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A review by fearandtrembling
End of the Novel of Love by Vivian Gornick
3.0
I'm going to be lazy and simply link to Nicholas' review because it's good and summarises quite well what was left out of Gornick's discussion.
This is a book I wish I had read about ten years ago because it's rich, full of unpredictable insights, particularly the sections where she talks about the anxieties and erotics of the mother-daughter bond (or trap, as it might be). It made me want to seek out lesser-known works by well known writers (Radclyffe Hall's The Unlit Lamp, Willa Cather's Song of the Lark and also books I'd never heard of, like George Meredith's Diana of the Crossways and May Sinclair's Mary Olivier).
I'm stumped, though, by her discussion of Arendt and Heidegger, which I think boils down to "sex, or an erotic attachment fused with mental compatibility, leads to bad judgment" which I suppose can be true but seems to let Arendt off the hook (and doesn't take into account her politics, and the role it might have played in her relationship with Heidegger and her subsequent defence of his position). In other words, there might be more to Arendt's susceptibility to Heidegger's vile politics than mere "the sex was good"/"the mind sex was even better", etc. I'm being unfair to Gornick here but it generally reads this way.
Then, there is the matter of Gornick's disillusionment with communism, which, ehhhh. No.
This is a book I wish I had read about ten years ago because it's rich, full of unpredictable insights, particularly the sections where she talks about the anxieties and erotics of the mother-daughter bond (or trap, as it might be). It made me want to seek out lesser-known works by well known writers (Radclyffe Hall's The Unlit Lamp, Willa Cather's Song of the Lark and also books I'd never heard of, like George Meredith's Diana of the Crossways and May Sinclair's Mary Olivier).
I'm stumped, though, by her discussion of Arendt and Heidegger, which I think boils down to "sex, or an erotic attachment fused with mental compatibility, leads to bad judgment" which I suppose can be true but seems to let Arendt off the hook (and doesn't take into account her politics, and the role it might have played in her relationship with Heidegger and her subsequent defence of his position). In other words, there might be more to Arendt's susceptibility to Heidegger's vile politics than mere "the sex was good"/"the mind sex was even better", etc. I'm being unfair to Gornick here but it generally reads this way.
Then, there is the matter of Gornick's disillusionment with communism, which, ehhhh. No.