The Romance of American Communism

Name: The Romance of American Communism
Brand: Tantor Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Vivian Gornick
ISBN: 9781705207406

Author: Vivian Gornick

Narrator: Randye Kaye

Unabridged: 11 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/07/2020

Categories: Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography

Synopsis

Writer and critic Vivian Gornick's long-unavailable classic exploring how Left politics gave depth and meaning to American life.

"Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class." So begins Vivian Gornick's exploration of how the world of socialists, communists, and progressives in the 1940s and 1950s created a rich, diverse world where ordinary men and women felt their lives connected to a larger human project.

Now back in print after its initial publication in 1977 and with a new introduction by the author, The Romance of American Communism is a landmark work of new journalism, profiling American Communist Party members and fellow travelers as they joined the Party, lived within its orbit, and left in disillusionment and disappointment as Stalin's crimes became public.

About Vivian Gornick

Vivian Gornick is a writer and critic whose work has received two National Book Critics Circle Award nominations and been collected in The Best American Essays 2014. Growing up in the Bronx amongst communists and socialists, Gornick became a legendary writer for Village Voice, chronicling the emergence of the feminist movement in the 1970s. Her works include the memoirs Fierce Attachments and The Odd Woman and the City and the classic text on writing, The Situation and the Story.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Julia

a classic and a must-read, I cannot stress this enough! This was my second time reading it, thanks to Verso for re-issuing it! “Oral history of the CPUSA” does not do justice to what this book really is, which is a historical documentation of the emotional lives of members of the CPUSA. Maybe this d......more

Goodreads review by Jason

"Look. . .Life is shit, people are shit but,” he leans forward intently, “sometimes life is great and people are great. And when that happens it is hard to walk away from, no matter what else is happening. Well, that's the way the CP was for me. Sure there was a lot of shit in the CP, and a lot of......more

Goodreads review by Avery

Everyone who wants to understand the (inter)personal aspects of Communism should read this book, especially if you are or used to be a Communist. Absolutely essential and intensely resonant. There's so much love and hatred and beauty and hope and anger and bitterness and regret and passion packed in......more

Goodreads review by Wendy

spellbinding......more

Goodreads review by Soph

There are books that have a 'before you read them' and 'after you read them' quality - this is one of them, and you should read it as soon as you can (whether or not you're a socialist organizer). "Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class."......more