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Title: Fierce Attachments: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick ISBN: 0-8070-7123-4 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (7 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Cliched, all around.
Comment: Upon first reading Fierce Attachments, I thought that it was an acceptable novel- interesting anecdotes, good dialogue, etc. However, after thinking it through and re-reading sections, it became painfully clear that Gornick has no deep insights to tell us, and because of this lack of original and profound thought, she writes about cliched things in a cliched manner. Yes, the novel can be entertaining, especially if the subject matter holds interest. In my opinion, get it from the library. It's not worth the money.
Rating: 4
Summary: Be Aware of Gornick's Feelings About Memoirs
Comment: I think one would be hard put to find a reviewer who thinks that Gornick can't write, or that she doesn't have insights that other people feel are incisive and/or applicable to their own lives. I will not dispute any of this; this is an excellently-written book that does a wonderful job exploring the mother/daughter relationship. (Not being either one, I'm somewhat handicapped at commenting on how accurate it is in that area.)
I do think, however, that one should be aware of Gornick's take on what constitutes a memoir. Gornick has written that she views the lives on which a memoir is based to be the "rough draft." She feels that the "memoir" does not need to be held to the strict standards of truefulness that other non-fiction is. (For details on Gronick's take on what a memoir is, please read her piece in Salon: http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2003/08/12/memoir_writing/index.html
Personally, I find her explanations unsatisfactory, and her justifications to be rationalizations at best. I do not get enjoyment from the literary technique of an unreliable narrator, no matter how many literary persons find it to be a brilliant technique for exploring whatever (the universality of subjectivity, the unreliability of supposed objectivity, the capricious nature of life, or what have you), and similarly I have trouble with the concept of a "memoir" that is, at it's base, a piece of fiction. Perhaps I am a philistine, but I much prefer something like "The Ladies Auxiliarly," which, while certainly *based* on the author's life, does not pretend in any way to *be* life.
That caveat aside, I *do* honestly think that this is a very good book that many will enjoy. Just caveat emptor, is all.
Rating: 5
Summary: A superb stylist
Comment: The truth is, Gornick could write about the hard bit of cheese left over and I would thill to it. She is a superb stylist and I've read all her books greedily -- precious objects that they are. This book, with its dark and painful attachment to her mother laid bare for us -- and how this attachment has acted upon all her other attempts at attachment -- is kinetic both intellectually and emotionally. She repeatedly tiptoes up to that taboo -- the lack of love that keeps a mother and daughter so intimately entwined -- and lets us stare over the lip of the abyss. I see myself, I see so many women. She is an incredible writer. Every hard won word is worth the wait. A true gem.
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Title: The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick ISBN: 0374528586 Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Pub. Date: 11 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Approaching Eye Level by Vivian Gornick ISBN: 0807070912 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir by William Zinsser ISBN: 0395901502 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 20 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The End of the Novel of Love by Vivian Gornick ISBN: 0807062235 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood by Kate Simon ISBN: 0140263314 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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