Audio only
Length4h 27m
About this audiobook
One of our most beloved writers reassess the electrifying works of literature that have shaped her life.
“I sometimes think I was born reading…I can’t remember the time when I didn’t have a book in my hands, my head lost to the world around me.”
Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader is Vivian Gornick’s celebration of passionate reading, of returning again and again to the books that have shaped her at crucial points in her life. In nine essays that traverse literary criticism, memoir, and biography, one of our most celebrated critics writes about the importance of reading—and re-reading—as life progresses. Gornick finds herself in contradictory characters within D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, assesses womanhood in Colette’s The Vagabond and The Shackle, and considers the veracity of memory in Marguerite Duras’s The Lover. She revisits Great War novels by J. L. Carr and Pat Barker, uncovers the psychological complexity of Elizabeth Bowen’s prose, and soaks in Natalia Ginzburg, “a writer whose work has often made me love life more.” After adopting two cats, whose erratic behavior she finds vexing, she discovers Doris Lessing’s Particularly Cats.
Guided by Gornick’s trademark verve and insight, Unfinished Business is a masterful appreciation of literature’s power to illuminate our lives from a peerless writer and thinker who “still read[s] to feel the power of Life with a capital L.”
Audiobook details
GenreLiterary Classics, Biography and Memoir, Psychology
Length4 hrs 27 mins
Narrated byRecorded Track
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateApr 4, 2020
LanguageEnglish
More from Vivian Gornick
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 10m$2 · $0.00
Charles Dickens: Complete Works (Annotated)Charles Dickens819h 4m$2 · $0.00
The Complete Novels of Jane Austen & Brontë Sisters (Annotated)Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë204h 15m$2 · $0.00
The Complete Works: Charlotte, Emily, Anne, Patrick & Branwell BrontëCharlotte Brontë, Anne Brontë, Emily Brontë138h 12m$1 · $0.00
The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Annotated)Oscar Wilde126h 19m$2 · $0.00
L. M. Montgomery – Premium Collection: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry & MemoirsLucy Maud Montgomery155h 1m$2 · $0.00
The Complete Works of the Brontë Family (Anne, Charlotte, Emily, Branwell and Patrick Brontë) (Annotated)Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë140h 39m$2 · $0.00
MARK TWAIN: 12 Novels, 195 Short Stories, Autobiography, 10 Travel Books, 160+ Essays & Speeches (Illustrated)Mark Twain415h 9m5 (2)$2 · $0.00
The Complete Works of William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare89h 26m$3.50 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m$18 · $0.00
All NovelsGeorge Orwell53h 48m$10 · $0.00
The Complete Works of TolstoyLeo Tolstoy412h 44m$1 · $0.00
The Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Annotated)Louisa May Alcott226h 24m$2 · $0.00
Sherlock Holmes series - completeArthur Conan54h 8m$3.50 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m$15
The Count of Monte Cristo (With Original Illustrations)Alexandre Dumas54h$1 · $0.00
H. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction (Annotated)H. P. Lovecraft50h 45m$2 · $0.00
The Complete Books of F. Scott Fitzgerald (all his 5 novels + all 4 short story collections published during his lifetime)F. Scott Fitzgerald87h 43m$1 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m$29 · $0.00
The Complete Novels of Charlotte Brontë (Annotated)Charlotte Brontë80h 42m$2 · $0.00
Frederick Douglass: All 3 Memoirs in One VolumeFrederick Douglass42h 36m$1 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m$26 · $0.00
Ulysses S. Grant: Life of the Fearless General & Commander-in-Chief (Complete Edition - Volumes 1&2)Ulysses S. Grant30h 34m$2 · $0.00
Left for DeadEbony Canion5h 34m$17
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m$24 · $0.00
A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings With George Müller (The Complete Four-Volume Edition)George Müller43h 37m$2 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m5 (2)$29 · $0.00
Scandal Between the Sheets & Stranded with the Tempting StrangerBrenda Jackson9h 22m$24 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m5 (1)$20 · $0.00
The Boys and MeMark Miller8h 32m$23
AretéBrian Johnson19h 57m$35
Ullathin KuralPrem Rawat8h 17m$18 · $0.00
Vax FactsPaul Thomas MD, Deedee Hoover10h 26m$25
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h$8 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
TerraformPropaganda5h 39m$24 · $0.00
Hour of the HeartIrvin D. Yalom, Benjamin Yalom8h 19m5 (1)$26 · $0.00
The Thomas Sowell ReaderThomas Sowell14h 51m$25
So You Want to Talk about RaceIjeoma Oluo7h 41m$17
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m$29 · $0.00
Level UpRob Dial7h 42m$26 · $0.00
As a JewSarah Hurwitz8h 36m$26 · $0.00
Burn the HaystackJennie Young, PhD9h 30m$29 · $0.00
Woman and the New Race (Annotated)Margaret Sanger6h 30m$2 · $0.00
Good InsideBecky Kennedy9h 55m$29 · $0.00
Du Bois: EssaysW.E.B. Du Bois6h 22m$1 · $0.00
The North American Indian (Illustrated Edition)Edward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge5h 59m$2 · $0.00
Valley of the BirdtailAndrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson10h 1m$29 · $0.00
Lies My Therapist Told MeGreg E. Gifford9h 3m$29 · $0.00
Disturbed in Their NestsAlephonsion Deng, Judy A. Bernstein11h 22m5 (1)$23 · $0.00
You may also like
As We ExistKaoutar Harchi3h 16m$15
Dropping the MaskNoni Hazlehurst12h 13m$29 · $0.00
The Best American Essays 2022Alexander Chee, Robert Atwan12h 54m$33 · $0.00
MisophoniaDana Vowinckel11h 17m$29 · $0.00
The Writer's LibraryNancy Pearl, Jeff Schwager11h 22m$29 · $0.00
The Men in My LifePatricia Bosworth12h 40m$23
Jan MorrisSara Wheeler14h 36m$29 · $0.00
A Story Teller's StorySherwood Anderson11h 20m$20
True Stories from an Unreliable EyewitnessChristine Lahti5h 30m$24 · $0.00
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You BlackerDamon Young8h 12m$26 · $0.00
This Is One Way to DanceSejal Shah4h 53m$15
NervousJen Soriano9h 56m$29 · $0.00
A Personal OdysseyThomas Sowell10h 56m$21
You Don’t Look Like Anyone I KnowHeather Sellers10h 33m$20 · $0.00
InadvertentKarl Ove Knausgaard1h 33m$10
Beside MyselfSasha Marianna Salzmann11h 41m$20
The Girl in the MiddleAnais Granofsky5h 48m$24 · $0.00
The Mother DanceHarriet Lerner9h 39m$29 · $0.00
Out Came the SunMariel Hemingway9h 6m$20
All Roads Lead to CalvaryJerome K. Jerome9h 17m$2 · $0.00