MixedThe Chicago Review of Books... a collection of essays on literature, culture, feminism, and New York. Many things work against this collection, including the fact that because these essays have been republished decades after their original appearance in other publications, the book feels anachronistic ... But to look at the past is to be able to retrospectively thumb through a map of our movement ... In a moment when equality is being watered down across the world, such reminders are not only helpful but necessary. These essays, thus, function as a literal archive, whose relevance and anachronism can both be measured in their distinction from the present. To show us how far we have moved ... an uneven collection, and it does not pretend to be anything other than a disorganized set of essays ... The collection may, however, fail to impress the unacquainted, who may not have the patience for essays that elude a running thread ... To read Gornick is to firstly fall in love with the act of reading ... Every writer wants to be read, but few writers seem to believe in the strength of reading as much as Vivian Gornick. It is incredible what she can read out of material.
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