Don't Cry

January 26, 2009
A grab bag of 10 stories spotlight the writhing of Gaitskill’s (Veronica
) listless characters within unloving landscapes. In the portrayal of a depressive 29-year-old graduate student trying to pick up her life after a shattering breakup, “College Town, 1980,” set in Ann Arbor, encapsulates the collective self-abnegation that seized America’s young on the cusp of the Reagan revolution. “The Agonized Face” is a rigorous critique of a feminist author who manipulates her audience “with her sullied, catastrophic life placed before us for the purpose of selling her.” Mostly, though, characters give in to nostalgia rather than anger, like the medical technician in “A Dream of Men” whose bittersweet memories of her dying father mingle with her ambivalence about her sexuality; or a now-married middle-aged writer’s touching encounter with a stylish former lesbian lover she had 15 years before. The title story’s protagonist, a recent widow accompanying her friend to adopt a baby in an unstable Addis Ababa, is nearly submerged by her guilt at having been once unfaithful to her husband, but like others in Gaitskill’s pristinely rendered yet joyless gallery, she finds visceral gratitude in unexpected moments.

Starred review from January 15, 2009
Readers may find it difficult to adhere to the title's admonition as they navigate the devastating territory covered in Gaitskill's latest collection after PEN/Faulkner nominee "Because They Wanted to". With "College Town, 1980," "Folk Song," and "A Dream of Men," the author revisits themes of sexual abuse and its resulting trauma. In "Mirror Ball," readers are treated to a hauntingly magical depiction of a one-night stand where, as the young couple climax, the girl offers her soul to the unwitting boy, with lonely repercussions. For this reviewer, the most powerful story is "The Arms and Legs of the Lake," in which Gaitskill uses a stream-of-consciousness style to take us inside the heads of Iraq War veterans, strangers on a train, struggling to reconnect with their humanity while violent images invade their psyches. While this collection won't be every reader's cup of tea, the author's exquisite use of language and metaphor is enough to recommend it for all libraries with a serious literary bent. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 11/15/08.]Sally Bissell, Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2009
National Book Award finalist Gaitskill does not write stories for the faint of heart, butit's not the occasional violence or difficult situation that makes the reader uneasy; rather, it is the complete lack of joy in her characters lives. From former college students wasting time in Ann Arbor, to hipsters on one-night stands, to would-be mothers trying to adopt in Ethiopia, one character after another struggles and falls and fails to find any relief. Read individually, the stories gathered here can be enjoyed for their believable characters and dialogue, sparse descriptions, and tight craftsmanship, but as a collection, they leave the reader desperate for a glimmer of hope. Still, readers who were moved by Gaitskills powerful, emotionally scouring novel Veronica (2005) will be eager to take another journey down some very dark passageways.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)