Book
Don't cry : stories
Record details
- ISBN: 0375424199
- ISBN: 9780375424199
-
Physical Description:
print
226 p. ; 21 cm. - Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : Pantheon Books, c2009.
Content descriptions
| Formatted Contents Note: | College town, 1980 -- Folk song -- A dream of men -- The agonized face -- Mirror ball -- Today I'm yours -- The little boy -- The arms and legs of the lake -- Description -- Don't cry. |
Search for related items by subject
| Genre: | Short stories. Short stories. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at BC Interlibrary Connect.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kitimat Public Library | Gai (Text) | 32665001427188 | Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2009 March #2
National Book Award finalist Gaitskill does not write stories for the faint of heart, butàit's not the occasional violence or difficult situation that makes the reader uneasy; rather, it is the complete lack of joy in her charactersââ¬â¢ lives. From former college students wasting time in Ann Arbor, to hipsters on one-night stands, to would-be mothers trying to adopt in Ethiopia, one character after another struggles and falls and fails to find any relief. Read individually, the stories gathered here can be enjoyed for their believable characters and dialogue, sparse descriptions, and tight craftsmanship, but as a collection, they leave the reader desperate for a glimmer of hope. Still, readers who were moved by Gaitskillââ¬â¢s powerful, emotionally scouring novel Veronica (2005) will be eager to take another journey down some very dark passageways. Copyright 2009 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2009 January #2
Gaitskill (Veronica, 2005, etc.) returns with a fierce and fearless collection of stories.In the most successful pieces, Gaitskill explores the involutions and intertwinings of sex, intimacy and family. "Folk Song" consists of a chilling series of links among newspaper stories about a sadistic killer, a woman who vows to have sex with a thousand men in a row and a pair of endangered turtles stolen from a zoo. In "Mirror Ball," a boy steals a girl's soul during a one-night stand. "The Agonized Face," about a journalist's encounter with a famous feminist author who was once a prostitute, provides an account at once ruthless and exquisitely sensitive of the ways a public identity can be both refuge and trap, haven and hair shirt. Many of these storiesâa notable exception is the grim, taut title story, about a middle-aged woman searching Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a child to adoptâare less traditional fictions than essays in fictive form, occasions for Gaitskill to meditate on the darkness and contradictions of Eros. There's too much insider writing-program stuff, and a few pieces fall flat, but Gaitskill has a rare talent for uncovering, with a near-impossible combination of compassion and pitilessness, what lies beneath the surfaces we work hard to make placid. Another accomplished collection from an American original.Agent: Jin Auh/The Wylie Agency Copyright Kirkus 2009 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2008 November #2
In the wake of her National Book Award nominee, -Veronica, Gaitskill tries out the short form for the first time in over a decade. With a seven-city tour. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2009 January #1
Readers may find it difficult to adhere to the title's admonition as they navigate the devastating territory covered in Gaitskill's latest collection after PEN/Faulkner nominee Because They Wanted to. With "College Town, 1980," "Folk Song," and "A Dream of Men," the author revisits themes of sexual abuse and its resulting trauma. In "Mirror Ball," readers are treated to a hauntingly magical depiction of a one-night stand where, as the young couple climax, the girl offers her soul to the unwitting boy, with lonely repercussions. For this reviewer, the most powerful story is "The Arms and Legs of the Lake," in which Gaitskill uses a stream-of-consciousness style to take us inside the heads of Iraq War veterans, strangers on a train, struggling to reconnect with their humanity while violent images invade their psyches. While this collection won't be every reader's cup of tea, the author's exquisite use of language and metaphor is enough to recommend it for all libraries with a serious literary bent. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/08.]âSally Bissell, Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL
[Page 86]. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2009 January #4
A grab bag of 10 stories spotlight the writhing of Gaitskill's (Veronica) listless characters within unloving landscapes. In the portrayal of a depressive 29-year-old graduate student trying to pick up her life after a shattering breakup, "College Town, 1980," set in Ann Arbor, encapsulates the collective self-abnegation that seized America's young on the cusp of the Reagan revolution. "The Agonized Face" is a rigorous critique of a feminist author who manipulates her audience "with her sullied, catastrophic life placed before us for the purpose of selling her." Mostly, though, characters give in to nostalgia rather than anger, like the medical technician in "A Dream of Men" whose bittersweet memories of her dying father mingle with her ambivalence about her sexuality; or a now-married middle-aged writer's touching encounter with a stylish former lesbian lover she had 15 years before. The title story's protagonist, a recent widow accompanying her friend to adopt a baby in an unstable Addis Ababa, is nearly submerged by her guilt at having been once unfaithful to her husband, but like others in Gaitskill's pristinely rendered yet joyless gallery, she finds visceral gratitude in unexpected moments. (Mar.)
[Page 96]. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
