Sometimes you choose a book, and sometimes it chooses you. This happened to me the other day in the bookshop when my eye was caught by a title – The Odd Woman and the City. It was a collection of non-fiction writings by Vivian Gornick, and on the inside front cover was this extract: “Every night when I turn the lights out in my 16th-floor living room before I go to bed, I experience a shock of pleasure as I see the banks of lighted windows rising to the sky, crowding round me, and I feel myself embraced by the anonymous ingathering of city dwellers.”
“Jesus, that’s me,” I thought, before heading to the till. I mean, it’s not literally me. I don’t live on the 16th floor, and she’s writing about New York not London. But I do live on a hill from where, at night, I look out over the lights of the city, and like herI feel a powerful sense of relief and comfort and joy thinking of all the other people out there.
Content from our partners
