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Bad Behavior
Stories
This is a reissue of National Book Award finalist Mary Gaitskill’s debut collection, Bad Behavior—powerful stories about dislocation, longing, and desire, which depict a disenchanted and rebellious urban-fringe generation as it searches for human connection.
Now a classic, Bad Behavior made critical waves when it was first published, heralding Gaitskill’s arrival on the literary scene and her establishment as a sharp, erotically charged, and audaciously funny writer of contemporary literature.
Stories included here are “Daisy’s Valentine,” “A Romantic Weekend,” “Something Nice,” “An Affair, Edited,” “Connection,” “Trying to Be,” “Secretary,” “Other Factors,” and “Heaven.”
Mary Gaitskill is an award–winning author. Because They Wanted To was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1998. Her novel Veronica was a finalist for the 2005 National Book Award and named one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of 2005. 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. She is a recipient of the 2018 Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature.
Mary Gaitskill is an award–winning author. Because They Wanted To was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1998. Her novel Veronica was a finalist for the 2005 National Book Award and named one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of 2005. 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. She is a recipient of the 2018 Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature.
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Reviews
“Stubbornly original, with a sort of rhythm and fine moments that flatten you out when you don’t expect it.”
“Intriguingly tart…Urban true grit.”
“Pinteresque…Ms. Gaitskill writes with such authority, such radar-perfect detail, that she is able to make even the most extreme situations seem real.”
“This thirty-year-old collection is much more feminist than most of what we’ve got going, even these days. Good thing we can can still read it whenever we want.”
“Gaitskill’s characters possess a curious combination of wit and naïveté…Her writing has a precision and depth than can charge a dreary setting with significance…Gaitskill has created an intimate and almost beautiful series of images.”
“This author concentrates on the inside of her characters’ heads. In the best of these pieces, she looks not so much at the ‘bad behavior’ itself as at the consciousness behind it, calmly and clinically charting desires, ideas, and emotions.”
“A thrilling journey into the deep anxieties of romance and desire…Stunning.”
“Ferocious, terrifying stories, skillful as they are scary. Gaitskill’s voice and talents are wonderfully new, as honest as rain and as welcome in a long, dry season.”
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