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jtherockjohnson's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
smusie's review against another edition
4.0
I was not really liking these stories all that much, but the last two were excellent.
inmaculada's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
shiloniz's review
3.0
I really loved some stories, while others I did not care for at all. Either way, Mary Gaitskill is a master of description.
karenleagermain's review against another edition
4.0
PLOT- Don't Cry: Stories, is a collection of shorts by Mary Gaitskill. Many of the stories deal with loneliness, desire, and stunted communication.
LIKE- I found this collection while perusing my favorite bookstore, Skylight Books, in Silverlake, California. I loved the cover, there is something wonderful in the juxtaposition of mirror balls and the title, Don't Cry, that drew me to this collection. I had remembered encountering Gaitskill's stories, although none from this collection, in a writing class.
Gaitskill has the gift of deeply understanding human nature and the ability to write with empathy. Many of her characters are not particularly likable, yet they exhibit qualities that are familiar, even if we would not want to admit that we possess them: such as jealousy, pettiness, and anger. This familiarity makes for an uncomfortable read in the best possible sense. I like stories that rattle me and make me feel discomfort.
Overall, Don't Cry: Stories is a strong collection, that I forced myself to read slowly, to savor Gaitskill's writing, and to let the poignancy soak in. Here are are few stand-out stories.
Don't Cry - This title story is the last in the collection. The narrator has recently lost her husband, and she is now traveling to Ethiopia, with her friend Katya, who hopes to adopt a child. The adoption is not as smooth of a process as they had hoped, and in addition to bureaucracy at the orphanage, they arrive during a time of political upheaval, putting them in a physically dangerous situation. This is a story of overwhelming guilt, as the narrator reveals details of her relationship with her husband, while trying to process the guilt that she feels trying to help her friend adopt a child from a poverty stricken country. What I loved most about this story, is the way the suspense unfolds. It's filled with tension, and was the most gripping story in the collection.
Mirror Ball- I loved the theme of Mirror Ball, which follows the decline of a short-lived relationship, where a boy breaks a girls heart, and with it, physically keeps a part of her soul. He has the souls of all of the women that he has broken in his apartment, but when the main female character is healed from their relationship, he no longer has possession of her. It beautifully written, poetic and ethereal. I love the idea that in overcoming heart break, you can reclaim what you lost or temporarily gave away to someone who did not deserve it. It's a type of revenge story really.
The Little Boy- A senior woman connects with a little boy at an airport terminal, in a way that she fails to connect with her own grown children. I liked this story for Gaitskill's perceptive look at family dynamics and relationships. It isn't pretty, but what she writes about regarding dynamics and lack of communication rang true to me. I don't have any family left alive, but this story made me long for a second chance to fix certain communication issues with my family. It made my heart hurt.
DISLIKE- Although the collection is strong, and Gaitskill is a gifted writer, I did find myself unevenly interested in the stories. They did not all grab my attention, my mind drifted.
RECOMMEND- Yes. If you're a short story fan, Gaitskill should be on your radar, and Don't Cry: Stories, should be on your TBR list.
Like my review? Check out my blog!
LIKE- I found this collection while perusing my favorite bookstore, Skylight Books, in Silverlake, California. I loved the cover, there is something wonderful in the juxtaposition of mirror balls and the title, Don't Cry, that drew me to this collection. I had remembered encountering Gaitskill's stories, although none from this collection, in a writing class.
Gaitskill has the gift of deeply understanding human nature and the ability to write with empathy. Many of her characters are not particularly likable, yet they exhibit qualities that are familiar, even if we would not want to admit that we possess them: such as jealousy, pettiness, and anger. This familiarity makes for an uncomfortable read in the best possible sense. I like stories that rattle me and make me feel discomfort.
Overall, Don't Cry: Stories is a strong collection, that I forced myself to read slowly, to savor Gaitskill's writing, and to let the poignancy soak in. Here are are few stand-out stories.
Don't Cry - This title story is the last in the collection. The narrator has recently lost her husband, and she is now traveling to Ethiopia, with her friend Katya, who hopes to adopt a child. The adoption is not as smooth of a process as they had hoped, and in addition to bureaucracy at the orphanage, they arrive during a time of political upheaval, putting them in a physically dangerous situation. This is a story of overwhelming guilt, as the narrator reveals details of her relationship with her husband, while trying to process the guilt that she feels trying to help her friend adopt a child from a poverty stricken country. What I loved most about this story, is the way the suspense unfolds. It's filled with tension, and was the most gripping story in the collection.
Mirror Ball- I loved the theme of Mirror Ball, which follows the decline of a short-lived relationship, where a boy breaks a girls heart, and with it, physically keeps a part of her soul. He has the souls of all of the women that he has broken in his apartment, but when the main female character is healed from their relationship, he no longer has possession of her. It beautifully written, poetic and ethereal. I love the idea that in overcoming heart break, you can reclaim what you lost or temporarily gave away to someone who did not deserve it. It's a type of revenge story really.
The Little Boy- A senior woman connects with a little boy at an airport terminal, in a way that she fails to connect with her own grown children. I liked this story for Gaitskill's perceptive look at family dynamics and relationships. It isn't pretty, but what she writes about regarding dynamics and lack of communication rang true to me. I don't have any family left alive, but this story made me long for a second chance to fix certain communication issues with my family. It made my heart hurt.
DISLIKE- Although the collection is strong, and Gaitskill is a gifted writer, I did find myself unevenly interested in the stories. They did not all grab my attention, my mind drifted.
RECOMMEND- Yes. If you're a short story fan, Gaitskill should be on your radar, and Don't Cry: Stories, should be on your TBR list.
Like my review? Check out my blog!
kdavisreich's review against another edition
2.0
"Women have vaginas and it is their downfall." If you believe this, you'll like this book. If this statement kind of annoys you, so will this book.
sausome's review against another edition
5.0
This book of short stories was raw, real, biting, endearing, and just overall quality. I'm not usually one for short story collections, but Mary Gaitskill blew me away with her frank and gritty descriptions and prose. I felt a connection to Donald Ray Pollack's Knockemstiff. If it's possible for something to be both refreshing and raw at the same time, then this book is just that.
jacqui_des's review against another edition
2.0
Memorable Quotes
Folk Song
"Safe in her sweating, loose, and very wet embrace, surrounded by the dense energy of many men, his penis could tell her the secret story of murder right in front of everyone. Her worn vagina would hold the killer like it had held the husband and the lover and the sharpie and the father and the nitwit and every other man, his terrible story a tiny, burning star in the right-ful firmament of her female vastness."
"They want heaven and they will go to hell to get there."
An Old Virgin
"Sometimes things that look really ugly on the outside look different when you get up close."
The Agonized Face
"We are glad to have the topless dancer to remind us of that dark area in the basement where personality is irrelevant and crude truth prevails."
"Mommy, Mommy!” I remembered washing her as a baby, using the spray hose from the kitchen sink to rinse shit from the swollen petals of her infant slit—a hole she may fall down if she opens it too early, a dark Wonderland of teeth and bones and crushing force. The hole in life, a hole we cannot see into, no matter how closely we look."
"Inside love, anger still secretly burns—but it is a tiny flame. I can hold it like I once held my daughter in my body, a world within a world."
Mirror Ball
"He embraced her, and for a moment he felt that holding her was like holding a bit of liquid flame."
rebus's review against another edition
4.25
I was not initially wowed by the first couple of stories in this volume, believing that Gaitskill had sold out to the establishment values that had made her a success. The stories seemed to get better and better as it went along, often somewhat autobiographical tales of women writers who felt a great cynicism at conferences and reading events, the last couple linked by a couple of characters and very telling portraits of what her life has become following that success (one of her stand ins seems to even repudiate her early work as 'dumb', which is hardly the case).
It may not all be as transgressive, shocking, and earth shakingly fresh as her early work, but it's the work of a mature author who hasn't lost sight of reality and the truths underlying the bland mediocrity that has been literature for the last 30 years. She has contempt for the 3rd wave of feminism that turned every little girl into a victim that saw all sex as rape, and this view is refreshing in light of how ugly the culture has become since the 90s (not to mention the even uglier notion of supporting anyone female, no matter what they do, which once gave us the likes of fascists like Ayn Rand and now Hillary Clinton). She even takes on the topic of war and seems to side with my own view that all soldiers are sociopaths, despite the many characters with conflicting views in that tale (it IS all volunteer and most do come from the white upper middle class these days, playing videogames of death in which they are never threatened, the soldier in this tale notwithstanding).
She even takes on quite literary topics in the last couple linked tales, arguing both for and against too much 'description' in these tales (in our visual world less of that is needed, but it is a powerful tool of metaphor that can still say more about the characters than the character of Kevin is able to conceive).
If you're an old fan, you will still find much to like here. The younger generation giving it low reviews are the most illiterate in human history, so pay them no mind.
It may not all be as transgressive, shocking, and earth shakingly fresh as her early work, but it's the work of a mature author who hasn't lost sight of reality and the truths underlying the bland mediocrity that has been literature for the last 30 years. She has contempt for the 3rd wave of feminism that turned every little girl into a victim that saw all sex as rape, and this view is refreshing in light of how ugly the culture has become since the 90s (not to mention the even uglier notion of supporting anyone female, no matter what they do, which once gave us the likes of fascists like Ayn Rand and now Hillary Clinton). She even takes on the topic of war and seems to side with my own view that all soldiers are sociopaths, despite the many characters with conflicting views in that tale (it IS all volunteer and most do come from the white upper middle class these days, playing videogames of death in which they are never threatened, the soldier in this tale notwithstanding).
She even takes on quite literary topics in the last couple linked tales, arguing both for and against too much 'description' in these tales (in our visual world less of that is needed, but it is a powerful tool of metaphor that can still say more about the characters than the character of Kevin is able to conceive).
If you're an old fan, you will still find much to like here. The younger generation giving it low reviews are the most illiterate in human history, so pay them no mind.