"As Anton Chekhov put it so memorably: "Others made me a slave, but I must squeeze the slave out of myself, drop by drop." Vivian Gornick, a major figure of second-wave feminism, found particular inspiration for this struggle in the work of male writers, from H. G. Wells and Randall Jarrell to V. S. Naipual, James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg, and Philip Roth. From these talented men who had infinitely more permission to do and be than women, but suffered endlessly from the ravages of anger and self-doubt, Gornick learned what it really means to make art while wrestling with one's inner demons." "The Men in My Life is Gornick at her best: interpreting the intimate relationship between Inner life, social history, and great literature."--BOOK JACKET.