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emilylandry's review against another edition
4.0
I've written before about the fact that Mary Gaitskill is one of my favorite authors. She still is, but this book of short stories is really intense. One review on the cover says that they are too rich for one sitting, but too compelling not to read in one sitting. I definitely agree. Gaitskill often writes about S/M, sexual abuse, people with intimacy issues, people suffering from illness, etc etc etc. In one novel, you will get a lot of in-depth investigation of any characters "issue," but you also get a lot more complexity outside of that. In a book of short stories, you just get a lot of perversion. I enjoyed how she would write sort of common narratives from the "other" point of view, but make them complex characters. The best part of the book was the short novella at the end about a poetry professor who goes through a trio of very different relationships in four parts.
natashangel's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
samsam123's review against another edition
3.0
This book written by Mary Gaitskill was published in 1997, and yet the issues it explores are just as relevant today. The stories in this book are about the inner lives of people and the messy relationships they get in, including queer relationships. Kristen Roupenian’s collection of short stories is very reminiscent of these stories.
Gaitskill can write tension so well. My favourite stories that build so much tension include Because They Wanted To, about a girl who takes on a babysitting gig that goes strangely wrong. The Dentist, which is about a woman who falls for her peculiar dentist. Oh, and Girl on a Plane is another excellent story that describes a woman’s experience beside a stranger who will not stop over sharing. There are other great stories in here too, yet the second part of the book has a series of stories with the same protagonist. This latter part was less successful for me. I got bored with this character and preferred the other stories to these ones. However, I enjoyed how the main character does not conform to stereotypes and was a complicated academic who had complicated queer and hetero relationships.
Gaitskill can write tension so well. My favourite stories that build so much tension include Because They Wanted To, about a girl who takes on a babysitting gig that goes strangely wrong. The Dentist, which is about a woman who falls for her peculiar dentist. Oh, and Girl on a Plane is another excellent story that describes a woman’s experience beside a stranger who will not stop over sharing. There are other great stories in here too, yet the second part of the book has a series of stories with the same protagonist. This latter part was less successful for me. I got bored with this character and preferred the other stories to these ones. However, I enjoyed how the main character does not conform to stereotypes and was a complicated academic who had complicated queer and hetero relationships.
an_enthusiastic_reader's review against another edition
3.0
Three and a half stars. Gaitskill's writing wins me over every time. In this collection, the characters are open wounds of unrealized want. They are suffering and angry and can't always name what they're feeling. Often this pent up rage is directed at other people. Gaitskill gives voice to the characters' pain. I like her novels more, however.
meganmilks's review against another edition
gaitskill sifts through characters' memories in ways that at first seem a tad cliche, "i-know-where-this-is-going", but invariably veer elsewhere. heartbreaking, gutwrenching, etc. (whatever happened to those toddlers???) these stories tell me to cut off my tongue whenever i feel the urge to diss narrative realism.
marcys_books9's review against another edition
DNF at 25%
I picked this book because the synopsis sounded great. An exploration of human relationships and complex tales really grabbed my interest, so I really wanted to love this, but this was not up my alley.
Gaitskill is definitely a great writer. She writes sentences that pack a punch and are beautiful, so she is definitely skill in that. Some of her narrative is wonderful, how she can write complex people and create interesting insights. However...
There’s something hollow about it. For some reason it kind of reminded me about my feelings of Normal People, where all the characters have dark pasts to make them look cool, and ‘in’, but it feels like a cheap trick to make them look deep. Because They Wanted To felt the same, but this was saved by Gaitskill’s superior writing talents.
It just wasn’t for me. I felt more bored, because apparently writing unlikeable people is ‘literary’ and indicative of ‘great writing’, and I am tired of this. Just because it doesn’t work for me, it doesn’t mean it won’t work for others, because I can see the merit in this.
I picked this book because the synopsis sounded great. An exploration of human relationships and complex tales really grabbed my interest, so I really wanted to love this, but this was not up my alley.
Gaitskill is definitely a great writer. She writes sentences that pack a punch and are beautiful, so she is definitely skill in that. Some of her narrative is wonderful, how she can write complex people and create interesting insights. However...
There’s something hollow about it. For some reason it kind of reminded me about my feelings of Normal People, where all the characters have dark pasts to make them look cool, and ‘in’, but it feels like a cheap trick to make them look deep. Because They Wanted To felt the same, but this was saved by Gaitskill’s superior writing talents.
It just wasn’t for me. I felt more bored, because apparently writing unlikeable people is ‘literary’ and indicative of ‘great writing’, and I am tired of this. Just because it doesn’t work for me, it doesn’t mean it won’t work for others, because I can see the merit in this.
carlyque's review against another edition
4.0
Really love her voice and subject matter--smart, women doing good and bad in the world, sometimes confused.
corvidquest's review against another edition
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25
hannargh's review against another edition
3.0
This set of short stories started out feeling poignant, sharp, observant and melancholy but, by the time you've read 5 or 6 of them, they began to feel like the same voice and same observations over and over again ...
These aren't those kind of short stories that fill you with despair and end on a hopeful note. They are insightful, painful and that's where they leave you and perhaps for the first few, you read them and find them really intriguing and inspiring. But then the next one comes and it's the same and there's no fixed end point, you just reach the end of the story.
And that was one of the hardest things about reading these stories, was that they kind of trailed off at the end. Nothing was resolved, we were just done listening in on that character.
But they are good. They really reminded me of the kind of sharp observational dark humour that comes with Anais Nin's short erotic stories, and Mary Gaitskill's short stories have a very similar vibe, and content, except that they're a little less 'smutty' and a lot more real-life.
They do indeed explore sexual 'otherness' and people are in some way disconnected with the world in that frighteningly empty Albert Camus way. To have the characters' level of self-narration and self-reflection they need to be disconnected from themselves. But when you've read a few stories like that, of people on the outside looking in, but not actually making any life-changing decisions, they become hard to read.
I wouldn't normally say this, as I often can't get enough of short stories, especially when they're good, but I could have done with about 75% of the ones in this book. And that is purely because the more I read, the less comfortable I became reading them.
Which is why I'm giving them 3.5 for excellent content, but 3 stars for overwhelming me.
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
These aren't those kind of short stories that fill you with despair and end on a hopeful note. They are insightful, painful and that's where they leave you and perhaps for the first few, you read them and find them really intriguing and inspiring. But then the next one comes and it's the same and there's no fixed end point, you just reach the end of the story.
And that was one of the hardest things about reading these stories, was that they kind of trailed off at the end. Nothing was resolved, we were just done listening in on that character.
But they are good. They really reminded me of the kind of sharp observational dark humour that comes with Anais Nin's short erotic stories, and Mary Gaitskill's short stories have a very similar vibe, and content, except that they're a little less 'smutty' and a lot more real-life.
They do indeed explore sexual 'otherness' and people are in some way disconnected with the world in that frighteningly empty Albert Camus way. To have the characters' level of self-narration and self-reflection they need to be disconnected from themselves. But when you've read a few stories like that, of people on the outside looking in, but not actually making any life-changing decisions, they become hard to read.
I wouldn't normally say this, as I often can't get enough of short stories, especially when they're good, but I could have done with about 75% of the ones in this book. And that is purely because the more I read, the less comfortable I became reading them.
Which is why I'm giving them 3.5 for excellent content, but 3 stars for overwhelming me.
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.