maudemarco 's review for:

Two Girls Fat and Thin by Mary Gaitskill

4.5

challenging dark tense 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

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Tremendously enjoyed this novel! I had read the Secretary short story after the recommendation of my dear friend, Sarah. The novel was also her recommendation. If the structure of the novel displeased me (each chapter alternates between Justine and Dorothy, our two girls), I could not help but to find myself equally enchanted, petrified, and delighted by Gaitskill's cutting prose. The subject matter is harsh, it's unforgiving, and it's told coldly (think Clarice Lispector or Ingeborg Bachmann). It's a terrible story to read and yet I couldn't help myself coming back to it, although I read as slowly as the novel's pace. Sure, you could criticize the discourse around sexuality and how it's affected the characters, but I have rarely encountered discourse in a novel that's this nuanced and complex. A lot of the passages rang true to me, not to out myself as a freak (but maybe a little). And I really feel like Gaitskill exercised perfect restraint--there was so much in between the words, and it never said too much. This was the perfect book to fall back in love with fiction after my brief-ish break from it.