Comments on: Letting Mary Gaitskill Skate By

By: Amy Ponomarev

Amy Ponomarev — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:16:03 +0000

Mirror Ball is a masterpiece. When I read stuff like this, I can only think that people are jealous of her extraordinary writing. I’m with you bighouseplant.

By: bighouseplant

bighouseplant — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:22:15 +0000

Do any of you like Haruki Murakami? Mirror Ball reminds me a lot of surreal passages in The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. Why should we be scared to talk of souls or muddled flashes of light? I thought Mary Gaitskill’s story was gutsy. She’s venturing into tenuous territory. I respect her ability to depart with the type of writing that gave her a reputation to begin with. She’s exploring and working hard and it shows. I commend her work.

By: Samantha

Samantha — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:21:37 +0000

I’m glad you made a point about the bad writing that gets printed because of the author’s name. Mainstream reviewing has become very gentle with terrible books. I think it’s because in reviews like the NYT, so many of the reviewers are writers themselves and aren’t professional critics who are willing to put hurt feelings on the line to give an honest criticism.

Yet, I think you were too heavy on Mary Gaitskill’s editor. She’s not an elected official; she’s not accountable to anyone but her company. She is in business to make money. Publishing houses put out crap books all the time because the author’s name will sell. In the end, Mary Gaitskill wrote the words and decided to keep them rather than hit the delete button.

Also, new readers should try to introduce themselves to recommended writers by reading the works that have been recommended to them like “Bad Behavior”, an excellent story collection.

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:16:50 +0000

Good lord, just how many times does she use the word “soul” in this story? By my count, there are 12 instances just from the quoted passages, so I assume the grand total is in the dozens. Overkill, wouldn’t you say?

By: Kathleen Maher

Kathleen Maher — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:33:09 +0000

Going by the quote, I don’t think Mary Gaitskill’s got any idea of what a soul, or even plain old soulfulness, is. Why she imagines she understands soul(s)–or wants to–is beyond me.
Contemporary writers do well to avoid the subject. I wish I could steer clear of it–mention “spiritual writing” and sensible people run. No matter that I’m not at all a “spiritual writer,” but merely a sucker for holy fools, whom I do my best to make distinct. I make sure their thoughts and feelings are specific and accessible. Yet my results remain “unmarketable.” Certainly it’s not the only reason I’m scarcely published, but it doesn’t help.