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Bezig met laden... Somebody with a Little Hammer: Essays (editie 2017)door Mary Gaitskill (Auteur)
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Stumbled upon this new book, so read without expectations. All the material appears to be previously published although some edited for inclusion in this book is acknowledged. I don't recall previously reading Mary Gaitskill and found the collection, covering twenty-two years, extremely uneven. It is labeled as "essays", but many are book reviews. I did appreciate the writer's general concept that people are too nuanced and conflicted to be easily categorized. In my opinion, the longer essays were best, but overall have to agree with an ironic quote from the author "Gaitskill may herself be not unguilty of relentlessly small-focus self-blathering". geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
"Engaging, unusual essays written over the last two decades, on matters literary, social, cultural, and personal--from the explosive date rape debates of the '90s to the ubiquitous political adultery of the '00s, from Anton Chekhov to Celine Dion. Here is Mary Gaitskill the essayist: witty, direct, penetrating to the core of each issue, personality, or literary trope (On Updike: "It is as if [he] has entered a tiny window marked 'Rabbit,' and, by some inverse law, passed into a universe of energies both light and dark, expanded and contracted, infinite and workaday." On Elizabeth Wurtzell: "If this kooky, foot-stamping, self-loathing screed is meant to be, as it claims, a defense of 'difficult women,' i.e. women who 'write their own operating manuals' . . . all I can say is, bitches best duck and run for cover.") Gaitskill writes about the ridiculous and poetic ambition of Norman Mailer, about the socio-sexual cataclysm embodied by porn star Linda Lovelace, and, in the deceptively titled "Lost Cat," about how power and race can warp the most innocent and intimate of relationships. Appearing in chronological order, the essays offer their thoughts and reactions, always with the heat-seeking, revelatory understanding for which we value the author's fiction"-- Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)814.54Literature English (North America) American essays 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Mostly previously published capsule reviews (of books and films), liner notes, introductions, etc. - there are not that many essays in fact, and nothing newly written for this collection.
I enjoyed the two pieces on Nabokov (though her 1995 essay on him in Salon, the first piece I ever read from her, is not included) and the introduction to Bleak House, but her engagement with contemporary writers is less interesting somehow. There are a few pieces that touch on politics, feminism, art, media, consent, and rape - these are mostly of interest to see how the threads of her thoughts and sentiments changed (or didn't) over the 20 year period in which she wrote them...you can also see a transition in her writing from pre to post social media ubiquity. ( )