An Unfinished Woman by Lillian Hellman

There are many books on my shelves that I've purchased over the years and never read.  I blame this book acquisition habit on a childhood frustrated by the books I could not find on the public library shelves.  When I started earning my own money...I started buying books. 

I became interested in Lillian Hellman after seeing the film Pentimento based on another of her memoirs, and after reading the book I started watching for any books by Hellman.  This one dates back to 1974 when I was 20 years old.  The young woman I was then would have had quite a different reaction to An Unfinished Woman.  I imagine I would have made connections with various trips mentioned in this memoir that were also mentioned in Pentimento.  Her friendship with Dorothy Parker is discussed as well.  Reading it now had much more of an impact on this "Unfinished Woman."

Hellman was 62 when she published An Unfinished Woman, and I identified with some things she discussed. But it was this statement that made me put the book down for a few minutes:

So the years that are good for many women were not good for me.  I didn't know that I wanted anybody, didn't even think about it much, but there, suddenly, was the wrong man, of course as could be expected, as usual. (180)

 Not sure about the "as could be expected, as usual" part, but I do know that "the years that are good for many women were not good for me."  Knowing that Hellman lived a very different lifestyle, I find it interesting that I feel the same way.  Other ways in which I identify with Hellman, I prefer to keep private.  But her closing sentence...that I will share:

All I mean is that I left too much of me unfinished because I wasted too much time.  However.  (244)
 

Hellman, Lillian. An Unfinished Woman A Memoir.  New York: Bantam Books. 1974.