jedbird 's review for:

Two Girls, Fat and Thin by Mary Gaitskill

4.5

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 I read this when it first came out and was delighted by the Ayn Rand parody. I read (and enjoyed) Rand in high school but didn’t take the philosophy seriously, so it was fun to be in on the joke here. But this is more a story of damaged people—damaged women—finding unexpected comfort in an unlikely friendship. Ms Gaitskill has a special talent for describing the sordid and painful and making it uncomfortably relatable. I’ve read others of her stories over the years, but this one always resonates.