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A review by smuds2
The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick
3.0
UNFINISHED
REVIEW RATING SYSTEM - [ 1 = FELT DECEIVED, 2 = NOT WHAT I EXPECTED IN A BAD WAY BUT WASN'T A WASTE OF TIME, 3 = WHAT I EXPECTED FELT LIKE MY TIME WAS USED AS EXPECTED, 4 = PLEASANTLY SURPRISED, 5 = THINKING ABOUT IT MONTHS LATER ]
RULES : (1) can not give anything a 5 outright, must either be a re-read or a update to score, (2) can not give incremental ratings, except for 4.75 which is functionally a "revisit in case it is actually a 5", (3) I should always end with a "this leads me to think" of 2-3 ideas this book roused in me.
I'm not sure what i thought this book was going to be going in to it, so it's tough to say it "met my expectations." I think this book could be read by a wide variety of people, not just those interested in personal writing. for example, people who are interesting in coming up with a slightly more systematic understanding of "why" they like certain personal writing over others.
Gornick is, of course, Gornick. Her voice itself is so strong in the writing. If you like her writing, you'll probably be able to coast along through this book.
The selection of writers analyzed and reviewed, IMO, was fairly limited to a pretty boring subset. I guess that just goes with the territory.
Roughly, I got the message that memoir, essay, personal writing, is more of a halfway between nonfiction and fiction than something like pure nonfiction, and requires skills that are closer in line with fiction than nonfiction, but the subject matter falls more in line with nonfiction.
The idea, for example, that in memoir writing, the voice and the other are both the author.
REVIEW RATING SYSTEM - [ 1 = FELT DECEIVED, 2 = NOT WHAT I EXPECTED IN A BAD WAY BUT WASN'T A WASTE OF TIME, 3 = WHAT I EXPECTED FELT LIKE MY TIME WAS USED AS EXPECTED, 4 = PLEASANTLY SURPRISED, 5 = THINKING ABOUT IT MONTHS LATER ]
RULES : (1) can not give anything a 5 outright, must either be a re-read or a update to score, (2) can not give incremental ratings, except for 4.75 which is functionally a "revisit in case it is actually a 5", (3) I should always end with a "this leads me to think" of 2-3 ideas this book roused in me.
Gornick is, of course, Gornick. Her voice itself is so strong in the writing. If you like her writing, you'll probably be able to coast along through this book.
The selection of writers analyzed and reviewed, IMO, was fairly limited to a pretty boring subset. I guess that just goes with the territory.
Roughly, I got the message that memoir, essay, personal writing, is more of a halfway between nonfiction and fiction than something like pure nonfiction, and requires skills that are closer in line with fiction than nonfiction, but the subject matter falls more in line with nonfiction.
The idea, for example, that in memoir writing, the voice and the other are both the author.