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Published Apr 2017
288 pages
Genre: Essays
Publication Information
Engaging, unusual essays written over the last two decades on matters literary, social, cultural, and personal - from the explosive date-rape debates of the '90s to the ubiquitous political adultery of the '00s, from Anton Chekhov to Celine Dion.
Here is Mary Gaitskill the essayist: witty, direct, penetrating to the core of each issue, personality, or literary trope (On Updike: "It's as if [he] has entered a tiny window marked 'Rabbit,' and, by some inverse law, passed into a universe of energies both light and dark, expanded and contracted, infinite and workaday." On Elizabeth Wurtzel: "If this kooky, foot-stamping, self-loathing screed is meant to be, as it claims, a defense of 'difficult women,' i.e., women who 'write their own operating manuals' ... all I can say is, bitches best duck and run for cover.")
Gaitskill writes about the ridiculous and poetic ambition of Norman Mailer, about the sociosexual cataclysm embodied by porn star Linda Lovelace, and, in the deceptively titled "Lost Cat," about how power and race can warp the most innocent and intimate of relationships. Appearing in chronological order, the essays offer Gaitskill's thoughts and reactions, always with the same heat-seeking, revelatory understanding that we have long valued in her fiction.
"Starred Review. The surprising, nimble prose alone is a delight, and the pages burst with insight and a candid, unflinching self-assessment sure to thrill Gaitskill's existing fans and win her new ones." - Publishers Weekly
"Gaitskill's biting tongue and literary pyrotechnics make for a delightful combination." - Booklist
"Gaitskill is as original in these reviews and personal essays, gathered over two decades, as she is in her fiction; from pieces on Gone Girl and Talking Heads to others on losing her cat, date rape, and born-again Christianity her trajectory may seem apparent but she often takes us to unexpected, revelatory places." - The Boston Globe
This information about Somebody with a Little Hammer was first featured
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Photo: Judy Axenson
Mary Gaitskills works include the Collection, Because They Wanted To, which was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1998 and the novels, The Mare (2015), Bad Behavior (1988), Two Girls, Fat and Thin (1991), Veronica (2005), and Don't Cry (2009). Her stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories (1993), and The O. Henry Prize Stories (1998). Her story "Secretary" was the basis for the film of the same name. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she teaches creative writing at Syracuse University. She lives in New York.
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