Gaitskill, Mary

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Exposing external and internal wounds of happiness and normality
Your Neighbor's Secret Life?
Inappropriate Social Interaction
Monotonous
Well-written, interesting, a little bit one-note

Bad Behavior
Mary Gaitskill
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679723277
Release Date: 1989-05-14

Book Description

Powerful stories of dislocation, longing and desire which depict a disenchanted and rebellious urban fringe generation that is groping for human connection. (Or, more simply put, the angst of people-who-wear-black.)

Customer Reviews:

Exposing external and internal wounds of happiness and normality.......2006-07-09

In her first book, North-American writer Mary Gaitskill deals with what most people would call `strange persons'. Most of the characters in "Bad Behavior" do not fit what society calls normal -- nevertheless, they lead a so-called average life. They sleep, eat, love, hate, watch tv, work, and in between they feed the emotional detour. The best ability of this skillful writer is to avoid making them look like freaks.

In "Secretary" (the only Gaitskill adapted to the cinema so far), for instance, the title character is a young woman who has emotional issues, and meets a new boss who likes spanking her -- and she starts enjoying that. It is match made in heaven. What could be a freakshow, here is a sort of love story with a strong emotional core. The relationship in the work environment -- sexual harassment? -- is a slap in the face of the post-feminism. The writer is able o convince that those people need that kind of relationship, that they are happy with that.

In another duo of stories, Gaitskill exploits two sides of the relationship between prostitutes and clients. More than dealing with the facts, the writer is concerned with what emotional ties these people can create. "Something Nice" is a story about a fifty-something married man who falls for a professional lady. All we learn about her is through his eyes and ears. We aren't able to see her without him. On the other hand, in "Trying to Be" we meet another girl -- who could work at the same place of the previous one -- and her struggle to make ends meet taking another job as a prostitute besides her daytime job. In this story, the situation is inverted. We spend time with her, rarely known about her clients. Both stories reach their peak questioning what people wanting from these kind of relationship.

In the nine stories that are in "Bad Behavior", Gaitskill asks what we consider normal. In the end she proves that it is a relative concept. Apparently normality is someone trying to be happy -- despite his/her preferences. Or better, happiness is the consequences of being able to handle what other people would call abnormality.

Your Neighbor's Secret Life?.......2006-06-21

A collection of short stories about people whose idiosyncracies do not conform to society's view of "acceptable behavior," but who live essentially normal lives and who are for the most part indistinguishable from the man or women next door. As one might expect in a collection of short stories, not each story is of equal merit, but I found only one (Daisy's Valentine) which I would rate subpar. In my subjective view, the other eight ranged from excellent (Trying To Be, Secretary) to good (Something Nice, Other Factors, Heaven,) to above average (Connection, A Roamtic Weekend, An Affair Ended). Secretary was made into the movie of the same name and Heaven seemed more of an outline for a novel than a short story.

Inappropriate Social Interaction.......2006-01-10

In a highly graphic and incredibly well written book of short stories, Gaitskill creates a picture of sociopathy. In this collection of 9 short stories, Gaitskill runs the gamut of human bad behaviors. From College Girls and Prospective Writers practicing prostitution, to lesbianism, to homosexuality, to adultery, to just plain inappropriate social conduct, Gaitskill gives us an up close and personal look at the seemlier side of human interaction.

With a particularly well constructed style, each story uses incredible sentence structure, well placed profanity and illustrative descriptions of people doing the things that no one admits to doing. Yes, the "bad behavior" in society is really rampant within American society.

Each story deals with a different type of aberrant activity. The book culminates with a brilliantly written story, "Heaven" that describes the disintegration of an entire family. First one child then the next and finally the death of one is only followed by suffering and pain for all involved. Everyone gets divorced except the parents. Yet the parents see their children as failures, and thus themselves as failures as well.

While the book is not for the faint of heart, it is superb. For a look inside American society that is mostly hidden, this book brings it to the surface. It is strongly recommended for all readers who wish to see behind the curtain of façade, into the real life activities of so many men and women in America today.

Monotonous.......2005-10-19

This book was descently written, but the the subject and style of all 9 stories didn't change enough to keep me entertained. I like many people saw and liked the movie secretary, but comparing that movie to the story it is based off of would be a mistake.

Well-written, interesting, a little bit one-note.......2005-04-11

Sounds like I'm one of the few who knew absolutely nothing about Mary Gaitskill before purchasing "Bad Behavior." In fact, I'd seen (and really enjoyed - great film!) the movie "Secretary" and had no idea it was inspired by a short story in this collection.

My first exposure to Mary Gaitskill was the short story (from this collection, but I'd read it first in another) "A Romantic Weekend" - something of a long vignette about a would-be S&M romance between an egotistical married lawyer and a fawning, neurotic wannabe submissive. Unlike a lot of contemporary short fiction - with its focus on immediate scene, action and dialogue - "A Romantic Weekend" took the time to map out each of its central characters interior lives in a lively and descriptive way that encouraged me to read more. So, I stumbled upon a used copy of "Bad Behavior" and figured "what the hell?"

I give Gaitskill credit for needling at some tender nerves - stories about drug addiction, emotional abuse, sexual neurosis, prostitution and sado-masochism abound in this collection. Maybe my favorite story in the book is "Connection," about a woman (Sarah) who returns to New York after five years. Told almost entirely through backstory, "Connection" recounts Sarah's competitive relationship with Leisha - a dangerous game of sexual and drug abuse one-upsmanship that crumbled their relationship. Gaitskill is utterly unsympathetic in every way and she has a knack for biting dialogue and markers that bring her (for the most part, repellent) characters to life.

The problem with this collection is that there is nobody to sympathize with. The quintessential Gaitskill character is female, a prostitute or a slut, a drug user and either a hopelessly neurotic or ridiculously pretentious freak. Hey, they're vivid characters, but there's nobody here I'd like to have a beer with. About three stories in I started to feel like I was being re-introduced to the same character over and over again, and the persistently negative tone of Gaitskill's stories don't exactly make this a fun read. I suspect Gaitskill is better read as one entre in an anthology of stories by multiple authors. There's only so much of this stuff a guy can take in one sitting!

Overall though, I give "Bad Behavior" points for some highly inventive descriptions and prose, and for Gaitskill's clear and compelling (at least @ first) voice. If Joyce Carol Oates wrote for a more urban, Gen-X audience, it'd come out sounding a lot like this. Worth a look, but I'd recommend checking out a story or two first before deciding whether you're up for an entire book of Gaitskill's bad boys and the women who deserve them. The Tin House fiction reader features her story "A Bestial Noise" - that'd be a good place to start.

I'd like to add: I KNOW this review won't get many "helpful" votes. Most people who visit an item at Amazon (myself included) check out books they're already familiar with or like, so anything short of gushing praise is bound to come across as unhelpful to the true believers around here. But it's the truth. Mary Gaitskill is a talented writer who seems to write the same story over and over again. It's a good story. But it does get old over the course of an anthology. Like I said, she's probably better read as one entre in an anthology, where the overwhelming negativity and in my opinion, her almost juvenile need to shock can be taken in small doses. Over the course of 200 pages I started to lose interest in yet another over-sexed neurotic - take it for what it's worth.

Average customer rating:

Tedious and Overwritten
A New Twist on the Theme of Resurrection
Veronica
Jump Inside Someone's Head - Jump Back Out
A perfect snapshot of the time and place

Veronica
Mary Gaitskill
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 037572785X
Release Date: 2006-07-18

Book Description

Alison and Veronica meet amid the nocturnal glamour of 1980s New York: One is a young model stumbling away from the wreck of her career, the other an eccentric middle-aged office temp. Over the next twenty years their friendship will encompass narcissism and tenderness, exploitation and self-sacrifice, love and mortality. Moving seamlessly from present and past, casting a fierce yet compassionate eye on two eras and their fixations, the result is a work of timeless depth and moral power.

Customer Reviews:

Tedious and Overwritten.......2007-04-16

I found this book exhausting. First, Gatskill jumps around in time incessantly. She'll place the character in three different places in time in the space of a paragraph. No warning, no transitions. It's difficult to know where you are at any one point. More importantly, though, is that Gatskill completely assaults the reader with in-depth analysis and details. She overuses words (must have used the word "flesh" at least 20 times in the first half of the book alone), and wastes her gift for description. She gives you so much that you become hardened to its power. It no longer provides insight into the story, it just comes off as self-indulgent and tedious. It's like eating an entire cake. One or two bites could be sublime and satisfying. Consuming the whole thing just makes you sick. I do not recommend this book.

A New Twist on the Theme of Resurrection.......2007-03-08

Mary Gaitskill proves to be masterful in her placement of words and the creation of images. Often while reading the book, I would have to pause to take in the beauty of the image she was presenting or to suck in my breath at the sadness of what I was reading.

She gives us a new twist on the theme of resurrection where instead of god-like or angelic intervention, two lost souls save each other and learn the cleansing effects of love. Mary Gaitskills shows us the beauty in breakdown and ugliness. The last sentence sums up the secret to a "good" life.

Veronica.......2007-02-27

This book was chosen for a book club read and I was so excited to begin it. I finished this book and felt compelled to give my opinion on it as it was chosen for the opinions of others, and maybe someone else will not make the mistake because of this opinion. Firstly, I don't know why this book was called "Veronica", because other than a few mentions of her name, you don't meet the character until more than half way through the book. And I did not take anything of significance from her character when she did appear. I could not find anything of significance in this book at all from any character. I still am wondering why the author felt the need to write this book, or better yet the publisher felt the need to publish it. A good story makes us want to be a character in that story, it transports us to that time and place and we are saddened when we have to leave. This book does not tell a story, it is words put together made to resemble a story, but comes far short of the goal. The characters are not characters that you love, but you can't hate them, you just can't feel anything for them. I wish I could at least say this book was well written, but I can't even compliment the writing style because it jumps from time period to time period in a single paragraph, you never know where you are.
For anyone who still desires to read this book, by all means do, but check it out from your local library before wasting good money on a bad book

Jump Inside Someone's Head - Jump Back Out.......2007-01-11

Wow. I just read this. People are so gifted. How do you write a book and have the feeling that you jump inside the head of the person who is experiencing these things, and then jump back out. How do you do it without coming right out and saying what transpired, but convey a feeling, an emotion. I know very little about writing and literature, but I love novels that say things in a special way. This author has a gift like that. Imagine looking at a Monet. Up close it doesn't look like much. Take it all on and you have the next best thing to being there. Mary Gaitskill you have a real gift. Thanks for giving me an interesting look inside someone's mind, allowing me to experience not only their physical being but their full range of emotions. You are a gifted artist. Thanks for touching me like that.

A perfect snapshot of the time and place.......2007-01-03

Allison, the narrator, looks back at the 80s, at herself and her friend Veronica, with a jaded, but precise and merciless eye. Allison herself is barely a survivor of her youthful enthusiasms. Gaitskill really captures the sense of excess, the drugs and sex. Reviewers who have complained about the characters are reacting to the fact that these are not warm, fuzzy people. They're damaged, neurotic, self-destructive -- the people you might wish to avoid in life, or like from a distance, but it's a pleasure to read about them. Gaitskill does a terrific job of characterization, and it's the arc of character, not of story that makes this book.

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My favorite Dickens novel

Bleak House (Modern Library Classics)
Charles Dickens
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375760059
Release Date: 2002-07-09

Book Description

Widely regarded as Dickens’s masterpiece, Bleak House centers on the generations-long lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce, through which “whole families have inherited legendary hatreds.” Focusing on Esther Summerson, a ward of John Jarndyce, the novel traces Esther’s romantic coming-of-age and, in classic Dickensian style, the gradual revelation of long-buried secrets, all set against the foggy backdrop of the Court of Chancery. Mixing romance, mystery, comedy, and satire, Bleak House limns the suffering caused by the intricate inefficiency of the law.

The text of this Modern Library Paperback Classic was set from the first single-volume edition, published by Bradbury & Evans in 1853, and reproduces thirty-nine of H. K. Browne’s original illustrations for the book.

Customer Reviews:

My favorite Dickens novel.......2007-04-01

It's hard to pick the best Dickens novel. Dickens himself favored David Copperfield and there is a lot to recommend that. But the novel of his that I most admire is Bleak House. It has a great range of characters, a personal mystery at its core, and the first detective in fiction. Dickens alternates the story-telling between the voice of the all-knowing author and that of the naive female lead character. From street sweepers to the lords and everyone in between, the dark theme of an impersonal social order and system grinding people up is remarkably like Kafka.

Average customer rating:

A strange jangling beauty
Stunning Stories!
Brilliant!!!
Because it has a pretty cover.
Thought-provoking piece of work!

Because They Wanted To: Stories
Mary Gaitskill
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684808560

Amazon.com

Reading a Mary Gaitskill short story is like getting into a no-holds-barred fight: mean, raw, and dangerous. She's fond of portraying characters who seem strangely comfortable living in emotional extremity. She never takes the safe route through a story; in fact, she'll choose the low road every time. The title story places a runaway girl in care of abandoned children. Where many writers would seek out some faint ray of redemption or hope, Gaitskill concentrates on the grime in the cracks of the linoleum. In "The Girl on the Plane," a bitter man confesses his participation in a brutal act to a stranger, but the confession brings no solace. These stories practically shake with tension. In the final long story of this collection, "The Wrong Thing," Gaitskill picks up the tale after the breaking point, as she gracefully illuminates the life of a woman piecing together the fragments of her sexual and emotional history. Because They Wanted not only fulfills the promise of her previous short-story collection Bad Behavior and the novel Two Girls, Fat and Thin, it takes us to a higher place.

Customer Reviews:

A strange jangling beauty.......2005-06-11

Some readers may argue that Gaitskill's characters merely resist growing up, and it's certainly true that their lives are much more in an uproar, much more in flux than the lives of their peers who are married with children. And yet to dismiss them as piquant malcontents seems unfair--they are, after all, after a more profound and dangerous intimacy than the intimacy that might be found in more stable relationships. Gaitskill has also managed to achieve, in this third book, a moving away from the voyeuristic; this has made the work inevitably quieter, and has even made some of the characters seem almost "normal".

In Tiny, Smiling Daddy, the opening story in Because They Wanted To, a sexually prodigal daughter discharges "her strange jangling beauty" into her father's house, "changing the molecules of its air". In another story (Processing), a waitress, "vibrant with purpose" pours water for her dinner guests "with a harried rattle of ice". At a party in Palo Alto, light "runs and flirts on silverware". All of these glimpses into Gaitskill's latest stories illustrate how charged her language can be, and how much it is animated (in spite of its dark themes) by both boldness and joie de vivre.

In other Gaitskill stories, many of the characters act as impish raconteurs of narratives that reveal their own pain or shame. Their audience is made up of a sort of floating opera of fast friends, scoffers, and therapists manque. Privacy is sacrificed to get at "the truth" about both intimacy and the potential that life has for the playful (and in particular for the sexually playful) to be extended into adulthood. But sex, in Gaitskill's world, is mischievous, cerebral, brutal, or even described with an almost dainty candour, the one thing it is not is sexy.

There are also exquisite moments of non-sexual tenderness. In one of the final stories, a poet who teaches at Berkeley says of one of her students: "He didn't write very well, but he was a passionate student and so was a favourite of mine. He took me in with a wistful, subtle movement of his eyes. I felt him accept my fondness and shyly give it back. Without knowing it, he comforted me." But then Gaitskill's theme is (and always has been) intimacy: how to find it, create it, retrieve it, bestow it. And also--and this is where the tragedy in much of her work locates itself--how it's only longed for, squandered, or lost.

Stunning Stories!.......2005-04-11

Mary Gaitskill's second story collection, "Because They Wanted To," seemed to me just as fresh as her first, with a quieter, deeper reflection on the human condition and dazzling gems of insight imbedded in its rich foundation. Each of the twelve stories (eight stories and four connected stories within a novella) is a tale of unrequited love in varying forms and degrees. In "Tiny, Smiling Daddy," a father discovers his lesbian daughter has published an article about their relationship; in "Because They Wanted To," a destitute runaway agrees to baby sit a stranger's three children for an afternoon while the woman hunts for a job, and reflects on the past that drove her to Canada; and in "The Girl on the Plane," a man is seated next to a woman that reminds him of a woman he once gang-raped and when confronted with the brutality of the act, desperately searches for ways in which he could excuse or explain his behavior. I most admire Gaitskill's incredible ability to pin down the nuanced behaviors and thoughts that make us all paradoxically universal and unique.

Brilliant!!!.......2004-12-06

BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO is an absolute masterpiece of literature! Gaitskill's ability to describe the most complex and dark human emotions is stunning; each story is well-written down to the smallest detail, and you are able to relate to the pain of the characters--even if you have never experienced the things that they are going through yourself.

"The Wrong Thing," a four-part story of one woman's inability to find a meaningful romantic relationship, was my favorite one in the book. The main character, Susan, is presented in a way that allows readers to feel her pain and to sympathize with her as she goes through various struggles. This story was the last one in the collection, and its ending was also a great ending for the entire book.

The other stories are also good: from a woman who is obsessed with her dentist, to a 16-year-old runaway who is just trying to find ways to support herself, to a woman who realizes that she just might love a much younger man...these stories all touch the soul. This collection is in some ways lighter than Gaitskill's gritty BAD BEHAVIOR, but it is still full of complexity and people who display extreme examples of human emotion.

Highly recommended!!!

Because it has a pretty cover........2004-03-29

I basically agree with everyone's criticism. Gaitskill harps on a point till you want to say, "Shut up already! No one CARES." Which I'm sure is counterproductive to her artistic crusade. I typically don't mind authors breaking from the beginning-middle-end formula if they do it well, or at least intend to do it well. If they fail miserably, then they deserve to be panned. Gaitskill fails miserably. It's like she didn't even care for her stories by the time she got to the end of them. She could have written one novella with all these crappy stories and still come out behind, but should could have saved a little face that way.

Thought-provoking piece of work!.......2003-11-10

Having read Bad Behavior, I couldn't wait to get my hands on Mary Gaitskill's newest collection of short stories. Because They Wanted To is everything I'd expected. The stories are beautiful and lyrical in a profound way. My favorite ones are "Orchid," "Because They Wanted To," "Comfort," and "Turgor." However, "The Girl on the Plane" is the one that spoke to me the most. The story of how a married man stumbles upon the woman he'd raped years ago was food for thought. I was duly impressed with Gaitskill's disarmingly perceptive takes on male and female relationships in Bad Behavior, and she has outdone herself with this effort. The characterization and story development are second to none in this book. Are you in the bargain for thought-provoking stories? I suggest you pick up this wonderful piece of modern literature.

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A Novel of Lurid Beauty
Because she wanted to ...
Horrible, fascinating story
Shallow and depressing
Just so so

Veronica: A Novel
Mary Gaitskill
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375421459
Release Date: 2005-10-11

Book Description

The extraordinary new novel from the acclaimed author of Bad Behavior and Two Girls, Fat and Thin, Veronica is about flesh and spirit, vanity, mortality, and mortal affection. Set mostly in Paris and Manhattan in the desperately glittering 1980s, it has the timeless depth and moral power of a fairy tale.

As a teenager on the streets of San Francisco, Alison is discovered by a photographer and swept into the world of fashion-modeling in Paris and Rome. When her career crashes and a love affair ends disastrously, she moves to New York City to build a new life. There she meets Veronica—an older wisecracking eccentric with her own ideas about style, a proofreader who comes to work with a personal “office kit” and a plaque that reads “Still Anal After All These Years.” Improbably, the two women become friends. Their friendship will survive not only Alison’s reentry into the seductive nocturnal realm of fashion, but also Veronica’s terrible descent into the then-uncharted realm of AIDS. The memory of their friendship will continue to haunt Alison years later, when she, too, is aging and ill and is questioning the meaning of what she experienced and who she became during that time.

Masterfully layering time and space, thought and sensation, Mary Gaitskill dazzles the reader with psychological insight and a mystical sense of the soul’s hurtling passage through the world. A novel unlike any other, Veronica is a tour de force about the fragility and mystery of human relationships, the failure of love, and love’s abiding power. It shines on every page with depth of feeling and formal beauty.

Customer Reviews:

A Novel of Lurid Beauty.......2006-12-27

I loved this novel. "Veronica" is freshly and honestly told with a perspective not often seen in serious fiction. The narrator is a woman named Alison. At the time we meet Alison, she is about fifty years old, alone, poor, broken and sick with hepatitis and other ailments. She lives in San Rafael, California and works as a cleaning woman for John, a photographer and former friend. Alison tells her story in the course of a day, as she cleans John's studio, takes a shabby bus towards home, and wanders up and down a hill in a forest reflecting upon her life.

Among the most striking features of "Veronica" is the varied sense of place, with five areas receiving particularized descriptions. The first is Hoboken, New Jersey, where Alison grew up in a family with angry, unhappy parents and two sisters. The second is San Franciso. At 16, Alison ran away and lived on the street selling flowers. The descriptions of the seedy North Beach areas of the city are among the most powerful in the book. A significant portion of the story is also set in Paris, as Alison becomes a famous fashion model and the mistress of a powerful and sinister agent. Gaitskill presents both the glamor and the underbelly of Parisian life, as seen through her young protagonist. The fourth major location described in the book is New York City. Alison meets her friend, Veronica, and has another temporary success working as a model. Gaitskill captures well the shimmer and pace of New York City life, in its cruelty and opportunity. The final setting of the book is San Rafael, California, where the aging and sick Alison makes her home and recounts her story. In the book, Gaitskill and her narrator shift repeatedly from one scene to another as Alison reflects upon her like. This gives the book a collage-like stream of consciousness quality which, while difficult to follow in places, enhances the force of the story.

In addition to its varied setting, "Veronica" tells a moving multi-faceted story. As a teenager, Alison ran away from home in New Jersey to San Francisco and works in the notorious North Beach area. With her naievety, she is taken advantage of by a man purporting to be a modeling agent. But for better or worse, this incident leads to Alison's opportunity to become a successful model in Paris. After experiences both glittering and sordid, she returns home and enrolls in junior college in New Jersey. The allure of the fast-paced glittery life proves irresitible to her. Alison moves to New York City and eventually again pursues fashion modeling.

Alison becomes friends with an eccentric woman named Veronica, sixteen years older than she is who has a bisexual male lover. The story is set near the onset of the AIDS epidemic, and Veronica's lover contracts AIDS and dies, and Veronica does as well. Alison and Veronica meet while Alison is temping and doing word-processing jobs in New York. The on-again off-again friendship deepens when Alison learns that Veronica has tested positive and she refuses to abandon her.

There is a great deal of rawness in this book and a sense, as Veronica says at one point, of living life on the edge. Alison is both repelled by the shallowness of her life and compelled to follow its allure. Her many ambivalences are at the heart of this novel. I was right to leave the beaten path of conventionality, Alison says to the reader in several places, to find my own path and to see the world in my own way. A major theme of the book lies in how close Gaitskill and Alison come in showing the reader the allure and the appeal of Alison's unconventional, bohemian life.

Alison struggles to learn, through her relationship with Veronica not only how to accept her own life but also how to come to terms with her parents and family and hear their stories and failed dreams as well as her own. Alison's parents had fought each other furiously during life. But Alison learns songs and music from her father -- popular songs from the 1940's and Verdi's Rigoletto play important roles in the story -- and poetry and allegorical stories from her mother. The book opens with a fairy tale Alison heard from her mother when young -- which Alison effectively acts out through the course of the story. Alison's ambition to become a poet seems to be forsaken as she pursues her modeling. Ironically, however, she realizes poetry in the brilliant quality of her narrative, dreams and reflections. Broken, despondent, and sick at the end of the book, there is a suggestion that Alison may find peace and hope.

This book is a raw, unsentimental and inspiring read. It manages to include many seemingly contradictory themes and attitudes. It is both surrealistic, as it moves in Alison's thought from her life in the present to the past, from place to place, and brutally precise and frank in its depiction of people and places. Superficiality is intertwined with depth in "Veronica" and in its characters. I was greatly moved by this book.

Robin Friedman

Because she wanted to ..........2006-12-09

I am a huge fan of Gaitskill's. She doesn't write much but when she does it really packs a punch. After the relative disappointment of her first novel, Two Girls Fat and Thin, (though I could easily read that again) came the wonderful (albeit bitter-sweet) collection, Because They Wanted To, which is full of gems. It's not just the observation of rather warped characters and their psychology that keeps you reading, but rather, or as much, her use of language. I love her turns of phrase (too many to choose from here) and the constant stream of metaphors and analogies, all of which hit the spot for me. Though she is very much a different writer, I can only think of John Banville for a living writer who is equally imaginative in his use of prose. Veronica does sag a bit in the middle and it takes a whle to get used to the constant segues between past and present, but it really picks up and it definitely has a heart, despite Gaitskill's customary distance from her narrators. It has a curious structure, being ostensibly an account of the narrator's friend's struggle to come to terms with contracting AIDS, but it's just as much the story of that narrator's own life as a young model and her rise and fall.

Horrible, fascinating story.......2006-09-28

Gaitskill has permission to be the most honest, and haunting, of authors. Her seering penetration into the life of a narcissistic, talented, beautiful woman who has little control of her life has reprecussions for everyone -- author, reader, and character alike. All great lierature creates this feeling of compassion and culpability.

Shallow and depressing.......2006-09-17

I got this book because I enjoy good literature and the reviews were decent. I know some people say this writer is gifted, but I don't see it. I thought it was a pretentious, depressing piece of crap. The characters were full of self-loathing and the "bright ending" didn't redeem anything, not the main character or the book.

Just so so.......2006-09-08

I cannot say I liked this book very much. If you enjoy reading experimental fiction and style, then you might like this book. However, if you are looking to connect to a character, then this might disappoint. I was. I found that character development was lacking and 2 dimensional. I just found the book very negative, and the characters uninspiring. For example, why did Allison run away at first? You just find that she's unhappy and self-destructive but you never really know why. Also, Allison and Veronica have this strange relationship where Allison in the end discovers that she cares so much about Veronica, but I never fully followed what drew her to Veronica so much.

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Sharply and brilliantly insightful.
Our fragile humanity
Imaginative, fascinating book
Gaitskill has Grown...
Fat or Thin, its still Beautiful

Two Girls Fat and Thin
Mary Gaitskill
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0684843129

Customer Reviews:

Sharply and brilliantly insightful........2007-03-13

Reading Mary Gaitskill is like reading Kathryn Harrison's prolix sister.

This book tells the tale of two damaged women who coincidentally meet and after doing so reexamine their pasts, which include sexual trauma and unstable family situations.

Though Gaitskill's prose occasionally reads like a psychology textbook, she thrills the reader with sparkling, profound insight into the cruel hothouse of sexuality and confusion her characters grow up in. One girl, the overweight one, is friendless and lonely; the other, the thin one, is pretty, popular, and indulges in a mean streak, though certain early encounters in her life have mixed up the wiring in her brain and made her a masochist.

I didn't think the book was quite as interesting when dealing with the characters as adults (in particular the overweight woman, Dorothy), and the ending left a little something to be desired, but Gaitskill is unrivaled in her ability to put you right into the minds of her wounded characters, and lay bare the world they live in (internally and externally).

Despite getting a little soft in the end, I thought this was a brilliant book at showing the trace-line from what happens to us as children and how our confused, uncomprehending, inchoate, not-yet-mature-enough-to-understand thoughts and reasoning colors who we are and what we do for the rest of our lives.

Our fragile humanity.......2006-06-01

I was a little wary about the title but this was not at all about weight gain and/or loss; weight was incidental. In this fiercely intelligent novel, Dorothy and Justine are both desperately lonely women, both victims of abuse, and yet are different in other ways. Their parents often failed them, their childhood was often full of shame and self-sabotage, but Gaitskill writes this with complexity, always aware that a victim can also be a victimizer. Gaitskill is never sentimental. Underneath her narrative, underneath the pain and the sex scenes (which are never fully loving) and the disappointments and loneliness, is a raging anger at the inability of human beings to connect - on race, on class, but mostly on gender. I sensed that Anna Granite, the intellectual whose shadow dominates this narrative, and who is the reason Dorothy and Justine first meet, is Gaitskill's platform for displaying her keen intellect; and sometimes there is a hint of didactism. But this is a minor quibble. The last section moved me very much and proved that although Gaitskill abhors sentimentality, she can certainly do sentiment well. `Humanity' is a word often found in this book. Our sexuality is connected to our humanity. Our ability to treat other human beings like human beings is what makes us human. In the end, Gaitskill's brilliant, wonderfully feminist novel was, for me, about how easily we strip each other of our humanity.

Imaginative, fascinating book.......2006-04-17

The book begins with the narrator noticing a message on a laundromat bulletin board, instantly drawing my interest. My interest never flags, with the author's symbolic visual and intellectualized descriptions of her environment and things that happen to her. The books feels like I was watching a movie in 3D.

The two main characters are both young women. Dorothy Never is overweight and masochistic while Justine Shade is a thin, masochistic and sadistic free lance journalist. Dorothy meets her through the bulletin board ad she sees on the "Definitist" philosophy. This author-created philosophy permits the main character (Dorothy) to work out neuroses formed by childhood traumas such as peer teasing and especially incest, and move forward in her life.

I found the names of characters, places and philosophy to be both creative and entertaining, as were the Hopper-esque visuals of New York City which added magical touches to the novel, making it all the more seductive. The references to the weight of the two women -- one fat, the other thin -- symbolized in an interesting way the always present theme of emotional deprivation.

Many things happen in this book that detail the intellectual and mostly emotional journal of two shattered personalities.

Gaitskill has Grown..........2006-02-24

Maybe it's because I read Veronica before reading Two Girls, but I was somewhat disappointed. I'm always interested to see the evolution of an author I enjoy, but I could feel myself backpeddling.

As always with Gaitskill's writing, she paints a beautiful portrait of lonliness and isolation without necessarily writing a "sad" book. Her major characters are clearly cut, interesting and incredibly multi-faceted, and her minor characters are sketches that weave in and out of the background without feeling like characitures--a feat well accomplished. You feel for both Justine and Dorothy, but maybe not as much as you wish you could. Because while they are both interesting and sympathetic, they are simultaneously repulsive and unlikable.

The needs are there and the language is moving but the background of the Ayn Rand character and her followers is somewhat laborious. While Anna Granite served to bring the two girls together, she was uninteresting and the segments involving her were draggy. Perhaps my reaction to this part of the story has something to do with the fact that, like Justine, I never "got" the whole Ayn Rand thing. Her books and so-called "philosophy" were uninspired and uninspiring to me.

All in all, an enjoyable read, but it doesn't hold much of a candle to Gaitskill's later works. If you thought this book was decent or better, I'd suggest picking up some later Gaitskill. It's worth the time and investment.

Fat or Thin, its still Beautiful.......2005-10-18

Just like her short story collection, Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill's novel, Two Girls Fat and Thin, left me speechless. The story seemed simple enough: the thin girl is interviewing the fat girl about her time working for the author/cult leader, Anna Granite. They are both wary of each other, the interviewer thinks the interviewee is crazy and the interviewee feels that her entire belief system is under attack by the interviewer. But in the end a strange friendship/bond/understanding will form between the two of them.

But its so much more than that.

While I completely appreciate all the goofy reincarnation of Ayn Rand (can I assume that she's the object of ridicule throughout the book!?), I can't help but be drawn into the actual lives of Dorothy and Justine. Dorothy's affiliation with a literary cult leader seems almost unnecessary, though executed perfectly. However its the `compare and contrast' of these two women's lives that really makes the story - how they are terribly different physically and emotionally, BUT how they are also very similar. They both share strange and horrible relationships with their parents, were both molested as young children and have finally achieved a sense of independence just before their meeting. You get complete character dissections of each of them: what they want, what they think they want and what they already had. Where both women have unresolved unresolved conflicts from their past, its too late to doing anything about them. It seems that their acquaintanceship, while mistrustful at first is their stepping stone to personal redemption.

Mary Gaitskill is yet again justly perverse and sexual, especially through Justine and her trysts through childhood and her current ill-suited lover and sadist, Bryan. Dorothy recounts her painful years of being an overweight girl growing up and only finding acceptance within Anna Granite's circle.

Two Girls, Fat and Thin is an amazing book - with very wise and witty language. There are many moments when Gaitskill sums up in a few words everything you need to know about what creates strong relationships between strangers. These are not stereotypical characters, these are not trite and uncomplicated scenes. For a book that will give you a lot to think about and won't require a dictionary to get through, you can't go wrong.

Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006 (Da Capo Best Music Writing)

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Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006 (Da Capo Best Music Writing)

Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0306814994

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Bad Behaviour
Mary Gaitskill
Manufacturer: Scepter Pubs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Conjunctions: 48, Faces of Desire (Conjunctions)

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Conjunctions: 48, Faces of Desire (Conjunctions)
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge , Mary Caponegro , Carole Maso , Brian Evenson , Robert Olen Butler , Mary Gaitskill , Donald Revell , H.G. Carrillo , Joyce Carol Oates , and Will Self
Manufacturer: Bard College
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0941964647
Release Date: 2007-07-01

Book Description

"Desire, for hire, would tire a shire," James Joyce wrote in Finnegans Wake, though Conjunctions: 48 proposes the shire'd be tired even if the desire weren't hired. Desire informs everything we do, from the smallest gestures to the grandest concerns. When it establishes residence in the heart, it becomes a tireless engine, motivating good, and by turns evil. Yearning can be sexual or religious, charitable or greedy, thoughtful or callous, profound as belief or superficial as a whim. Is there any more formidable, defining emotion? Mary Gaitskill, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Mary Caponegro, Robert Kelly, Carole Maso, Brian Evenson, Robert Olen Butler, Joyce Carol Oates, Will Self, David Shields, Frederic Tuten and Rikki Ducornet, mong others, explore its tricky terrain in never-before-published essays, memoirs, poetry and fiction. Faces of Desire is an exuberant look--now grim, now hilarious, now poignant--into one of the most mysterious and crucial forces of life.

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Bad Behavior
mary gaitskill
Manufacturer: poeidon press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FFPKT6

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Authors

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