Bad Behavior: Stories

In a highly graphic and incredibly well written book of short stories, Gaitskill creates a picture of sociopathy. In this collection of 9 short stories, Gaitskill runs the gamut of human bad behaviors. From College Girls and Prospective Writers practicing prostitution, to lesbianism, to homosexuality, to adultery, to just plain inappropriate social conduct, Gaitskill gives us an up close and personal look at the seemlier side of human interaction. With a particularly well constructed style, each story uses incredible sentence structure, well placed profanity and illustrative descriptions of people doing the things that no one admits to doing. Yes, the "bad behavior" in society is really rampant within American society. Each story deals with a different type of aberrant activity. The book culminates with a brilliantly written story, "Heaven" that describes the disintegration of an entire family. First one child then the next and finally the death of one is only followed by suffering and pain for all involved. Everyone gets divorced except the parents. Yet the parents see their children as failures, and thus themselves as failures as well. While the book is not for the faint of heart, it is superb. For a look inside American society that is mostly hidden, this book brings it to the surface. It is strongly recommended for all readers who wish to see behind the curtain of façade, into the real life activities of so many men and women in America today.

W.H. Auden said something to the effect that there are a few books that we each feel were written for us, so perfectly do they speak our innermost thoughts and feelings, perhaps previously unknown even to ourselves. This is one of those books for me, and it's a true stroke of luck that I found it. I wish I knew how to identify who else it might be such a book for--perhaps the hip, the black-wearing, the eating-disordered, the dirty-minded (specifically S & M-minded), the fashionable or the completely fashion-oblivious, the young rocker or writer or painter with a hated day job he can't seem to get rid of. But I am few of those things; I am quiet and conventional in my outer life, and yet this book was like a bomb for me. Most essentially, it is part of the small subterannean body of literature written by the troubled and for them, and who could more desperately need their own literary voice?The stories are about unhappy young urban women having unhappy, dirty sex, but they are not erotica--they are stories to feel and think to, not to do something else to. The upcoming movie "Secretary" is based on a story of the same name here, although the secretary in the movie is thin and pretty and seems (from the preview) to grow into a sort of third-wave feminist sex cheerleader, while the secretary of the story is fat and deeply ashamed. She is the exception, however, in being a victim in a fairly simple way--most of the women are far more active. The final story, "Heaven," is a beautiful coda to the book. All the women appear without any families, and you might wonder who the families of such unconventional women could possibly be. Heaven answers that, making the book's first visit to the suburbs and providing a mutely conventional set of older parents. The story has in its final scene a perfect stillness on the surface, and you can only wonder what is roiling unobserved below.This wonderful book may not be better known because it goes so deeply into certain feelings and ways of life that not everyone shares. But that makes it all the more special for those it speaks to. A precious, precious jewel.

Gaitskill coolly anatomizes with great skill the dark side of human relationships. Her occasional metaphor is bondage both literal and emotional, but it's never used in a cheap or exploitative way. She writes of sympathetic young women who go through cruel hell (sometimes self-inflicted) before gaining wisdom and maturity. You may wince as you recognize your own teen-age and young adult follies. I find Gaitskill darkly funny and terribly moving. Her lucid, razor-sharp prose is a real pleasure. And as a man who is sometimes baffled by women, I think I learned something.