Bad Behavior

Jul 07, 2010 Weinz rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

After reading entirely too many phalocentric books recently I’ve decided to commence my “I am woman HEAR ME ROAR” summer and read only female writers for the next three months.

I’m on my sixth female writer and so far I’ve encountered “Why roar when the man will take credit for it anyway?”, “What’s the point of roaring when no one pays attention to me anyway?”, “I’d roar if the men would do something for me”, “Ro..., wait never mind.” and “All men want is open legs and closed mouths”. I’m still...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Janice rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: don-t-judge, neverfinished, kindling, do-not-resuscitate, i-love-new-york, nys-writer-s-institute

So, lately I’ve been in a bit of an aggressive, combative mood... like I’ve been picking fights, or hoping that someone will instigate an argument so I can verbally “cut a bitch.” I’ve even gone so far as to go out in public* with the hope that someone will be rude to me, so I’ll have an excuse to lash out. I know I probably sound like a lunatic, and maybe I am. I probably need to be in Rageaholics Anonymous (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkQ9uy...) or at the very least, I should be sedated. An...more

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May 17, 2007 Jenny Napolitano rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who wants to remain my friend

I know I'm late in coming around on the Mary Gaitskill bandwagon. But it's so much better to come late than to not come at all. (No pun intended.) I started reading this book having only read one of her stories before ("Secretary," obviously), but knowing that she dealt with the territory I've begun writing about lately. It was difficult, because I stopped writing the story I'd been working on for months after starting this - because I felt at the time I couldn't ever write a sweet/erotic/charac...more

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Feb 29, 2012 Clare Marie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: summerreading

I can't figure out why I'm not enjoying this book more. Its characters are just what I love in an indulgent read: privileged young New Yorkers with coke habits, Soho lofts and ennui. And I don't want to say it's that it doesn't feel original and instead seems rehashed, like I've read the same story but better...because I have a feeling she was on the forefront of giving voice to these loft-having, coke-snorting urbanites...but it just doesn't have the freshness I was hoping for. I'm only about f...more

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Dec 13, 2008 Annabel rated it 1 of 5 stars

Recommended to Annabel by: my list

Sure, well-written I suppose, but unpleasant subject matter and hard-to-like characters made this a tough read regardless.
I'm not big on short stories and I found this demonstrated why: content became repetitive as we kept harking back to the same themes and the author's axe was ground on a minimal variety of topics.
It gave me the same uncomfortableness that a novel like "The Corrections" did, but with much less sense of the absurd and any levity that could come from that.

In summary, 'WHAMPP WHA...more

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Mar 12, 2008 Tatiana rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Tatiana by: amy

Shelves: do-not-own, short-stories

hmm. so i generally liked it, but not overwhelmingly. i liked the fact that the stories were less run of the mill that i would expect, more like your average introspective melancholy stories with a liberal dose of kink and prostitution that mades me oddly more empathic toward my lovely governor who just got caught in a prostitution sting. anyway. 'secretary' also comes from here, which distracted me from the book because i was suddenly curious why they made the choices they did with the movie.

w...more

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Aug 08, 2010 Paul rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories-are-your-friends

Mary Gaitskill is a bad writer. This is from page 176:

'Have I upset you?' asked Deana.
'No, no.' Connie looked up. 'I understand what you're saying,
but that wasn't the case with Alice. I never acted vulnerable
around her. And actually I don't really agree with you. I may
have done that to you because I responded to you sexually, but in general, I don't.'
Deana shrugged. 'Well, I only know what I've seen. I'm just
trying to come up with an answer for you because you seem so
distressed.' She stood and c...more

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Apr 01, 2009 Stefani rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thought this book was profound, intriguing, and original in the choice of subject matter. Her characters are frail, vulnerable, and make bad decisions which threaten to swallow them whole at a later point in time. You feel the isolation of Gaitskill's characters, both from other people and from their true selves, in a cold and unforgiving urban environment. In "Trying to Be", Stephanie becomes a prostitute out of contempt for boring office work. Despite her attempts to neatly separate her work...more

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Feb 28, 2009 Shel rated it 3 of 5 stars

A friend looking at my manuscript said I should definitely read Romantic Weekend, so I went out that day to pick it up.

While I definitely credit her with mastery of her writing and creating atmosphere, dialogue, unique and interesting characters and great storytelling... I was saddened by her depiction of S&M relationships. I think she captures what some of them might be about but she seems to misapprehend what they *can* be for people.

It was different from the Penthouse Forum-esque stuff I...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars

There really is quite a lot of bad behavior in this book. This New York does not exist anymore. The kids are all so much more optimistic and functional these days. The grunge of the village is gone, punk rock is gone, I do know a few sado masochistic kids still but boy, there sure seem to be a lot fewer of them. Even the garden variety adulterous affair seems to be on the wane in media-centric New York. I'd say maybe it's because I'm getting old, but honestly most of the people in media around m...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Dave rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mary Gaitskill is a talented writer and this collection of short stories was written when she was 23 years old - an impressive feat, indeed.
It was published in the late 1980's and I finally got around to reading it (at the suggestion of a trusted bibliophile) in 2012.
Overall, I appreciate it as literary art but I am not a fan of this style. I was however, most intrigued by the story SECRETARY, upon which the 2002 film, Secretary was based.
And while I enjoyed the written story, the movie is ver...more

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May 02, 2012 Geoffrey Fox rated it 3 of 5 stars

Stories of college-educated middle-class women & their boyfriends, and their attempts to be naughty. The women generally turn out to be stronger and more resilient than they think they should be. A couple of them become part-time prostitutes, but nobody gets hurt. The funniest premise (though it doesn't yield an especially funny story) is in "A Romantic Weekend" -- a young married guy who thinks he's a sadist gets a weekend away with a young single woman who thinks she's a masochist, but the...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Holly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mary Gaitskill sat down with me on my first day off this week—my birthday, coincidentally. Together we curled up in my favorite corner of my brown suede couch, settling in for what I assumed would be a nice, relaxing morning of sharing and communion (ok, I suppose the sharing would be a little one sided in this instance). Somehow I had come up with preconceived notions that Gaitskill’s book Bad Behavior, a collection of nine short stories published together in 1988 (also coincidentally the year...more Mary Gaitskill sat down with me on my first day off this week—my birthday, coincidentally. Together we curled up in my favorite corner of my brown suede couch, settling in for what I assumed would be a nice, relaxing morning of sharing and communion (ok, I suppose the sharing would be a little one sided in this instance). Somehow I had come up with preconceived notions that Gaitskill’s book Bad Behavior, a collection of nine short stories published together in 1988 (also coincidentally the year of my birth), would be fun anecdotes, amusing stories, about unconventional behaviors and perhaps the consequences of those behaviors. Overall, I expected some highly entertaining reading, some comedic some maybe only slightly. Let’s just say that my original perceptions or expectations of the book were not only wrong, they were about as many lightyears away from the truth of Gaitskill’s work as the Hubble Telescope is from the space phenomenon that it observes and photographs.
Gaitskill’s stories are set in Manhatten’s Lower East Side and populated by a variety of characters which all seem, in one way or another, morally weak. These stories delve into the darker side of human existence, exploring unconventional people and their unconventional relationships including (but certainly not limited to) affairs, masochism, and prostitution. Sexuality seems to be one of the stitches holding all of the pieces together either directly or indirectly—Fred knows Jane because she is the prostitute he prefers to visit, but Susan and Leisha’s friendship sprung from a connection through a mutual ex-boyfriend. Gaitskill’s creation of this shady world is indeed masterful, it is a world that most people try to ignore but Gaitskill forces us to recognize. The nature of her material, however, can make it difficult and sometimes painful to relate to—especially on days meant to be spent reveling in birthday joys, i.e. cake and presents.
Gaitskill employs a great deal of honesty in her work. I mean, who can really deny that they have had indecent sexual fantasies from time to time? Ok, so maybe lots of people can deny it, everyone can technically deny it, but most, if not all, of them are lying. It is human nature, a biological instinct, to think and behave sexually but society has imposed such strict rules about what is considered appropriate and what is not that people are embarrassed, ashamed, even terrified. Gaitskill’s use of omniscient third person exposes her character’s deep seeded secrets, waving them bravely through the air like an American Flag in a wind storm, blatantly challenging the archaic idea that sexuality should be kept hidden. She forces the reader to recognize that no one is completely innocent and she does that in the way she characterizes her protagonists, the way she makes them appear so similar to everyone here in the real world.
The subjects of Gaitskill’s stories are set in recognizable places and then given very commonplace characteristics. Like Joey, from “Daisy’s Valentine,” is a man working “in the clerical department of a filthy secondhand bookstore” (Gaitskill 3) and who is reluctant to get out of an eight year relationship which has become systematic. Any one of us could be this person, know this person, who is working a dead end job for whatever reason, either lack of ambition or opportunity, remaining in a committed relationship simply because it is comfortable, “almost a system” (Gaitskill 3). But would anyone actually admit to having improper thoughts about someone other than his significant other? Another example would be Fred from “Something Nice.” Here is a man who is married (another committed relationship) and is a veterinarian (who doesn’t like a savior of animals?). But, this seemingly stable and down to earth kind of guy, a guy who works and goes “Christmas shopping” (Gaitskill 67) is also obsessed with a prostitute he once met? These characters are powerful, defying convention and forcing people to rethink the safe world they thought they lived in. It is the border between truth and comfort being not merely blurred, but blown apart, shards of shrapnel exploding in your face.
Picture me, on my brown suede couch, completing what I thought would be light reading, ending up feeling depressed, bewildered, and awed by Gaitskill’s truths, truths which I knew but somehow couldn’t admit existed. Gaitskill’s fearless writing is a testament to the power that authors can have over the perceptions and emotions of readers. I say get your dose of Mary on any day but your birthday.
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Apr 20, 2012 Britt rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have always preferred wine over beer. And then I had sour beer, and I fell in love. I skipped dating, the awkwardness of that first sex, and went straight to love. I have always preferred the novel over short stories. And then I read Mary Gaitskill’s “Bad Behavior,” and I fell in love. Gaitskill turns me on. But, not like you think. She is deliberate, and masterful in her use of language, often her sentences were dizzying in their effect upon me. Several times I found myself jarred from my re...more I have always preferred wine over beer. And then I had sour beer, and I fell in love. I skipped dating, the awkwardness of that first sex, and went straight to love. I have always preferred the novel over short stories. And then I read Mary Gaitskill’s “Bad Behavior,” and I fell in love. Gaitskill turns me on. But, not like you think. She is deliberate, and masterful in her use of language, often her sentences were dizzying in their effect upon me. Several times I found myself jarred from my reading reverie by a particular turn of phrase, or word choice. One character finds upon waking from a dream he has a “mosquito-bite feeling of loss” (77) and instantly I could, in a most odd way, understand the level he was feeling. In another story Lisette, a prostitute walks towards a client “as if he were a dentist, except she was smiling” seemingly incongruent within the stories space, it pitch-perfectly depicts a feeling, and our understanding.
In the stories “A Romantic Weekend” and “Secretary” Gaitskill plays with the themes of power, control, and BDSM. She shrewdly depicts the spider’s web of power structure. Gaitskill navigates this web, and its inherent stickiness, while deftly avoiding voyeuristic clichés and saving the sermons for church. One particular (unnamed) character, when disillusioned with her sexual partner, defines her own needs best when she says “How… could she have mistaken this hostile moron for the dark, brooding hero who would crush her like an insect and then talk about life and art” (43). She is looking neither to condone her predilections, nor to apologize for them. “Secretary” explores the same theme in a divergent way, examining it through a different lens. The woman in this story perceives her boss spanking her as humiliating, propelling her to realize “that the concept it stood for had actually been a major force in [her] life for quite a while” (143).
Throughout all of Gaitskill’s stories is a thread that ties all of them, and all of us together. The characters in each of her stories grapple with the messiness of being human, and of memory and its slippery nature. Through her characters inner and outer life we see both the ugly and beautiful of the human condition. And just like the characters we try to “discover the places” we also inhabit. In “Other Factors” Constance tries to understand a former friendship, attempting to make sense of its failure. While her despondency borders on the dramatic, the emotion behind it is relatable. Similarly, the demise of a friendship gives way to questions of the eponymous “Connection” we have to others. Why do we have such a need to make these connections? Why do they often prove to be tenuous? Just as the characters sprinkled in Gaitskill’s stories look to fill some emptiness, some particular need in them, through others, so do we. And just as these characters posthumously attempt to make sense of the friendship death, so may we. Have I not asked of myself, of my own emptiness, the same questions Susan asks of Leisha in “Connection?” I wonder if my inner circuitry contains some disconnects also.
"Why did Leisha feel empty? What did empty mean? What should exist in Leisha that didn’t? Was it a quality that other people had? She tried to imagine what Leisha looked like inside and pictured a set of dull-colored wires, some dead, others short-circuited and flickering in the dark, discharging a profusion of heat and bright color that sparked wildly, blew fuses and went dead" (98).
The individuals that inhabit Gaitskill’s stories seem to all struggle with different dead wires. Each tries in their varied and interesting to ways to splice wires back together, to make meaningful connections within themselves and with others. Even if they are mostly unsuccessful in their efforts I value their struggle, and find solace in their exposed frailty. I pass no judgment on their lives and choices; I accept their abject humanity as bits of my own. The common thread of the struggle for something real, of something beautiful is what binds these stories together.
Gaitskill’s overarching themes provide continuity and commonality, but also prove to be a pitfall when reading too quickly. These stories should be digested separately and slowly, first to appreciate the way Gaitskill forms and molds language, but also to keep the details from becoming muddled. Just like a nice wine, or a fabulous sour beer, these should sipped and savored.(less)

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Apr 20, 2012 Todd rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you’ve ever feel like you are putting entirely too much faith in the goodness of humanity, then Mary Gaitskill’s “Bad Behavior” might be just the reality check you need. Packed from cover to cover with narcissists, neurotics and sociopaths, this collection of short stories will leave you mourning our decline. Ms. Gaitskill leaves no stone unturned in her quest to discover the full extent of human depravity and thus succeeds, several times over, in answering the age old question, “What rock d...more If you’ve ever feel like you are putting entirely too much faith in the goodness of humanity, then Mary Gaitskill’s “Bad Behavior” might be just the reality check you need. Packed from cover to cover with narcissists, neurotics and sociopaths, this collection of short stories will leave you mourning our decline. Ms. Gaitskill leaves no stone unturned in her quest to discover the full extent of human depravity and thus succeeds, several times over, in answering the age old question, “What rock did you crawl out from under?”

Most of the stories in this collection are set on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York. Most of the stories revolve around New York’s literary circles and while most of the characters are fairly well educated, this does not make them particularly smart. People associated with the arts are generally considered to be forward thinking and thoughtful. The characters in this book are anything but when you consider the state of their relationships to each other. For those involved in romantic relationships, infidelity seems to be the norm here and in considering the entire work, I cannot recall a single act of kindness. Even at their best these folks are inconsiderate. At their worst, they are cruel and vindictive. This is not to say that this is a bad book, because it’s not. Ms. Gaitskill is quite skillful (see what I did there?) at presenting clear and vivid images throughout, without drawing the reader’s attention away from the story itself. The same can be said of the staging, which is precise and appropriately gritty considering the subject matter. This is not light reading to be sure. You are not going to walk away from this book with anything closely resembling a “warm fuzzy”. This book is meant to leave a lasting impression on the reader. What kind of impression I can’t say for sure, but I suspect it’s something between pity and contempt.

All of the stories are written in a third person narrative which lends a voyeuristic quality to this work. This is appropriate, maybe even necessary, in that it helps keep the reader safe. Some of the situations presented in this book are downright painful and may be best kept at arm’s length, considering the stark realism with which they are conveyed. Some of Ms. Gaitskill’s graphic descriptions are almost too good; likely good enough to make some readers uncomfortable, thus serving as a distraction. Still, I guess it’s better to overshoot your mark then miss it altogether.

As capable as Ms. Gaitskill is when it comes to detailed descriptions, I found it curious that her characters were not clearly defined in terms of their physical descriptions. At some point, I began to wonder if maybe the obvious lack of detail here was intentional. Perhaps the author’s way of suggesting that I might pass a masochist or a prostitute or an infidel on the street and there would be very little, if anything, about their personal appearance that would indicate such proclivities. On the other hand, the mental and emotional state of the central figures is extremely well defined. We are frequently invited into a character’s head and made privy to things that have us reaching for the eye bleach. Taken all together, what comes through most clearly is that almost nobody in this book seems to like each other. Even the characters that do seem to like each other do not seem to really care about each other. The book may go a little too far in making this point. It makes it difficult for the reader to care about them either; any of them. As clearly as their personas are defined, these characters are still largely un-relatable. When they find themselves in excruciating situations, as they often do, it’s hard to feel sorry for them considering their own “Bad Behavior”. I found this aspect a bit confusing; a bit disturbing. I couldn’t really go where I wanted to go, where I felt I needed to go, in terms of an emotional reaction.

I’ve heard it said that “everybody loves a car wreck” and so it is with this book. While readers may find it difficult, even exhausting, to read at times, they will find it equally difficult to put down. What drives some forward will be a morbid fascination and what drives other forward will be hope for some sort of redemption. Alas, redemption for these characters may never come. No more than it’s deserved.
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Apr 19, 2012 Nate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mary Gaitskill has produced a series of brutally tragic but honest relationships. Bad Behavior explores the torturous, painful, even violent interactions between humans. It seems as though each short story could apply to the family living down the street, the troubled couple upstairs, or your own sister. Gaitskill’s prose holds nothing back, whether it’s sex, drug use, or domestic violence. Her greatest strength lies in her ability to expose the pain and difficulty of maintaining day to day rela...more Mary Gaitskill has produced a series of brutally tragic but honest relationships. Bad Behavior explores the torturous, painful, even violent interactions between humans. It seems as though each short story could apply to the family living down the street, the troubled couple upstairs, or your own sister. Gaitskill’s prose holds nothing back, whether it’s sex, drug use, or domestic violence. Her greatest strength lies in her ability to expose the pain and difficulty of maintaining day to day relationships through a crisp and fluid style of writing filled with rich imagery and philosophical exploration. Her female characters display a wide range of emotional responses to the situations they find themselves in, which becomes a stark contrast to her disappointingly limited male characters. The harsh relationships that Gaitskill is so skilled at creating seem to constantly be the fault of overly flawed men.

Bad Behavior is true to its title and does not hold anything back; the endings are not as happy as we want them to be. It is, in a most basic sense, a critical assessment of human relationships. The females are often struggling writers or other artists, trying to find their way through life. These women are constantly balancing professional lives, sexual satisfaction, while trying to maintain healthy relationships. The prostitutes in Something Nice and Trying to Be are intensely developed characters that, as a reader, it is easy and comfortable to identify with. Gaitskill’s talent is obvious as her readers will identify with these women for who they are as people. We know that “Stephanie wasn’t a professional lady; it was just something she slipped into, once a year or so; when she couldn’t pay her bills.” Gaitskill’s fearless march in to the subject of prostitution makes it easy to understand a girl who has no choice but to exist in a man’s world. Gaitskill’s female characters are more than just floozies off the street, but real women, with real reasons for finding themselves in these situations. In Heaven, our female protagonist is no prostitute, but the mother of four children, trying maneuver through her own problems, as well as the lives of the troubled family around her. Again, it is Gaitskill’s ability to expose the lives of these women that will allow her readers to sympathize.

Gaitskill’s strong female characters go quite a ways, but the men are very limited in their scope of emotions and desires. It is the male characters that hold not only the women back, but the stories as well. The collection opens with a drugged out office worker ogling his female coworker whom he considers “a sort of stupid little thing”. He constantly lies to her about his life, and the story finds it end at an awkward moment with amphetamines on a stairway. In the next story, we are experiencing a girl’s discovery that she’s not the masochist she thinks she is when she spends the weekend with a man she barely knows. Her moment of enlightenment comes when he asks if he can “beat her with a stick”, “pee on her”, and “humiliate her even more”. By the end of the story, he can’t look at her without thinking about “beating her and fucking her mouth”. No one is asking for a censored version of events, (the lack of censorship, is in fact, one of Gaitskill’s greatest assets) but perhaps the collection could show as much diversity among the male characters as the female ones. The men are constantly abusing the women, and even the one man who seems to offer a glimmer of male kindness in Trying to Be, ends up walking out on the hooker that we love (and not paying). By the end of the book, it feels as though men have been the cause of all the problems. Even the conflicts in the last story, with the compassionate mother helping her family pull through, are all the result of her male characters. The boys abuse animals; the father can’t connect with the girls; both husbands beat their wives. It would be refreshing to see Gaitskill give to her male characters as much as she gives to the females.

In regards to finding comfort in the tragedy of human relationships, Gaitskill’s Bad Behavior is remarkably successful. Her prose is direct, compact and incredibly fearless about a subject as brutal as this one. Female readers will find comfort in the strong, developed protagonists. Men might be more inclined to find shame or embarrassment at their fictional counterparts.
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Jan 14, 2012 Chris Gager rated it 3 of 5 stars

The stories are very well written but I can't pretend to claim to understand the behaviour and motives of the female protagonists(although the author does try to explain). Mostly set in New York City and mostly about people(women)socially, economically, emotionally, spiritually and sexually adrift. My downside view could be summed up as "immature, self-absorbed, compulsive and confused assholes on parade". Not very understanding or compassionate but there you are. Or there I am sometimes... It's...more

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Jan 21, 2010 David rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

I find myself landing squarely on the fence for this collection - there were three stories I really admired ("Daisy's Valentine", "Secretary", and "Heaven"), a couple I actively disliked ("Something Nice", "An Affair, Edited"), the others left me largely unmoved. This was primarily due to the general anomie and lack of affect that hangs over so many of Gaitskill's characters like a toxic miasma. It's not that people like this don't exist - the combination of narcissism and ennui that Gaitskill p...more

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Apr 21, 2010 Deborah rated it 4 of 5 stars

This collection of stories is difficult to pin down effectively enough to give a rating to. I finally settled at four stars because the writing is so jaw-droppingly good overall. Although some of the characters and stories are deeply disturbing, they jump off the page and the writing never acquires the 'this is going to shock you' feel that you might anticipate. The stories do shock you, but Gaitskill allows the characters and their dingy, drug-filled, sexually unfulfilled, disenchanted lives an...more This collection of stories is difficult to pin down effectively enough to give a rating to. I finally settled at four stars because the writing is so jaw-droppingly good overall. Although some of the characters and stories are deeply disturbing, they jump off the page and the writing never acquires the 'this is going to shock you' feel that you might anticipate. The stories do shock you, but Gaitskill allows the characters and their dingy, drug-filled, sexually unfulfilled, disenchanted lives and thoughts to do that rather than hitting you in the face with what could have been far more shocking details and language. 'A Romantic Weekend' had a creepy tone and level of tension that could have been killed off entirely without the author's deft touch.

I can pick holes in it - undoubtedly there are repeats of themes and character traits but for me that just added to the cohesion of the collection. In places there were surprising duplications, some of which may have been echoing themes but they felt like good ideas re-hashed. 'A Romantic Weekend' struck me as almost flawless in its execution as a short story despite its disturbing and uncomfortable feel. The nameless female character's brief fantasy before the stark reality of her meeting with the man she barely knows includes a wonderful line : "his gaze penetrated her so thoroughly, it was as though he had thrust his hand into her chest and begun feeling her ribs one by one" and I thought the writing and imagery were near perfect. Then in 'Secretary' Debby describes the lawyer with "it felt like he could have put his hand through my rib cage, grabbed my heart, squeezed it a little to see how it felt, then let go." Although 'Secretary' was to grab all the attention after the movie I felt this was one of the less effective stories and the more weakly written duplicate line only served to emphasize its position for me as a paler echo.

Gaitskill gets so far inside the characters' heads I don't think it's surprising they're such an unlikeable bunch - who would you like if you know that much of their every thought and emotion? I have read other books where I didn't care for the individual characters but I've never enjoyed the ride so much. It was a bizarre world but one I felt it difficult to drag myself away from.

Although I liked the final story - 'Heaven' - it jarred a little for me within the collection. I see that it is meant as almost a footnote and a flip of viewpoint but it didn't quite have the natural feel of the other stories despite its more conventional themes and location. Perhaps I'd just gone too far into 'Gaitskill World' by that point to take the change of pace.

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Jul 01, 2012 Jamilla Rice rated it 3 of 5 stars

If this book was indeed the source of inspiration for "Girls", I know that I was correct in my decision not to watch the show. This collection of short stories was well-written, incredibly so, but the content and the lack of "there" there, the emptiness of it all, was disconcerting to me. I am sure that was what Gaitskill was trying to capture--the lack of foundation or the semblance of security that we feel that we have in our lives, yet life finds a way to constantly put you in your place, let...more

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Mar 31, 2010 Erica Harmon rated it 5 of 5 stars

I picked this up on a whim, and it ended up being one of those collections of short stories I just couldn't stop thinking about. The blurb on the back made it sound like a bunch of perverse, self absorbed adults muddling through life, and maybe it was, but I think the reason it resonated with me was that it really captured/capitalized on a voyeurism that I don't usually indulge. Head cases abound, and while I never "saw" myself in the characters, there were sublime moments when I just understood...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Greg rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, girls-girls-girls, short-stories

While walking back from the laundrymat (because this is a thing New Yorkers do, we walk our laundry home after doing it (it being laundry, not "it", I'm not the sort of person who does base things like that). I don't know why I'm saying that, maybe just to feel like I could be part of the social-world (twenty some odd years too late, maybe, that these stories take place) I started thinking about writing a review for this book. The walk isn't very long so I didn't think much about it. I thought o...more While walking back from the laundrymat (because this is a thing New Yorkers do, we walk our laundry home after doing it (it being laundry, not "it", I'm not the sort of person who does base things like that). I don't know why I'm saying that, maybe just to feel like I could be part of the social-world (twenty some odd years too late, maybe, that these stories take place) I started thinking about writing a review for this book. The walk isn't very long so I didn't think much about it. I thought of a few things, and they seemed sort of worth saying but when I got home I decided to look at a review I wrote about three and half years ago for the other Mary Gaitskill collection I'd read, and I found that some of the very witty things I thought of saying I'd actually already said in less witty formats. You can read that review here.

In case you don't want to go read that review, I'll repeat myself a little bit. Reading these stories I got the idea that Mary Gaitskill would be the sort of person you'd be having coffee with and she would start to loudly talk about some kink in her sex life. Loud enough that anyone sitting within a couple of tables of her would have no choice but to notice that she just made an 'offhand' comment about how sometimes she likes to get smacked while getting fucked in the ass. I feel like she would then act all offended at the prudishness of the person sitting with her and the people sitting around her that were now giving her weird looks. It's not just that there is quite a bit of sex and kinks mentioned in her stories, but that it seems like it's mentioned too often as if to be provocative.

What is kind of funny though is that the one story where I don't remember there being any overt mention of sex, or a woman liking to get smacked around is the only story that I thought failed (which I now I just read through the blurbs and one of them said that this story was the best of the collection, oh well). This story, the last in the collection, is the only one where she moves out of her comfort zone of beautiful young-urban people struggling to make it in the creative world (no, this is a lie, "Secretary" doesn't deal with these people either, but I guess I just think of it that way since the movie was such a cult-thing) and deals with older people and family. This story feels too sentimental though (although another blurb tells me there is no sentimentality in the book) and populated with stock characters.

Gaitskill is a fine writer. The stories aren't unbearable to read, I just don't care that much for the subject matter or the characters. The stories here are more refreshing than say stories about sad twenty eight year old men who are slacking their way to be recognized as the geniuses they've been promised their whole lives that they really are, but being more appealing than that genre isn't necessarily that difficult.

I think one problem with her stories are the male characters are always so fucking lame. They don't feel real and they are either borderline socio-paths with what appears to be some sort of affective disorder or else they are just ridiculous. The main woman characters are much more believable, although they generally seem to be the same character with a few changes. I get the feeling that they are all Mary Gaitskill, which is of course the thing you're not supposed to think while reading stories (especially if you aren't reading a Mary Gaitskill story, then you might wonder why she would be in the story you are reading, especially if you were reading a story by a writer who died before she was even born, safe to say it's best not to think that any story you read is about Mary Gaitskill to avoid any confusion). If they are, she is very good at creating that character, but in this collection the other characters feel either flat or like wooden set-pieces.

As I said though, she's a fine writer. She just doesn't do much for me. If you like reading stories about strong women who also like to get smacked around from time to time this might appeal to you.(less)

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Mar 24, 2010 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

After reading a short story by Mary Gaitskill in school, I decided to give a novel a try. I was disappointed, sorta. It was exactly like what I read for school, which I enjoyed, however, every story was exactly like that. Here is the rundown:

Daisy’s Valentine: This story is about a guy named Joey who works in a used book store typing up the inventory of books. His co-worker, Daisy, is the object of his affection. However, both Joey and Daisy are both in relationships. Joey is a drug addict that...more After reading a short story by Mary Gaitskill in school, I decided to give a novel a try. I was disappointed, sorta. It was exactly like what I read for school, which I enjoyed, however, every story was exactly like that. Here is the rundown:

Daisy’s Valentine: This story is about a guy named Joey who works in a used book store typing up the inventory of books. His co-worker, Daisy, is the object of his affection. However, both Joey and Daisy are both in relationships. Joey is a drug addict that only eats Jelly beans, and Daisy consistently flits from guy to guy because she needs the drama. The relationship between the two of them is not fulfilling and leaves them both confused.

A Romantic Weekend: This is about a woman that falls in love with a man that she thinks will be the person of her dreams. He is married and they are planning on spending the weekend together. She has this notion of being his sex slave because she once enjoyed being beaten during sex when she was in college. He can’t wait to beat her and torture her. However, as they meet, they decide they can’t really stand each other. The weekend is terrible and neither party gets what they want or expected from the other.

Something Nice: A man goes to a whore house and picks out his prostitute. They lay down and talk for most of the allotted time. He finds that he is strangely attracted to her and continues to go back to visit her every night that his wife is away. He then plans to meet her outside of work, but she stands him up.

An Affair, Edited: A man sees an old girlfriend on the street and begins to remember the relationship that he had with her. He remembers that they didn’t love each other and he beat her during sex.

Connection: A woman, Susan, goes home to New York for a visit. While she is walking, she thinks that she sees her old friend Leisha on the street. This sighting triggers the memories of her relationship with her friend. She replays how they met and became friends, the dramas that went through the friendship, and then the final fight that drove them apart.

Trying to Be: A woman becomes a prostitute while she is not getting enough money from her read job. She has a client that seems to fall for her. He comes to her a lot and offers her money. She begins to see him outside of work. He gives her money there also, which she feels a little guilty for. As their affair continues, they learn more about each other. She doesn’t like his views on love, passion, and marriage, and their relationship falls flat. The affair ends, but neither is sad about the separation.

Secretary: If you have ever seen the movie Secretary, then you know the plot of this story. A girl gets a job. She begins making mistakes and her boss spanks her. Unlike the movie, it is unclear if she enjoys the spankings or not. She stops going to work and her boss gives her a lot of money, probably to keep her for saying anything about it as he seeks to further his career in the political area.

Other Factors: Connie runs into a man who tried to seduce her. They have a brief conversation and it brings up memories (see a pattern here?). The man invites her to a party at his house in which two of their old friends would be at. This distresses her and she goes home to her lover upset. She recalls the relationship that she had with the set of friends and how much she tried to impress them. Even after all of this time, she still feels like she needs to be good enough for them. After much deliberation, she goes to the party. It is anticlimactic and neither Connie or the friends seem to care about each other.

Heaven: This is a story about a family. The original sisters are all married, but unhappy. One of them can not control their daughter, so she is sent to live with the other sister. The girl is not happy there either and rebels and runs away. No one chases her. The other children have similar issues. The wild child female that everyone loves gets married to a man that beats her and ends up going back home. The other daughter marries a man and becomes successful, but is unhappy and divorces him. One son went to school, but dropped out and the other son is killed in an automobile accident.

Ok, so that was a basic summary of each story. I felt like she was so repetitive. It seemed like every story had a lot of drug use with no point at all. She also had a lot of the running into someone from the past and then thinking about how terrible life is. Finally, all of the women don’t seem to enjoy sex unless they are being beaten during it. I know that she is known for the realistic portrayal of the bad side of life, but honestly, I don’t know that many women that only enjoy sex while being hurt. I’m just not impressed by this novel. I think that it would be better to read one or two stories like this, but every single one was the same thing over and over. Why bother putting yourself reading the whole book? Why not just search her up through google and read a story or two? Then you will get the Gaitskill experience without feeling bored by the second or third story.

2/5 stars(less)

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Aug 25, 2012 Darlene rated it 5 of 5 stars

The first book by this author I've read and I"m hooked. Love this collection of short stories that all pivot loosely around a central theme. Can't wait to check out more by Mary Gaitskill

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Feb 16, 2012 Erica rated it 5 of 5 stars

Gaitskill's debut collection of stories could strike an initial chord as a collection of repetitious downers. The themes include prostitution, S+M, lost friends, chaotic and dysfunctional relationships. The characters are always doing amphetamines, having terrible emotionally damaging relationships, living in the East Village in the mid 80s, trying to make it as artists, aging slightly, contemplating their long feet.... wait. It's always the same character! Viewed through a lot of different or f...more

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May 12, 2009 Alanna rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'd only read "A Romantic Weekend" before this collection, which disturbed me and which I still feel is a straight-up horror story. I was expecting Mary Gaitskill's writing to smack of that experienced-but-not-very-self-aware vibe one sometimes gets from girls who feel smug because they've "lived on the edge" or whatever, e.g. "Oh, I've SEEN some things. I've been to DARK places". Gaitskill's clearly too smart for that, though: her stories never hint at judgment in one direction or another, neit...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Annabeth Leong rated it 3 of 5 stars

I bought this collection of short stories for the exploration of sex and relationships that it promised (the back cover copy claims its territory "is the bedrooms of the urban fringe, where tenderness melds with cruelty and pornography with romance"). However, its treatment of non-sexual relationships between women turned out to be what grabbed me the most.

My initial expectation was certainly justified. The book turns out to contain "Secretary," the story on which the Maggie Gyllenhaal movie is...more I bought this collection of short stories for the exploration of sex and relationships that it promised (the back cover copy claims its territory "is the bedrooms of the urban fringe, where tenderness melds with cruelty and pornography with romance"). However, its treatment of non-sexual relationships between women turned out to be what grabbed me the most.

My initial expectation was certainly justified. The book turns out to contain "Secretary," the story on which the Maggie Gyllenhaal movie is (quite loosely) based. It also includes call girls, masochists, people in adulterous affairs, and so on. None of this is nearly as racy as it sounds. Gaitskill's language is precise and quite cold. I frequently found myself wondering how a given two characters could bear talking to each other for five minutes, let alone long enough to imagine they wanted to have some sort of relationship with each other. I nearly put the book down because its treatment of everything seemed so distant and no one seemed to like anyone else much at all.

However, little glimpses of something kept me going. "Trying to Be" which occurs fairly late in the book, contained the coldness and dissociation I described, and yet it moved me. A bit of language at the end of Secretary clicked for me as an explanation of Gaitskill's voice:

For some reason, I remembered the time, a few years before, when my mother had taken me to see a psychiatrist. One of the more obvious questions he had asked me was, "Debby, do you ever have the sensation of being outside yourself, almost as if you can actually watch yourself from another place?" I hadn't at the time, but I did now. And it wasn't such a bad feeling at all.

Even with that realization, however, I might have finished the book but not liked it. What redeemed the book for me was the way Gaitskill writes about friendships and other relationships between women. When I reviewed the stories that stood out for me, most of them had this theme, particularly "Connection," "Other Factors," and "Heaven," which are all clustered together at the end. Here the sense of dissociation and coldness worked much better for me because I also could detect genuine feeling between the characters. "Heaven" was a deep and moving story, very full and complicated. It concerns lots of relationships, but for me its emotional center lay in the connection between a woman and her niece.

Bad Behavior is a difficult book. I've seen it described as "utterly unsentimental," and I found this to be accurate. It makes for an unpleasant read at times. When the author presents characters at arm's length, it's hard for me to immerse myself in the world and care what happens to them. However, something crept up on me as I read. I'm not sure if the end of the book was better or if, by reading through the beginning, I began to connect better with Gaitskill's style. At any rate, for the last four or five stories I felt the depth and emotion I'd been missing through the first half of the book. (less)

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Nov 19, 2010 MariNaomi rated it 3 of 5 stars

These short stories were a mixed bag for me. The stories in which she wrote about S&M and prostitutes seemed like they were trying too hard to be shocking, were coming from a naive viewpoint and could have used more research. They were well-written in that she has a very interesting, florid style, but the density of her prose made those stories even more difficult to wade through. But I kept going, and I'm glad I did, because there were a few gems that began appearing at the middle point of...more

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Aug 12, 2009 Maia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Maia by: Kristin L. Hart

Shelves: 80s-90s

The first Mary Gaitskill stories--including the famous 'Secretary' of the James Saper infamous movie of same name--and in many ways, her very bets writing. IMHO, Gaitskill has few rivals in modern American short story writing. Not only is she fearless (even ruthless) in her examination of life, human nature and existence itself, but her mastery of the form, her choice of words, her collection of sentences, is simply stunning.

Years ago, I was lucky enough to have her as a visiting professor in co...more

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Dec 15, 2011 Dorothyanne Brown rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm uncertain about this book. Maybe I am tired of world-weary, depressing New Yorkers. Maybe I really don't like the portrayal of rough, unappreciative, hostile sex. Secretary, in particular, was skin-crawlingly unfriendly. If one of the characters in the book was even in the slightest likeable, it would be an easier go. I lie. There's Stephanie, the lass who does tricks to pass the time while treading through deadly office jobs. I could understand that gal. But everyone else seems so dreary.
I...more

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