Just wow. I’m so happy to see Ms. Gaitskill’s electric, intelligent prose again. I haven’t read a review like this in years. The author must be might indeed to deserve such insightful and detailed praise.
i loved this book too and am so happy to read your thoughts about it! so many great quotes and observations, including this one: "Her ideal of happiness as a pure state is cartoonish—and it is moving to consider that such an ideal may be necessary for someone who doesn’t know what happiness is yet wants more than anything to create it for children." i agree this is more than a novel about ideas. it's hard to convey in language the roiling, deep desire for and distrust of love, but somehow she really pulls it off.
As always, so evocative and incisive, such a delightful read.
Going by the sneak peek of the three sisters and their revolting father, two things that struck me:
How siblings can be so different, despite a lifetime of shared experience, experience that, in this case, bonds thicker than blood. And different not only towards the source of their anguish but also in the extent and intensity of their inner lives -- Minah appears the most worldly of the three while at the other end we have Esther, so ethereal (the opposite of airy though); meanwhile, Sarah seems the most conflicted, sensing the tragic "luminescence" in Minah and wanting (without malice) to despoil Esther of her "brutal" Olympian detachment.
The second aspect: Pain as purgatory, pain as a purifying element in its own right. Like cruelty, pain is "stared at and swum through like a polluted river..." and perhaps, like some homeopathic alchemy, the end result is a thorough cleansing.
The last word, however, as Mary so rightly points out, is the "deep tissue of goodness and innocence" that alone allows us to survive the cruelty and inanity the world is increasingly prone to.
It is a privilege to read so intelligent a writer putting heart on sleeve for another. I am greatly intrigued by this description of Esther. It is not easy to depict goodness, and having recourse to animality as a metaphor is fascinating. Thank you for breaking your silence for the sake of a book. You aren't wrong.
Mary -- You're such a wonderful reader/critic: "I don’t believe or disbelieve this, but I love the quiet fury and expressiveness of it." This says so much about so much of the art that I love, that confounds easy understanding, or an easy synopsis. Glad to have you back, Mary. Hope this helped you recover some strength. Unless thiis was too exhausting to write!
'Something Beautiful', as always with Mary, so evocative and incisive, a delightful read.
Going by the sneak peek of the three sisters and their revolting father, two things that struck me:
How siblings can be so different, despite a lifetime of shared experience, experience that, in this case, bonds thicker than blood. And different not only towards the source of their anguish but also in the extent and intensity of their inner lives -- Minah appears the most worldly of the three while at the other end we have Esther, so ethereal (the opposite of airy though); meanwhile, Sarah seems the most conflicted, sensing the tr'Something Beautiful', as always with Mary, so evocative and incisive, a delightful read.
Going by the sneak peek of the three sisters and their revolting father, two things that struck me:
How siblings can be so different, despite a lifetime of shared experience, experience that, in this case, bonds thicker than blood. And different not only towards the source of their anguish but also in the extent and intensity of their inner lives -- Minah appears the most worldly of the three while at the other end we have Esther, so ethereal (the opposite of airy though); meanwhile, Sarah seems the most conflicted, sensing the tragic "luminescence" in Minah and wanting (without malice) to despoil Esther of her "brutal" Olympian detachment.
The second aspect: Pain as purgatory, pain as a purifying element in its own right. Like cruelty, pain is "stared at and swum through like a polluted river..." and perhaps, like some homeopathic alchemy, the end result is a thorough cleansing.
The last word, however, as Mary so rightly points out, is the "deep tissue of goodness and innocence" that alone allows us to survive the cruelty and inanity the world is increasingly prone to.
agic "luminescence" in Minah and wanting (without malice) to despoil Esther of her "brutal" Olympian detachment.
The second aspect: Pain as purgatory, pain as a purifying element in its own right. Like cruelty, pain is "stared at and swum through like a polluted river..." and perhaps, like some homeopathic alchemy, the end result is a thorough cleansing.
The last word, however, as Mary so rightly points out, is the "deep tissue of goodness and innocence" that alone allows us to survive the cruelty and inanity the world is increasingly prone to.
Can you open this Substack to paid subscriptions? Many older posts are still paywalled and I still don't see an option to upgrade my subscription. Thank you~
I just turned it on again and will include a button. I turned it off because I stopped posting and didn't want the people who paid annually to be billed for silence. But its true that like you others have subscribed and now can't see the paid stuff. So I will go back to paid for those people and post free stuff for now.
You didn't give a shit when the Syrian army was committing mass murder against its own people for the last 14 years, but now you pretend to care about Arabs? Not a peep about the Uyghurs, the Sudanese or the Iranians who are being raped and murdered for trying to overthrow a theocracy that makes the Handmaid's Tale looks tame by comparison.
Nor did you give a shit about the nightmare in Gaza when Hamas was in charge and murdering homosexuals and anyone that disagreed with them.
But yeah, you care now because you can indulge in your antisemitism.
Cute.
Don't pretend to give a shit about people when you are just indulging in old fashioned Jew hatred.
I have bookmarked your review and added this book to my reading list.
Just wow. I’m so happy to see Ms. Gaitskill’s electric, intelligent prose again. I haven’t read a review like this in years. The author must be might indeed to deserve such insightful and detailed praise.
i loved this book too and am so happy to read your thoughts about it! so many great quotes and observations, including this one: "Her ideal of happiness as a pure state is cartoonish—and it is moving to consider that such an ideal may be necessary for someone who doesn’t know what happiness is yet wants more than anything to create it for children." i agree this is more than a novel about ideas. it's hard to convey in language the roiling, deep desire for and distrust of love, but somehow she really pulls it off.
As always, so evocative and incisive, such a delightful read.
Going by the sneak peek of the three sisters and their revolting father, two things that struck me:
How siblings can be so different, despite a lifetime of shared experience, experience that, in this case, bonds thicker than blood. And different not only towards the source of their anguish but also in the extent and intensity of their inner lives -- Minah appears the most worldly of the three while at the other end we have Esther, so ethereal (the opposite of airy though); meanwhile, Sarah seems the most conflicted, sensing the tragic "luminescence" in Minah and wanting (without malice) to despoil Esther of her "brutal" Olympian detachment.
The second aspect: Pain as purgatory, pain as a purifying element in its own right. Like cruelty, pain is "stared at and swum through like a polluted river..." and perhaps, like some homeopathic alchemy, the end result is a thorough cleansing.
The last word, however, as Mary so rightly points out, is the "deep tissue of goodness and innocence" that alone allows us to survive the cruelty and inanity the world is increasingly prone to.
This is a beautiful addition to what I said, thanks!
It is a privilege to read so intelligent a writer putting heart on sleeve for another. I am greatly intrigued by this description of Esther. It is not easy to depict goodness, and having recourse to animality as a metaphor is fascinating. Thank you for breaking your silence for the sake of a book. You aren't wrong.
Thank you!
Mary -- You're such a wonderful reader/critic: "I don’t believe or disbelieve this, but I love the quiet fury and expressiveness of it." This says so much about so much of the art that I love, that confounds easy understanding, or an easy synopsis. Glad to have you back, Mary. Hope this helped you recover some strength. Unless thiis was too exhausting to write!
'Something Beautiful', as always with Mary, so evocative and incisive, a delightful read.
Going by the sneak peek of the three sisters and their revolting father, two things that struck me:
How siblings can be so different, despite a lifetime of shared experience, experience that, in this case, bonds thicker than blood. And different not only towards the source of their anguish but also in the extent and intensity of their inner lives -- Minah appears the most worldly of the three while at the other end we have Esther, so ethereal (the opposite of airy though); meanwhile, Sarah seems the most conflicted, sensing the tr'Something Beautiful', as always with Mary, so evocative and incisive, a delightful read.
Going by the sneak peek of the three sisters and their revolting father, two things that struck me:
How siblings can be so different, despite a lifetime of shared experience, experience that, in this case, bonds thicker than blood. And different not only towards the source of their anguish but also in the extent and intensity of their inner lives -- Minah appears the most worldly of the three while at the other end we have Esther, so ethereal (the opposite of airy though); meanwhile, Sarah seems the most conflicted, sensing the tragic "luminescence" in Minah and wanting (without malice) to despoil Esther of her "brutal" Olympian detachment.
The second aspect: Pain as purgatory, pain as a purifying element in its own right. Like cruelty, pain is "stared at and swum through like a polluted river..." and perhaps, like some homeopathic alchemy, the end result is a thorough cleansing.
The last word, however, as Mary so rightly points out, is the "deep tissue of goodness and innocence" that alone allows us to survive the cruelty and inanity the world is increasingly prone to.
agic "luminescence" in Minah and wanting (without malice) to despoil Esther of her "brutal" Olympian detachment.
The second aspect: Pain as purgatory, pain as a purifying element in its own right. Like cruelty, pain is "stared at and swum through like a polluted river..." and perhaps, like some homeopathic alchemy, the end result is a thorough cleansing.
The last word, however, as Mary so rightly points out, is the "deep tissue of goodness and innocence" that alone allows us to survive the cruelty and inanity the world is increasingly prone to.
Thanks, Mary. Looking forward to reading it.
I bought this because you recommended it.
I hope you like it as much as I do--or even half as much
Can you open this Substack to paid subscriptions? Many older posts are still paywalled and I still don't see an option to upgrade my subscription. Thank you~
I just turned it on again and will include a button. I turned it off because I stopped posting and didn't want the people who paid annually to be billed for silence. But its true that like you others have subscribed and now can't see the paid stuff. So I will go back to paid for those people and post free stuff for now.
You didn't give a shit when the Syrian army was committing mass murder against its own people for the last 14 years, but now you pretend to care about Arabs? Not a peep about the Uyghurs, the Sudanese or the Iranians who are being raped and murdered for trying to overthrow a theocracy that makes the Handmaid's Tale looks tame by comparison.
Nor did you give a shit about the nightmare in Gaza when Hamas was in charge and murdering homosexuals and anyone that disagreed with them.
But yeah, you care now because you can indulge in your antisemitism.
Cute.
Don't pretend to give a shit about people when you are just indulging in old fashioned Jew hatred.
And why are you even spreading your garbage on a post about a work of literature? I guess AIPAC is overpaying its trolls.
An amazing amount of misinformation in such a few sentences.
You clearly have no understanding of any of the issues you claim to care about.
Where to Start?
What evidence do you have of these supposed Syrian Army crimes?
There has not been any genocide against Uyghurs. Their population has increased in recent years and Xinjiang province has more than 20,000 mosques.
Which Iranians were raped and murdered? When was your last trip to Teheran?
Hamas is the government of Gaza and the crimes against the Palestinian people are committed by Zionist thugs, not fellow Arabs.
Don't pretend to give a shit about people, when you can't even be bothered to investigate their true situation.
don't feed the troll