pedestrienne

Sometimes you find a book that just speaks to you (thanks to the best website ever, The Toast). Many of these essays circle around loneliness and they all at some point come back to the idea of humiliation, either at the hand of someone else, or being dealt out by Gornick, and that was surprising to me as I don't really think about humiliation a lot, and yet I was identifying with the writing. Which is apropos because these essays are also about starting out at one place, seeing a different side of things, and realizing both have a truth. These essays are not about me, but I can see some of myself in them, and they are valuable to me for both reasons. Recommended particularly for those who walk a lot, people who have worked or experienced academia, those who want to delve into the hows and whys of partnership and aloneness, and those who need to hear a writer say things about female friendships and life giving conversations that they don't have the words for yet.