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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence
I am not one to be overly sensitive with books or to shy away from difficult themes, but I suppose I'm going through a difficult time myself and reading this book every night before bed was not doing anything to improve my mood.
It's sad, it's so dark, and there are graphic depictions of emotional and sexual abuse on children. Not just once, but recurrently, as I suspect this is a key theme in the book and the thing the two main characters have in common. I'm all for books about hard topics, but I suppose this is not the right time for me to be reading this one. A real shame, because it is absolutely well written and engaging and very well done.
It's sad, it's so dark, and there are graphic depictions of emotional and sexual abuse on children. Not just once, but recurrently, as I suspect this is a key theme in the book and the thing the two main characters have in common. I'm all for books about hard topics, but I suppose this is not the right time for me to be reading this one. A real shame, because it is absolutely well written and engaging and very well done.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence
Moderate: Bullying
Huh. I think I may have read this too close to [b:The Robber Bride|17650|The Robber Bride|Margaret Atwood|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320478077s/17650.jpg|1119196] to properly appreciate it. Both books have women carefully selected to contrast each other. Both focus on their childhood, their adolescence and then their adulthood, starting with adulthood then going back to childhood and working their way forward. Both grapple with dark themes and child abuse.
In contrast, Two Girls, Fat and Thin has beautifully vivid writing, particularly in the chapters narrated by Dorothy where her imagination roams free, but less substantial characterization.
In contrast, Two Girls, Fat and Thin has beautifully vivid writing, particularly in the chapters narrated by Dorothy where her imagination roams free, but less substantial characterization.
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
reading mary gaitskill one is reminded of what a truly great writer can do: illuminate and reorient the realities of human experience untouched by other, lesser writers. mary gaitskill does so much at once. reading her is at times exhausting; each sentence seems determined to mine the depths of every granular moment. but her prose is always, at least to me, compelling and musical, never merely analytical or intellectual. her language playfully, elegantly vacillates from intellect to emotion to spirit to viscera to culture. amazed by mary and this incredible novel!
Gaitskill is unflinching in giving readers the cruelty, loneliness, confusion, rage, fleeting moments of bliss, and endless banality of the lives of these characters. Their stories are told in alternating sections flipping rapidly through time--sometimes childhood memories, sometimes other ages always full of harsh moments and desperate attempts to feel something real. These characters shouldn't have been likable--they are tremendously flawed and make frustratingly bad choices in their stories--but I found myself rooting for them. This book is a really interesting contrast to [b:Cat's Eye|51019|Cat's Eye|Margaret Atwood|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385207977l/51019._SY75_.jpg|1019987] by [a:Margaret Atwood|3472|Margaret Atwood|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1282859073p2/3472.jpg]. While Atwood sees the cruelty of children, she doesn't find them as lonely and gritty as Gaitskill does. Atwood's characters grow into adults with full lives and loving relationships; Gaitskill's here grow into lonely, isolated outcasts.
I want to read more of Gaitskill's books.
I want to read more of Gaitskill's books.
Mary Gaitskill is one of my favorite authors. Her stories and novels are frightening, dark, and revealing. Her characters are often cruel, scared, ugly, and in pain. But they also seem familiar somehow, and sympathetic even when they should be unlikeable. Gaitskill's "girls" in this novel are developed through vignettes about their childhoods interspersed with present interactions between themselves and with others. I love this book especially for its satire of Ayn Rand (Anna Granite) and Objectivism (Definitism); Justine, a Manhattan journalist, and Dorothy, a former follower of Definitism, meet when Justine begins working on a research article on the movement. Like other Gaitskill characters, the tenuous relationship between Justine and Dorothy, both of whom seem to clearly self-identify as straight, has queer overtones. One review states that this book shows, once again, "how family fucks you up." Beyond that, I think this book is about how adults (from fucked up families or not) can become so isolated and the ways that they try to compensate for scarce emotional connections.