Rate this book

Letter To D (2009)

by André Gorz(Favorite Author)

4.1 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0745646778 (ISBN13: 9780745646770)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Polity Press

review 1: I took notice of the existence of this book, Letter to D, through an article in a newspaper, on the release of its Portuguese edition, although I ended buying the English edition. Its subtitle, A Love Story, was what caught my attention, even knowing beforehand that a love letter is something rarely understandable and appreciable by others. Yet, the book does not assume itself as such, but rather as a statement, a confession of all the feelings that André Gorz experienced, over his life, for Dorine, his wife (the D of the title), as well as the relationship between his literary production and his love for D.Throughout the pages, the reader, even if does not know who is André Gorz or his work, can get to a minimum that allows the understanding of the historical and person... moreal contexts that appear the book. Without a pretentious or flowery writing, André takes us through his life with D: "At the end of our third or fourth date, I finally kissed you." (p. 7) and its definition of what love is: “...how love is the mutual fascination of two individuals based precisely on what is least definable about them, least socialisable, most resistant to the roles and images of themselves that society imposes on them.” (p. 25).One of the great regrets of André, patent in the book, is the underrated way in which he describes his relationship with D, in what is considered his proeminent work, [i]The Traitor[/i]. Perhaps because, as noted on page 72, "Being passionately in love for the first team, being loved in return - this was apparently too banal, too private, too [i]common[/i]: it was not the kind of stuff that would allow me to rise to the universal." “If only I’d developed that in what has become ‘my book’.” (p. 81).He did so in this, in the most simple and affirmative way possible when talking about love, writing about what really feels without resorting to clichés: “You are the essential without which all the rest, no matter how important it seems to me when you’re there, loses its meaning and its importance.” (p. 103).The book ends with one of the strongest images I’ve recently read: "At night I sometimes see the figure of a man, on an empty road in a deserted landscape, walking behind a hearse." (p. 106). The rest, going beyond the "letter", is the story of how André and Dorine committed suicide together, one year after the conclusion of the book.
review 2: I appreciated the raw honesty of Gorz almost as much as his love for his wife. This is very well written but I feel like it is not complete enough to be called a book, regarding both: the length and story development. I would have liked the opportunity to get to know them better, to understand what it was about her that made him love her so. And vice versa. On a final note, I felt that this also lacked the enlightenment factor. I didn't get excited reading and I don't feel like it's changed my life which is a shame because they seem like interesting people and their love was extraordinary. But maybe I am criticizing it as a book as opposed to a love letter. less

Download links for: Letter to D

Advertising