and Criticism
DDC/MDS
305.409747Society, government, & cultureSocial sciences, sociology & anthropologySocial group - Age, Gender, EthnicityWomenStandard subdivisionsHistory, geographic treatment, biographyNorth AmericaNortheastern U.S.
LCC
HQ1439 .N6 .G67Social sciencesThe family. Marriage, Women and SexualityThe Family. Marriage. WomenWomen. Feminism
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172
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190,332
Reviews
3
Rating
(3.98)
Languages
Catalan, English, Spanish
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Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
10
UPCs
1
ASINs
5