Fierce Attachments

‘Passive in the morning, rebellious in the afternoon, she was made and unmade daily. She fastened hungrily on the only substance available to her, became affectionate toward her own animation, then felt like a collaborator. How could she not be devoted to a life of such intense division? And how could I not be devoted to her devotion?’ Published in 1987, and recently voted the best memoir of the last fifty years by the New York Times, Vivian Gornick’s memoir Fierce Attachments explores the eponymous fierce attachments to the women that raised her: ‘I absorbed them as I would chloroform on a cloth laid against my face.’ How could I not be hopelessly devoted to your book, Vivian? Brilliant. I loved it.

Jack