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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
laural444's review against another edition
1.0
What the HELL is wrong with Mary Gaitskill? I don't necessarily have a problem with the word "cunt," I even found it used hysterically in Kill Bill, but there's just no reason for it to be used so many times in the beginning of the book. One of the characters just shuffles around mumbling it for no apparent reason, and there is so much talk about vaginas that I started to feel nauseated. What the hell.
lauraske's review against another edition
4.0
Four stars for the second half of the stories only. I really disliked the initial stories in this collection. I thought they were unnecessarily coarse, and I didn't agree with the "truths" they seemed to be highlighting. I'm glad I stuck it out, though, because, starting at "Mirror Ball", the stories do get progressively better. I'm not sure if the stories were arranged chronologically, but that could explain it. The themes/style of the early stories felt very dated to me, which faded a bit as the book progressed. My favorite story was "Don't Cry", and I enjoyed "Description" as well--the connection between the two was interesting and added a bit more to each story.
sarah_loves_books22's review against another edition
5.0
Mirrorball may be the perfect short story. Gaitskill has a talent for putting her finger on the invisible strands that bind people and then explaining those emotions in sometimes playful, sometimes stomach punching metaphor. If you ever get a chance to hear her read her own work, take it.
huerb's review against another edition
5.0
I think my first 5/5 of the year?
Ngl, there were some stories that made me lose touch with the book but there were some that deserved a galaxy.
I loved that the author let us peek into completely different people’s souls in completely different journeys and stages of life. I loved how she took small bits of life and turned it into magic. I loved how raw, exposed and human every character was. Made me fall in love with life & humanity again, at a time when I desperately needed it.
Call me sentimental, but what led me to give the 5 starts was the ending, the part when I realised the main character of the last story was referenced in one of the previous ones. (PLEASE let me know if there were any other references and I missed it!!) And it just got me into this sea of thoughts about how we never know the feelings and the state the other people when we cross paths with them. And how, even though so different we all are, we are connected; whether that’s just through being in the same universe, or sharing the same feelings, or our perception of life.
I love it. I love the human consciousness we all share that leads to books such as this.
S/o to my dear Ioana to gifting this book to me!! The best read of the second half of the year <3
Ngl, there were some stories that made me lose touch with the book but there were some that deserved a galaxy.
I loved that the author let us peek into completely different people’s souls in completely different journeys and stages of life. I loved how she took small bits of life and turned it into magic. I loved how raw, exposed and human every character was. Made me fall in love with life & humanity again, at a time when I desperately needed it.
Call me sentimental, but what led me to give the 5 starts was the ending, the part when I realised the main character of the last story was referenced in one of the previous ones. (PLEASE let me know if there were any other references and I missed it!!) And it just got me into this sea of thoughts about how we never know the feelings and the state the other people when we cross paths with them. And how, even though so different we all are, we are connected; whether that’s just through being in the same universe, or sharing the same feelings, or our perception of life.
I love it. I love the human consciousness we all share that leads to books such as this.
S/o to my dear Ioana to gifting this book to me!! The best read of the second half of the year <3
kj1312's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
jodiwilldare's review against another edition
3.0
What has always drawn me to the short stories of Mary Gaitskill is that she spends a lot of time writing about the struggle women have with their intelligence and their sexuality and how giving into one always feels like subverting the other. This is a struggle a lot of intelligent women have because giving in to sex means turning off your brain and that’s scary. Plus, it can get you into a lot of trouble.
Don’t Cry, Gaitskill’s third short story collection, isn’t about struggle. In fact, I’m not entirely sure what it’s about. Not that collections are about any one thing, but usually have a sort of common theme that ties the stories together (like a record comprised of different songs).
As an avowed Gaitskill fangirl, I find myself floundering a bit when it comes to talking about this book.
Read the rest on MN Reads
Don’t Cry, Gaitskill’s third short story collection, isn’t about struggle. In fact, I’m not entirely sure what it’s about. Not that collections are about any one thing, but usually have a sort of common theme that ties the stories together (like a record comprised of different songs).
As an avowed Gaitskill fangirl, I find myself floundering a bit when it comes to talking about this book.
Read the rest on MN Reads
jennyyates's review against another edition
3.0
These stories are haunting, strange, fragmented. The title story, “Don’t Cry” is about a recently widowed woman who goes to Ethiopia, accompanying a friend who wants to adopt a child. Gaitskill is very skilled at drawing places, and she likes to weave inner and outer landscapes together.
Often she also strings different time-lines together, and sometimes this can be muddling. Usually, it’s pretty clear, and you flow along with a person’s consciousness as it moves freely from past to present, from one incident to another. In one, “The Arms and Legs of the Lake”, Gaitskill’s scene is a train, and she enters the psyche of each of the passengers, including a young man who is traumatized by his combat experiences in Iraq. Every passenger on the train sees his behavior (and that of every other person there) through the prism of their own beliefs and experiences.
One of the strangest stories is “Mirror Ball”, which describes the movements of the soul as independent from the person who possesses it. Souls can be stolen, can get lost or trapped, and can call out to each other. People believe that they’re acting independently, but often they are responding to the movements of their souls, or to the souls of other people, without realizing it.
Often she also strings different time-lines together, and sometimes this can be muddling. Usually, it’s pretty clear, and you flow along with a person’s consciousness as it moves freely from past to present, from one incident to another. In one, “The Arms and Legs of the Lake”, Gaitskill’s scene is a train, and she enters the psyche of each of the passengers, including a young man who is traumatized by his combat experiences in Iraq. Every passenger on the train sees his behavior (and that of every other person there) through the prism of their own beliefs and experiences.
One of the strangest stories is “Mirror Ball”, which describes the movements of the soul as independent from the person who possesses it. Souls can be stolen, can get lost or trapped, and can call out to each other. People believe that they’re acting independently, but often they are responding to the movements of their souls, or to the souls of other people, without realizing it.
griffinwords's review against another edition
4.0
When Mary Gaitskill is good, she's one of the best. In fact, before I read Don't Cry, I hadn't seen her write anything less than wonderful. This book is a mix, including a few stories that read as "I'm going to try something different from my usual... sure hope this works!" experimentation. It doesn't make me value her earlier work any less.
mcoussens's review against another edition
5.0
As with her book "Veronica", this book contains a richness of characters and language (for instance "Dani used contempt like a clever accessory"). I particularly loved "Mirror Ball", and of course, the book's final story and the book's title "Don't Cry"-- the longest and most powerful story.
shiloniziolek's review against another edition
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.