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The Rest of Life: Three Novellas
A National Bestseller
In these beautifully rendered novellas, the writer introduces three women, each of whom tells the story of the lover who most altered her life. In Immaculate Man he is a priest, a virgin at the age of forty-three. In Living at Home he is an Italian war correspondent who wants nothing but her body and the sanctuary of their house – until he is seized by news of another revolution. And in The Rest of Life, he is an intellectual teenager inspired by the Romantic poets to make a suicide pact. He is remembered six decades later by the woman with whom he made the pact. She decided to live.
“Mary Gordon’s fiction is the work of a humane, masterly novelist . . . [whose] great gift is making us care about her people.” – Newsweek
“Each of the three novellas gives us a woman’s love story . . . beautifully written and moving.” – The Boston Globe
In these beautifully rendered novellas, the writer introduces three women, each of whom tells the story of the lover who most altered her life. In Immaculate Man he is a priest, a virgin at the age of forty-three. In Living at Home he is an Italian war correspondent who wants nothing but her body and the sanctuary of their house – until he is seized by news of another revolution. And in The Rest of Life, he is an intellectual teenager inspired by the Romantic poets to make a suicide pact. He is remembered six decades later by the woman with whom he made the pact. She decided to live.
“Mary Gordon’s fiction is the work of a humane, masterly novelist . . . [whose] great gift is making us care about her people.” – Newsweek
“Each of the three novellas gives us a woman’s love story . . . beautifully written and moving.” – The Boston Globe
257 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
10 people are currently reading
233 people want to read
About the author
Mary Gordon
101 books158 followersMary Catherine Gordon is an American writer from Queens and Valley Stream, New York. She is the McIntosh Professor of English at Barnard College. She is best known for her novels, memoirs and literary criticism. In 2008, she was named Official State Author of New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
February 28, 2019
I had hoped I would enjoy at least one of the three novellas but sadly, I only enjoyed the ending of the last one. And, even that was disappointing. I found myself mostly thinking, “What am I reading?”.
August 21, 2012
I loved reading Mary Gordon's novel Spending: A Novel last year, and was eager to find more of her writing. A good friend gave me this book (since I had recommended Spending to her) and the three novellas are definitely examples of Gordon's rhythmic prose and three-dimensional women.
The short stories were sometimes difficult to read because they vascillated between first person and third person or the descriptions of actions were so subtle that I didn't realize what was happening until later. I did enjoy the subtlety sometimes--when I felt I was piecing together a mystery as the character drops a clue along the story of her life.
I connected in some way with all three stories, though didn't wholly relate to any one of the women. That's probabaly the power of Gordon's women; there are universally recognizable traits of women in all of them, but they are all individual creations.
Enjoyed, but rather subdued and dense to recommend to everyone.
The short stories were sometimes difficult to read because they vascillated between first person and third person or the descriptions of actions were so subtle that I didn't realize what was happening until later. I did enjoy the subtlety sometimes--when I felt I was piecing together a mystery as the character drops a clue along the story of her life.
I connected in some way with all three stories, though didn't wholly relate to any one of the women. That's probabaly the power of Gordon's women; there are universally recognizable traits of women in all of them, but they are all individual creations.
Enjoyed, but rather subdued and dense to recommend to everyone.
January 27, 2025
Lately, I’ve been making an effort to read some of those books that have lingered way too long on my bookshelves. This was one of them. At one point I thought maybe I had read one of the novellas, but nothing seemed familiar.
The first novella, Immaculate Man, was enjoyable in the beginning. But it quickly became a bit tedious. There was repetition of the same material, nothing much happened in the story, it was all very introspective, thoughts of present and past, and the story went on for a very long time. Unfortunately, this became a pattern for each novella.
The brief story line for this one was told from a divorced woman with two kids who is a social worker for abused women. She meets a priest as part of the job and they end up having a relationship together. He is an innocent in sexual relations and relationships. Most of the story is her describing his life, and some of his mentor, an older priest who she became very good friends with but is dying.
The second novella, Living at Home, was awful in that it was so boring. The repetition became too much. I wanted to quit reading so many times, but I persevered and kept going.
It's also from a woman’s point of view, divorced with two boys but they are grown now. The story is mostly about her Italian boyfriend. She is living in London, her parents from Germany, but she grew up mostly in America. So she feels like she doesn’t fit in with the British, nor America, nor anywhere really and her boyfriend travels so much that they have that similarity. Again, most of the story is told about him, or their relationship, and not much happens.
The last novella, The Rest of Life, was the better of the three, but I still did not enjoy it very much. Another story from the point of view of a woman, but this time she is older and she is a widow. Her son and his finance are taking her back to Italy, to her home town after being sent away as a teenager. Her thoughts about what happened, why she was sent away, and how she could never tell this story to her son is repeated several times.
Every novella was introspective, without much action and very little plot, with the exception of the last novella, that one had something of a plot. All of them seemed to go on way too long. This book is probably something I would have enjoyed more back when I bought the book, too bad I waited so long.
The first novella, Immaculate Man, was enjoyable in the beginning. But it quickly became a bit tedious. There was repetition of the same material, nothing much happened in the story, it was all very introspective, thoughts of present and past, and the story went on for a very long time. Unfortunately, this became a pattern for each novella.
The brief story line for this one was told from a divorced woman with two kids who is a social worker for abused women. She meets a priest as part of the job and they end up having a relationship together. He is an innocent in sexual relations and relationships. Most of the story is her describing his life, and some of his mentor, an older priest who she became very good friends with but is dying.
The second novella, Living at Home, was awful in that it was so boring. The repetition became too much. I wanted to quit reading so many times, but I persevered and kept going.
It's also from a woman’s point of view, divorced with two boys but they are grown now. The story is mostly about her Italian boyfriend. She is living in London, her parents from Germany, but she grew up mostly in America. So she feels like she doesn’t fit in with the British, nor America, nor anywhere really and her boyfriend travels so much that they have that similarity. Again, most of the story is told about him, or their relationship, and not much happens.
The last novella, The Rest of Life, was the better of the three, but I still did not enjoy it very much. Another story from the point of view of a woman, but this time she is older and she is a widow. Her son and his finance are taking her back to Italy, to her home town after being sent away as a teenager. Her thoughts about what happened, why she was sent away, and how she could never tell this story to her son is repeated several times.
Every novella was introspective, without much action and very little plot, with the exception of the last novella, that one had something of a plot. All of them seemed to go on way too long. This book is probably something I would have enjoyed more back when I bought the book, too bad I waited so long.
June 30, 2022
Después de llevar muchos meses con un 75% del libro leído esperando el momento de acabarlo y viendo que ese momento no ha llegado, creo que me toca despedirme de él.
Seguramente fue culpa mía por no informarme bien pero, al ver el resumen del libro, pensé que iba a tratar temas como la dependencia emocional u otras cuestiones que suele abordar el feminismo de una forma mucho más profunda. Me esperaba incluso algún argumento filosófico que lo sustentase. Pero lo que ha sido, para mí, es un libro muy superficial y aburrido, que no dice nada independiente del número de páginas que pases.
Seguramente fue culpa mía por no informarme bien pero, al ver el resumen del libro, pensé que iba a tratar temas como la dependencia emocional u otras cuestiones que suele abordar el feminismo de una forma mucho más profunda. Me esperaba incluso algún argumento filosófico que lo sustentase. Pero lo que ha sido, para mí, es un libro muy superficial y aburrido, que no dice nada independiente del número de páginas que pases.
March 1, 2020
This is the first time (in forever?) I've read not short stories but a collection of novellas. They are each about 75 pages and all of them are set deep in a woman's perspective about gender socialization, home, male-female relationships, sexuality, discrimination and consent (signal the #metoo movement). Also, the men in the book that are the objects of the women's contemplation (both filled with desire and disdain) are what I would call manic pixie dream guys. They are dramatic and larger than life while the women are a bit depressed. But unlike Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or an Annie Hall, the men don't really "save" or bring adventure to the women that the women truly benefit from or that usher in a change. Interesting stories, but again, the mood, general tenor of the female narrators are a bit sad. But maybe Mary Gordon is just trying to be realistic about women's experience, at least in the hetero world. (ooh, did I just say that?)
September 6, 2010
The Rest of Life is comprised of three novellas. They may as well be one. There is such a strong similarity in these stories of a woman, the lover she changed and the love that changed her. Which would be okay... if the stories were interesting. These were not.
What makes Mary Gordon's three novellas particularly ineffectual was the overall lack of story. Yeah, that's that one element, you know, the one which some writers feel is vital, while others think it can be completely discarded. Gordon is obviously in the latter camp. You get quite a bit of internal thought in these stories as the protagonists are pouring a cup of tea, or getting dressed, or sitting in an empty room. Page after page of thought. Then someone speaks, and again the protagonist gets lost in thought. Maybe if these women had some thought that really motivated me to read one... or thoughts that were unique from one to the next... but no--they all just think the same: Will he leave me? I'm sure he will. I hope not, but it's destined. The way he's sitting makes me think of his cock. I love his cock. And his balls. I hope I get to snuggle up against them later before he leaves me. No thanks.
There really is little forward movement in these stories. Thus, there is little to recall after finishing them. My complete summary of the book could be summarized by the official synopsis at the top of this page. I have nothing else to add; perhaps because nothing else actually happened.
What makes Mary Gordon's three novellas particularly ineffectual was the overall lack of story. Yeah, that's that one element, you know, the one which some writers feel is vital, while others think it can be completely discarded. Gordon is obviously in the latter camp. You get quite a bit of internal thought in these stories as the protagonists are pouring a cup of tea, or getting dressed, or sitting in an empty room. Page after page of thought. Then someone speaks, and again the protagonist gets lost in thought. Maybe if these women had some thought that really motivated me to read one... or thoughts that were unique from one to the next... but no--they all just think the same: Will he leave me? I'm sure he will. I hope not, but it's destined. The way he's sitting makes me think of his cock. I love his cock. And his balls. I hope I get to snuggle up against them later before he leaves me. No thanks.
There really is little forward movement in these stories. Thus, there is little to recall after finishing them. My complete summary of the book could be summarized by the official synopsis at the top of this page. I have nothing else to add; perhaps because nothing else actually happened.
November 19, 2008
The three novellas are very well written and ring true, but boy, they were rather serious! I liked the three protagonists, altho at some point I wanted to shake each of them and say, "Look on the bright side and stop obsessing about the past/what you think will happen in the future!" That said, I'm glad I read this as it offered a portrait of three very different lives. I appreciate the frank depictions of romantic relationships, desire and sex from these women's points of view.
May 27, 2010
Not the type of book you read voraciously -- it takes its time and you take your time. Not long on plot, but filled with arresting passages that urge you to dog ear the page so you can come back again easily. Gordon's protagonists are not the sort to see life through a lens of joy, though sometimes there is hard won gratitide. This makes for dark reading in a way that makes you question whether there is truth and how much in the way these characters see life.
March 21, 2018
Interesting perspectives of three very different women in three novellas. But a bit brooding and introspective where too much is happening in the character's thoughts and memory vs in the story itself, reducing the immediacy of the narrative. Liked the last novella, the title story, best as it grappled with difficult questions of what a life really is -- one or two key moments or a long continuum-- and how past and present influence each other without ever really meeting.
January 14, 2018
The third novella was very beautiful. I enjoyed all three but the third was a stand alone.
May 12, 2025
honestly so sad and disappointed at this volume of hers! i LOVED her Spending when i read it about this time last year. This lacked severely! There was a lot of telling more than showing here and honestly dragged so much, partially due to the drawn out comparisons, like a joke that’s beaten like a dead horse. There were certainly some sections I could relate to or found well-put, but not enough to keep me going or interested in the actual stories themselves, which seemed told before they even began. BOOO! *trump voice* Sad!
April 28, 2025
it took me months and months to finish the second part... then I freed myself from it by leaving it unread at a random cafe.
that is more interesting than the book.
that is more interesting than the book.
August 3, 2025
The underrated author. Her writing is very artistic. I love it. Simple. Minimal. Provocative.
April 21, 2015
I read this after having read The Liar's Wife. The four novellas in that collection completely blew me away. These three novellas here had less of an impact on me. These three are all in some way about a woman's relationship with a man who is in the process of leaving, or who has already abandoned her, and whom she cannot for one reason or another relinquish.
The stories chart the progress of each protagonist's questions: why am I having an affair with a priest? How long will it last? It is so tenuous, yet it gives me something, but what? He will leave me for something or something else and I don't know when that will happen, only that it will, so how is he even with me at all right now? Or in the second novella, I am married to a journalist who covers dangerous, threatening events and he is always leaving, and may at any time leave in the most complete way which is to say that he could be killed, so why do I stay? How do I make peace with his departures? How was it that he was so much better with my mother when she was dying than I was?
Or in the third novella, when an older woman is being taken by her son back to the town in Italy where she grew up, she is forced to confront the place and time when her teen-aged boyfriend and she made a pact to commit suicide, and he did, but she did not. She was shamed and sent away to America. Now she is asking, why did I live and he died? Was I really alive this entire time? What does it mean to be alive, and what do I owe the dead, if anything?
What pulls you through these stories is the questions the narrators keep asking, how the pursuit of one question's answer, maybe arriving at some kind of an answer, only opens up the next question, and the next. While these novellas are, most simply, the stories of three women's lives, it might be more accurate to say they are the record of the questions each woman asks herself about her life. As none of us are 100% certain about our own lives or why we do what we do or how things have turned out the way we have, I think the central aspect of these stories, -- the continual pursuit questions -- is very true to life.
The stories chart the progress of each protagonist's questions: why am I having an affair with a priest? How long will it last? It is so tenuous, yet it gives me something, but what? He will leave me for something or something else and I don't know when that will happen, only that it will, so how is he even with me at all right now? Or in the second novella, I am married to a journalist who covers dangerous, threatening events and he is always leaving, and may at any time leave in the most complete way which is to say that he could be killed, so why do I stay? How do I make peace with his departures? How was it that he was so much better with my mother when she was dying than I was?
Or in the third novella, when an older woman is being taken by her son back to the town in Italy where she grew up, she is forced to confront the place and time when her teen-aged boyfriend and she made a pact to commit suicide, and he did, but she did not. She was shamed and sent away to America. Now she is asking, why did I live and he died? Was I really alive this entire time? What does it mean to be alive, and what do I owe the dead, if anything?
What pulls you through these stories is the questions the narrators keep asking, how the pursuit of one question's answer, maybe arriving at some kind of an answer, only opens up the next question, and the next. While these novellas are, most simply, the stories of three women's lives, it might be more accurate to say they are the record of the questions each woman asks herself about her life. As none of us are 100% certain about our own lives or why we do what we do or how things have turned out the way we have, I think the central aspect of these stories, -- the continual pursuit questions -- is very true to life.
December 9, 2009
A strange and wonderful book, haunting; three novellas, each between 70 and 90 pages, unconnected except by the fact of painful love in each of the protagonists’ lives.
Wanted to study the novella, how it unfolds. The writing is repetitive in a seemingly unedited way, but really I think it’s highly edited and crafted to give a sense of disbelief, as in the final novella, the woman, Paola, continually asking, “What does it mean that I lived and he (her boyfriend at 15) didn’t? What does it mean to have life?” The repetition seems like stream of consciousness, or maybe a desire to convince oneself (and reader?) of the truth in these accounts of lives. The prose is unremarkable but sparkly and strongly felt somehow – straight telling and summary and out comes a clear bit wisdom like: the past is like a bed sheet that’s torn and no good and put away in the closet forever.
You’re very much inside the women’s heads but seeing very clearly, inhabiting their memory and fear. The novellas open and close in strange ways, very mid-stride, not really having a beginning or an end. A book full of moments neither happy nor sad, just lived and recorded and longed for even by those who’ve lived them.
Wanted to study the novella, how it unfolds. The writing is repetitive in a seemingly unedited way, but really I think it’s highly edited and crafted to give a sense of disbelief, as in the final novella, the woman, Paola, continually asking, “What does it mean that I lived and he (her boyfriend at 15) didn’t? What does it mean to have life?” The repetition seems like stream of consciousness, or maybe a desire to convince oneself (and reader?) of the truth in these accounts of lives. The prose is unremarkable but sparkly and strongly felt somehow – straight telling and summary and out comes a clear bit wisdom like: the past is like a bed sheet that’s torn and no good and put away in the closet forever.
You’re very much inside the women’s heads but seeing very clearly, inhabiting their memory and fear. The novellas open and close in strange ways, very mid-stride, not really having a beginning or an end. A book full of moments neither happy nor sad, just lived and recorded and longed for even by those who’ve lived them.
January 16, 2016
I was a little mystified by Mary Gordon's style of writing. I found these three novellas to be serious and cerebral. The first two novellas tried my patience, somewhat; I wanted to say to the protagonist, "stop thinking and start living, for heaven's sake!" The women in each were constantly questioning life: why this and not that? why did men do this and women do that? why did I do this? what would it be like if I had not done this? what is he thinking when he does that? It's too much thinking; it hurts my head. But when I started the third novella, of the same title as the book ("The Rest of Life"), I was hooked by her style, even though it still had the same qualities as the first two. Still serious, still sad, still forever questioning -- putting life on hold -- still, there were some thoughts that I recognized as having, myself, and maybe I thought I would at last understand certain things.
Overall, I'm not likely to pursue any other books by Mary Gordon. They are heavy...very, very heavy ... and my own thoughts are heavy enough as it is.
Overall, I'm not likely to pursue any other books by Mary Gordon. They are heavy...very, very heavy ... and my own thoughts are heavy enough as it is.
June 24, 2010
Three stories, three women, three men who made a difference, good or bad, in their lives... That's probably the best explanation for this book. I would probably modify it a bit; something like: Three women, their relations to their homes, and the repetitive, constant, obsessive thought world they narrate with slow diligence. The repetitive nature of the narrators stories really make you feel like you are in their head, seeing the world with their own eyes. The feeling that other people circle around the same thoughts and issues int heir heads is perhaps comforting. At times, though, the story is a bit too repetitive. Though in this repetition one can also find common threads (beside those very obvious ones) in language, in image, in mirror between the lives of the three women and how they evaluate their past, present, and future.
April 8, 2016
Immaculate Man is by far the strongest of these stories. Is it because a relationship between a Catholic priest and a woman has much more to explore, or because with the next two stories I'd already seen everything Gordon had to say with this collection? I'm not entirely sure, but the stories drag terribly along the way, considering they're less than a hundred pages each. Having a character thinking in circles isn't automatically a bad thing, but when the prose isn't interesting enough to carry it, it's bad.
October 12, 2009
In three novellas, Mary Gordon presents three women, each of whom tells her own story of a lover who altered her life - a priest, a war correspondent, and a tortured teenager who committed suicide. I bought it because the second novella brings in Alzheimer's, but I'm genetically incapable of not finishing a book I start, so I read all three. It's not really to my personal taste in writing but enjoyable enough, and it made me think about relationships and the effect of the past on the present.
May 28, 2015
What I liked:
- Fantastic writing
- Some beautifully expressed thoughts
- Interesting and original scenarios
- Honest, raw, un-sanitized (I miss writing like this)
What I didn't like:
- All three novellas had moments of seeming to drag on
- I prefer a more succinct style
This book could be rounded up to a four, but when you find yourself wondering when something is going to end, it needs to be rounded down.
- Fantastic writing
- Some beautifully expressed thoughts
- Interesting and original scenarios
- Honest, raw, un-sanitized (I miss writing like this)
What I didn't like:
- All three novellas had moments of seeming to drag on
- I prefer a more succinct style
This book could be rounded up to a four, but when you find yourself wondering when something is going to end, it needs to be rounded down.
November 14, 2012
3* Three very different, odd novellas. I don't usually read these type of books. A freebie from Pamala/BookTalk. My favorite was the last one THE REST OF LIFE. Although each has an interesting point to make about a particular "man in their life" who made a difference. The first one was too confusing for me and took too long to read.
Not a keeper and will pass on.
Not a keeper and will pass on.
December 4, 2014
I guess I"m not the target audience for this one. It's beautifully written (although I take issue with the characters using vulgar terms when everywhere else int he story they speak lyrically-it's jarring, and I'm by no means a prude-it just didn't work), but I wasn't engaged and couldn't wait to move on form this one.
June 1, 2007
man, this fucking sucked. also, i was at a reading she did, and every time somebody asked a question she thought might not be in wild praise of her work, she got so defensive, i was shocked.
apparent in this book is gordon's intense dislike of women.
apparent in this book is gordon's intense dislike of women.
March 18, 2013
Stories that you want to read from beginning to end in one sitting. My favorite of the 3 was Immaculate Man, a bit improbable perhaps but a moving story of an affair with a priest. She makes both characters come alive.
July 13, 2014
Three novellas, three women, each tells a story of a lover who altered her life - a priest, a war correspondent, and a tortured teenager who committed suicide. Makes one think of relationships, but not really an upbeat book.
November 7, 2007
Three novellas by Mary Gordon, not as good as her full length books
December 17, 2007
another favorite
January 20, 2008
Powerful writing. Not light reading, but beautiful.
Want to read
April 11, 2009My favorite book, Spending, is by Mary Gordon, so I picked up this new one.
May 21, 2009
Disappointing all around-none of the 3 novellas really resonated and none of the characters had enough personality for me to care about them one way or another.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews