As she did in Fierce Attachments and The Singular Woman and the City, Vivian Gornick again shows, in the irresistible vignettes that make up Look forward, her unmatched talent for combining the account of her own experiences and reflection, with that mixture of ingenuity, freshness and wisdom that has made her an author already irreplaceable to so many readers.
In this new book, Gornick turns the memory of her experience as a waitress at the Catskills not only into a bittersweet approach to youth desire and summer work, but into an indelible come into contact with class and gender inequalities. Her journey as a visiting professor at several American universities serves to trace a wonderful and tragicomic x-ray of the academic landscape as a pain for the spirit: isolated communities, with their rites and quarrels, with its peculiar dynamic of loneliness and sociability, where the soul becomes immomeable surrounded by only like-minded beings in appearance. Whether it's to tell us about her relationship with the city, her evolution as a feminist or to ponder the remote reasons why an old friend of hers, despite being admired and loved by many, systematically evaded any glimpse of intimacy, Gornick once again offers us the unique look – brave and fierce, empathetic and always front-faced – with which she faces the world.