Rereadings by Anne Fadiman

Rereadings by Anne Fadiman

Is a book the same book--or a reader the same reader--the second time around? The seventeen authors in this witty and poignant collection of essays all agree on the answer: Never.

The editor of Rereadings is Anne Fadiman, and readers of her bestselling book Ex Libris will find this volume especially satisfying. Her chosen authors include Sven Birkerts, Allegra Goodman, Vivian Gornick, Patricia Hampl, Phillip Lopate, and Luc Sante; the objects of their literary affections range from Pride and Prejudice to Sue Barton, Student Nurse.

These essays are not conventional literary criticism; they are about relationships. Rereadings reveals at least as much about the reader as about the book: each is a miniature memoir that focuses on that most interesting of topics, the protean nature of love. And as every bibliophile knows, no love is more life-changing than the love of a book.

The Wine Lover's Daughter, a book about her father (FSG, 2017), is written by Anne Fadiman. The Spirit Catches You and You Fell Down (FSG, 1997) earned the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Salon Book Award for her debut novel. Fadiman is also the editor of Rereadings: Seventeen Writers Revisit Books They Love (all published by FSG), and the author of two essay collections, At Large and At Small and Ex Libris. At Yale, she is the Francis Writer-in-Residence.