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Florence Gorden (2000)

by Brian Morton(Favorite Author)

3.89 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

review 1: Florence Gordon is a 75-year-old activist and pioneering feminist living in New York City. She is long divorced from her husband, a formerly recognized writer who can no longer write or teach and who is always begging Florence to get him a job. She has a son, Daniel, who became a policeman in the Northwest. His wife Janine is a psychologist who has come to New York for a semester to study. They have a son (who takes no part in this story) and a 19-year-old daughter who forms a bond with the difficult Florence, a force of nature who does not suffer fools. This story goes nowhere and says nothing. Some things happen, but there is really no plot at all. I didn't get the point, though I will be the first to admit it might have been in there somewhere and I missed it. Wouldn'... moret recommend you spend precious reading time on this one.
review 2: Having just read the New York Times review of this novel, I feel inclined to defend its purpose and its beauty. The Times Review criticizes Florence Gordon, both the novel and the character for not having ideas, for not being a book about feminism or about political activism since Florence is supposed to be an intellectual and a product of these social upheavals. It's true that the isms don't figure very much in the book, but they are not necessary. This is a novel about the fragility of the human condition, about the definition of self at every age, about the impossibility of true independence. The aging intellectual, the jealous ex-husband, the policeman son, the insecure daughter-in-law, the adolescent granddaughter all struggle to emerge from the self-doubt which is born of their interactions with each other and with the greater world. Even those who seem most steady are challenged by health issues and aging, unavoidable hurdles in many lives. The prose is crisp, the characters eminently believable and the sketchiest of plots peppered with realistic dialogue and humor. Florence Gordon is a gem! less

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