Two Girls Fat and Thin

This novel, Gaitskill's first, is told from the point of view of the two main characters, Dorothy Never (born Dotty Footie - many of the names in this book are oddly comical) and Justine Shade, the fat and thin girls of the title. Dotty speaks in the first person and her chapters are more talky and confiding, but Justine's chapters, told in close third-person, are equally affecting, if not more so because of the ostensible detachment of the narrative voice, which, ironically, felt more immediate and intimate at times than Dotty's "I am"/"I was" chapters.From the first to the final page, this is an engrossing novel. We watch these two women, both sexually abused in their girlhood, become allies despite their very different lives and sensibilities. Justine has unsatisfactory, sometimes abusive relationships with men; Dorothy has had almost none. They are both smart, judgmental, emotionally at sea, unable to connect to other people for friendship or for romantic love.Gaitskill's facility and fluency with language, her impressive & enviable ability to create a character as real seeming as someone you've known well for years, her brisk pacing, her willingness also to create fictional doubles of Ayn Rand and Rand's followers - these are all impressive elements of this novel and have me thinking still about this unusual, virtuosic book.

Having devoured Gaitskill's work in the past, I figured I would fall in love with this novel as deeply as I did with her others. Don't get me wrong: This is a solid novel, and Gaitskill has a gift for writing the kind of characters that get under your skin and stay there until they're ready to claw out--which is akin to how the two leading characters live life. Dorothy's sexual abuse is drawn in shocking, heartrending detail, and the long-lasting aftereffects of sexual abuse and family dysfunction are portrayed with an astounding visceral sensibility. That being said, all in all this novel felt raw and unpolished, as if it were an earlier draft that was thrust into publication before Gaitskill had the time and luxury to make it more cohesive and fluid. Or, perhaps, that is her point: That perfection is an illusion, and the fragmented manner of storytelling is a direct reflection of her characters. Whatever the case may be, this is a dark, brutal work of psychological realism and social commentary that, despite its merits, has not made it to the list of books I would ever revisit.

Reading Mary Gaitskill is like reading Kathryn Harrison's prolix sister.This book tells the tale of two damaged women who coincidentally meet and after doing so reexamine their pasts, which include sexual trauma and unstable family situations.Though Gaitskill's prose occasionally reads like a psychology textbook, she thrills the reader with sparkling, profound insight into the cruel hothouse of sexuality and confusion her characters grow up in. One girl, the overweight one, is friendless and lonely; the other, the thin one, is pretty, popular, and indulges in a mean streak, though certain early encounters in her life have mixed up the wiring in her brain and made her a masochist.I didn't think the book was quite as interesting when dealing with the characters as adults (in particular the overweight woman, Dorothy), and the ending left a little something to be desired, but Gaitskill is unrivaled in her ability to put you right into the minds of her wounded characters, and lay bare the world they live in (internally and externally).Despite getting a little soft in the end, I thought this was a brilliant book at showing the trace-line from what happens to us as children and how our confused, uncomprehending, inchoate, not-yet-mature-enough-to-understand thoughts and reasoning colors who we are and what we do for the rest of our lives.

Moving portrait of loneliness

The book is so dark

Talented writer. Mary Gaitskill is a master of the craft of writing. I look forward to reading more of her writing.

Suspense, surprise and satisfaction with sexual undertones

This book is crazy good. Gaitskill pulls NO PUNCHES.

Very satisfied