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A review by rebus
Don't Cry by Mary Gaitskill
4.25
I was not initially wowed by the first couple of stories in this volume, believing that Gaitskill had sold out to the establishment values that had made her a success. The stories seemed to get better and better as it went along, often somewhat autobiographical tales of women writers who felt a great cynicism at conferences and reading events, the last couple linked by a couple of characters and very telling portraits of what her life has become following that success (one of her stand ins seems to even repudiate her early work as 'dumb', which is hardly the case).
It may not all be as transgressive, shocking, and earth shakingly fresh as her early work, but it's the work of a mature author who hasn't lost sight of reality and the truths underlying the bland mediocrity that has been literature for the last 30 years. She has contempt for the 3rd wave of feminism that turned every little girl into a victim that saw all sex as rape, and this view is refreshing in light of how ugly the culture has become since the 90s (not to mention the even uglier notion of supporting anyone female, no matter what they do, which once gave us the likes of fascists like Ayn Rand and now Hillary Clinton). She even takes on the topic of war and seems to side with my own view that all soldiers are sociopaths, despite the many characters with conflicting views in that tale (it IS all volunteer and most do come from the white upper middle class these days, playing videogames of death in which they are never threatened, the soldier in this tale notwithstanding).
She even takes on quite literary topics in the last couple linked tales, arguing both for and against too much 'description' in these tales (in our visual world less of that is needed, but it is a powerful tool of metaphor that can still say more about the characters than the character of Kevin is able to conceive).
If you're an old fan, you will still find much to like here. The younger generation giving it low reviews are the most illiterate in human history, so pay them no mind.
It may not all be as transgressive, shocking, and earth shakingly fresh as her early work, but it's the work of a mature author who hasn't lost sight of reality and the truths underlying the bland mediocrity that has been literature for the last 30 years. She has contempt for the 3rd wave of feminism that turned every little girl into a victim that saw all sex as rape, and this view is refreshing in light of how ugly the culture has become since the 90s (not to mention the even uglier notion of supporting anyone female, no matter what they do, which once gave us the likes of fascists like Ayn Rand and now Hillary Clinton). She even takes on the topic of war and seems to side with my own view that all soldiers are sociopaths, despite the many characters with conflicting views in that tale (it IS all volunteer and most do come from the white upper middle class these days, playing videogames of death in which they are never threatened, the soldier in this tale notwithstanding).
She even takes on quite literary topics in the last couple linked tales, arguing both for and against too much 'description' in these tales (in our visual world less of that is needed, but it is a powerful tool of metaphor that can still say more about the characters than the character of Kevin is able to conceive).
If you're an old fan, you will still find much to like here. The younger generation giving it low reviews are the most illiterate in human history, so pay them no mind.