Walking naked: Mary Gaitskill's evolution.("Walking Naked")("Veronica")(Book Review)

From: Harper's Magazine | Date: March 1, 2006| Author: Mason, Wyatt | Copyright information

WALKING NAKED Mary Gaitskill's evolution

Discussed in this essay:

Veronica, by Maw Gaitskill. Pantheon. 232 pages. $23.

A thumbnail catalogue of the fictions of Mary Gaitskill, when compiled, reads more like the guest list of a daytime talk show than the stuff of literature. For it doesn't take much imagination to envision the desperate characters from Gaitskill's tales sitting on Ricki Lake's couch of wonders, airing their experiences before a cro...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial to HighBeam Research

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research

Terrible Beauty; Mary Gaitskill on Death and Glamour
The Stranger ; MARY GAITSKILL'S 1988 short-story collection Bad Behavior had the effect of a slap in the face. I was 17 at the time and I was reading anything tagged transgressive that I could get my hands on. That meant mostly hard, weird novels by men. It also meant Mary Gaitskill. She was lumped in with the
(book reviews)
Newsweek ; A fine new story collection and a talk with author Mary Gaitskill about all this 'dark lady' stuff IT'S EASY TO SEE HOW MARY GAITSKILL has gotten tagged as a writer specializing in dark preoccupations. Her first book, the 1988 story collection Bad Behavior, was unfortunately promoted as a kinkier
VERONICA
The Village Voice ; Two girls, hot and not: Mary Gaitskill returns, with bluntness, compassion, and tunes VERONICA By Mary Gaitskill Pantheon, 227 pp., $23 HURTING EACH OTHER Even before her death from anorexia in 1983, Karen Carpenter, with her treacly lyrics and Downey beginnings, was a ready-made camp icon. Next to
Through the gloss darkly.(Veronica)(Book Review)
The New Leader ; Veronica By Mary Gaitskill Pantheon. 227 pp. $23.00. THE PHOTOGRAPH on the back of Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill s 1988 collection of short stories, looks a great deal like a model's headshot. The author's head is angled, lightly supported by an artfully placed palm, and dramatically lit--one side
MARY, MARY, LESS CONTRARY
New York ; Mary Gaitskill used to be the downtown princess of darkness. Now she's happily married and lives on a country lane. But she still writes with an icy insight into life's little cruelties. JUST BEFORE I LEFT my apartment to meet Mary Gaitskill, I slipped off my engagement ring. It just seemed
BEAUTY PALLOR
Artforum ; BEAUTY PALLOR Two girls, one sad, the other sick, in Mary Gaitskill's new novel VERONICA BY MARY GAITSKILL NEW YORK: PANTHEON. 240 PAGES. $23. Contrary to appearances, the poetics of the neon '8os weren't born in a cocaine-addled vacuum on the Lower East Side. Bret Easton Ellis's strung-out,
TIED UP IN CRAZY
The Stranger ; Mary Gaitskill and George Saunders vs. Ayn Rand, George W. Bush, and Control Issues Mary Gaitskill, George Saunders, Christopher Frizzelle Sun, Bagley Wright Theatre, 3-4:15 pm. It's hard to think of two authors who are more diametrically opposed than Mary Gaitskill and George Saunders. Saunders
Model Behavior; An aging cover girl recalls a friend and a life lost in the fast lane.
The Washington Post ; ... 227 pp. $23 Mary Gaitskill's heroines often glide through the world as bemused recipients of attention. If they are cute, it's news to them. Alison, the narrator of Gaitskill's mesmerizing second novel, is different - - she was once beautiful, and (mostly ...
Trauma and sadomasochistic narrative: Mary Gaitskill's "The Dentist".(Critical Essay)
Mosaic (Winnipeg) ; This essay applies trauma theory and relational psychoanalysis to a close reading of Mary Gaitskill's short story The Dentist. It argues that the sadomasochistic relationship central to this story, and to much of Gaitskill's fiction, is rooted in trauma and can be illuminated by an understanding of
Formerly Forbidden Topics Pervade Public Life
All Things Considered (NPR) ; ... concerns many people, including people here, have that we are writing and talking about sex and other personal matters in the news now, feeling that somehow some of this ought to be private but, at the same time, feeling that we must talk about it. I asked ...