Approaching Eye Level - Softcover

Gornick, Vivian

3.88

1,850 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807070912 ISBN 13: 9780807070918

Publisher: Beacon Press, 1997

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"[Approaching Eye Level is] about the day-to-day struggle to face down the brutality of growing loneliness, to accept the limitations of friendship and intimacy, to honor the process of becoming oneself. . . . Vivian Gornick's strength lies in her refusal to give up."-Mary Hawthorne, The New York Times

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Publisher:

About Approaching Eye Level:
In her first book since the highly acclaimed, "Fierce Attachments," brilliant essayist, Vivian Gornick, explores what are perhaps the two most difficult issues in anyone's life: the fear of loneliness, and the search for self-knowledge. In "Approaching Eye Level," Gornick delves into the predicament of modern life with an unrelentingly honest look at her encounters and relationships with others.

Watching passersby on the streets of New York City, working summers in the Catskills, and sometimes living alone, Vivian Gornick describes portraits of human interaction through a series of closely connected personal essays. "Approaching Eye Level" opens with a story about the death of an acquaintance -- someone Gornick would occasionally run into on the street, yet whose friendship always lingered just beyond her reach. One essay recounts her relationship with a woman friend and mentor who she at first adores uncritically and later comes to despise; another revels in the joy she finds in a simple companionship with one who is neither a lover nor a friend. Gornick struggles to see her part in the world, how she has both welcomed and avoided contact, and how these attempts have enlivened and, at times, defeated her.

"Approaching Eye Level" is a beautifully written collection of essays that cannot help but inspire the reader to imagine relationships free of neediness and fear. Gornick does not provide easy answers to painful issues, but ultimately, she urges us all to come to know ourselves by participating in the world.

Synopsis:

In a collection of personal essays, the author shares her struggle to achieve both independence and connection with others, reconsiders feminism, living alone, and marriage, and reveals how we can come to know ourselves by participating in the world.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.