Bad Behavior (1988) by Mary Gaitskill

It's weird to think this book came out the year my sister was born. That's probably an odd thing to launch a review with, but there you go. It was the thing I kept thinking as I read it - that these stories of blunt and damaged and messy women have grown up with my sister, that they haven't aged, that these stories are equally as true and hard as ever. That they're older than me and yet could be written today to similar impact.

I read it for the first time earlier in the month, sitting up in bed on a particularly rainy summer's day. A glass of wine on my bedside table and a cat sprawled behind me on, his tail curled around my neck. Bad Behavior is a short story collection set really prominently in the cities of America - mostly New York. From foolish men inventing relationships with prostitutes, the codependency and disillusionment within friendships, kinks and power through sex in professional relationships, each story delves into the psyche of some pretty broken people, dissecting sexuality, motive and relationships finely. There were stories I struggled to read, stories I wanted to crawl up and around in for a while, stories I wanted to end.

But that's the thing about Gaitskill's writing. You're never comfortable. You certainly feel for the characters, for what they feel, but never in a way that is explicit, never a way that has been shaped specifically to garner a certain reaction. Gaitskill puts characters on a page like a child traps an insect in a jar. For a brief moment you catch a panic, an experience, a surge of emotion before the story ends. The insect escapes. It's pretty remarkable and a book I think worth reading when you're young. Flavorwire listed it in their 20 Books Every Woman Should Read in Her Twenties and I think I agree with that.  

There's a pretty brilliant interview with her over on the BOMB Magazine website which you should check out, especially if you're interested in writing short fiction. It's a really interesting take on process and character. You should check it out.