A review by jawjuhh
Don't Cry by Mary Gaitskill

3.0

Isn't it funny how, in a short story collection, the whole thing can suddenly be redeemed if the last story touches your heart? I spent much of this read thinking that Mary Gaitskill was, to be frank, weird as shit, and not quite understanding the vast majority of these stories. And they definitely are weird and dreamy and almost mythic and sometimes hateful, but sometimes they are beautiful. Stories I enjoyed: The Agonized Face, Today I'm Yours, Description, and finally, Don't Cry. And even though I didn't strictly "like" the others, they were still oddly compelling. I first read this my senior year of high school and decided to revisit this in my senior year of college, wondering if I would understand / appreciate these more, now that I am, after all, a professional killjoy feminist, and to some extent that is true. But I feel like I need to revisit these stories again, because I still don't quite get it. All the same, an interesting, interesting assortment of stories.