Somebody with a Little Hammer

Starred review from November 14, 2016
This collection of essays spanning two decades has the same fearless curiosity about the human psyche that Gaitskill (The Mare) exhibits in her fiction, along with the same unerring precision of prose. The broad range of her reviews, which cover art and literature from the Book of Revelations to Gone Girl, are united by her demand for complexity, her fascination with “enchantment and cruelty” (the title for her piece on J.M. Barrie), and her disdain for sentimental complacency. Early reflections tease and knead language into towering baroque shapes, but essays such as “The Bridge,” on her visit to Saint Petersburg, and the astonishing “Lost Cat,” on losing her pet, Gattino, settle down to the work of attentive, metaphor-rich descriptions. In later essays, Gaitskill’s dryness veers toward the acerbic, shearing through the reductive and the bowdlerized. Even those essays which start with the broadest of subjects—myth, religion, literature—repeatedly turn inward, drawn by Gaitskill’s interest in complicated inner landscapes, her favorite theme of “the innately mixed, sometimes debased nature of human love,” and her unyielding “moral empathy” for the perversity of the human condition. 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.

February 1, 2017
Glimpses of a writer's life through a miscellany of reviews, anecdotes, and musings.In the title essay, fiction writer Gaitskill (The Mare, 2016, etc.) recalls teaching Chekhov's short story "Gooseberries" to an English class at Syracuse University. Living in an apartment in a run-down section of the city, struck by the contrast between her poor neighbors and affluent students, she thought about reading a passage from that story, spoken by a character who warns against complacency: "At the door of every contented, happy man somebody should stand with a little hammer, constantly tapping, to remind him that unhappy people exist" who deserve attention and care and that the good life may suddenly turn terribly bad. She never read the passage, deciding it was too simplistic, but the sentiment it expresses--a visceral sensitivity to the darkness of the human condition--underlies many of the strongest pieces in an up-and-down (mostly up) collection. In one essay she recalls the "desperate human confusion" that led to her becoming a born-again Christian at the age of 21; in another she struggles to understand what occurred in an experience she has described to herself as date rape. By far, the highlight of the collection is a long, haunting memoir, "Lost Cat," which weaves together memories of her adopting, and losing, a skittish kitten; her father's death; two children from a troubled home who visited with her and her husband from the Fresh Air Fund; and her ongoing relationship with one of them and his sister. The children were difficult and yet to Gaitskill seemed superior to her "not because of anything innate, but because of their exposure to brutal, impossibly complex social forces that they were made to negotiate every day of their lives." Other essays offer details of the author's own difficult youth: she ran away from home at 16 and spent years on the streets, at one point becoming a stripper. "I was promiscuous, even aggressively so," she admits. Gaitskill has not published a memoir, but this collection makes that prospect tantalizing.

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March 15, 2017
One can't help but feel a little sentimental about how much things have changed since Gaitskill (The Mare, 2015) wrote many of the essays in this impressive collection. Worshipping the Overcoat: An Election Diary starts: When I saw Sarah Palin speak at the Republican National Convention, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Gaitskill's pro-Obama leanings come through loud and clear; fast-forward eight years, and one suspects that the current political landscape might invite a very different response from this talented, highly regarded fiction writer. Readers might be tempted to skip around here, since a significant portion of the book contains book reviews and other assorted articles, which occasionally makes it feel like everything but the kitchen sink is thrown in. But Gaitskill's many die-hard fans will delight in the offerings, especially the searching mini memoir, Lost Cat, which is not just about a beloved pet but the people she holds close. Particularly on point is The Trouble with Following the Rules, about date rape and victim culture. Gaitskill's biting tongue and literary pyrotechnics make for a delightful combination.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2016

National Book Award finalist Gaitskill (The Mare) weighs in on issues political and social, literary and personal; how many writers can effectively encompass Anton Chekhov, race relations, date rape, and Celine Dion? With 35 pieces altogether, published in venues such as Bookforum, Vogue, and the New York Times Book Review.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2017

Novelist and short story writer Gaitskill's (The Mare, Veronica, and others) first collection of essays spans the years 1994-2016. All of the pieces were previously published in magazines (e.g., Book Forum, Village Voice) or as book introductions (Charles Dickens's Bleak House). They are wide-ranging, from reviews of novels (e.g., Joyce Carol Oates's Blonde, Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl), movies (e.g., Secretary, video artist Laurel Nakadate), and music (e.g., Talking Heads, Bjork), to personal essays on grief, power, rape, and victim culture. Gaitskill has a straightforward, precise, sometimes blunt style that steers clear of cliche and sentimentality yet doesn't shy away from difficult subjects or painful observations. Many of the entries are brief, only three or four pages, with a few longer ones. "Lost Cat" reaches roughly 40 pages and is among the best in the collection. VERDICT Some of the older essays feel a little dated, but overall, this anthology offers a variety of thoughtful and thought-provoking pieces. While this is probably not the best introduction to Gaitskill's writing, fans will surely be eager to read it. [See Prepub Alert, 10/24/16.]--Stefanie Hollmichel, Univ. of St. Thomas Law Lib., Minneapolis

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.