Vivian Gornick: 'I couldn’t finish Michelle Obama’s Becoming'

The journalist and memoirist on learning from Natalia Ginzburg, the genius of Geoff Dyer's comedy, and why James Salter is overrated

The book I am currently reading
Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee. I had actually never read anything by Lee before. I've only read 50 or 60 pages, but her style is immensely appealing. The sentences are very simple, there's no fancy writing - she somehow puts things together in such a lively way that I feel as if I'm listening to her. She hits that marvellous conversational style. I like Fitzgerald's work and it's a pleasure seeing how she developed. I'm enjoying it very much.

The book that changed my life
I was well into my 30s when I read The Little Virtues by Natalia Ginzburg and as soon as I began I felt myself deeply connected. It isn't that it's the greatest book in the world, but for me it was vital. I felt she was showing me the type of writer I had it in me to be. One of the essays - My Vocation" - really hit the nail on the head. I identified profoundly with the way in which Ginzburg traced her own development as a nonfiction writer. It made me realise that it was only through this kind of writing I could employ my own storytelling gifts. I reread it irregularly but quite a lot, and I'm always amazed by what she is able to accomplish with the small personal essay.