Bad Behavior: Stories

Short stories aren’t usually my thing, but I was attracted to this, listed in the Guardian as one of the ten best books about something, though I can’t now remember what the something was – dysfunctional relationships, possibly, which are my thing, both in art and in life, ha ha. As a brief description, I can’t better the back-cover blurb, which reads: “Mary Gaitskill’s tales of desire and dislocation in 1980s New York caused a sensation with their frank, caustic portrayals of inner lives. As her characters have sex, fail to connect, play power games and inflict myriad cruelties on each other, she skewers urban life with precision and candour.” It does what it says on the tin, and rendered me smugly content to be self-isolating from coronavirus!

I found these stories just a bit too bleak to finish Bad Behaviour. The individual short stories seemed to run into each other and having got to the end of one and finding the next one starting off in similar vein began to bring me down. That's OK. Ms Gaitskill provides us with an alternative take on life (alternative to my life, anyway) and no author is able to carry absolutely everyone from one end of their book to the other. Whilst I doubt if I will pick Bad Behaviour back up, I am happy to have it here in my home library.

Arrived quickly, no damage - good condition. A steamy read!

Such a good book. I'm so glad I read it. Will certainly reread.

Gaitskill is one of a kind.