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Somebody with a little hammer : essays / Mary Gaitskill

by Gaitskill, Mary, 1954-

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Pantheon Books, [2017]

American essays -- Women authors.

American essays -- 21st century.

9780307378224 (hc.)

vii, 272 pages ; 22 cm

A lot of exploding heads: on reading the Book of Revelation -- The trouble with following the rules: on "date rape," "victim culture," and personal responsibility -- A lovely chaotic silliness: a review of The Fermata by Nicholson Baker -- Toes 'n hose: a review of From the Tip of the Toes to the Top of the Hose by Elmer Batters, and Nothing But the Girl, edited by Susie Bright and Jill Posener -- Crackpot mystic spirit: a review of Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes by Greil Marcus -- Bitch: a review of Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel -- Dye hard: a review of Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates -- Mechanical rabbit: a review of Licks of Love by John Updike -- I've seen it all: thoughts on a song by Bj©œrk -- And it would not be wonderful to meet a megalosaurus: on Bleak House by Charles Dickens -- Remain in light: on the Talking Heads -- Victims and losers: a love story: thoughts on the movie Secretary -- The bridge: a memoir of Saint Petersburg -- Somebody with a little hammer: on teaching "Gooseberries" by Anton Chekhov -- Enchantment and cruelty: on Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie -- Worshipping the overcoat: an election diary -- This doughty nose: on Norman Mailer's An American Dream and The Armies of Night -- Lost cat: a memoir -- I see their hollowness: a review of Cockroach by Rawi Hage -- Lives of the hags: a review of Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic -- Leave the woman alone!: on the never-ending political extramarital scandals -- Master's mind: a review of Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk -- Imaginary light: a song called "Nowhere girl" -- Form over feeling: a review of Out by Natsuo Kirino -- Beg for your life: on the films of Laurel Nakadate -- the cunning of women: on One Thousand and One Nights by Hanan al-Shaykh -- Pictures of Lo: on covering Lolita -- The easiest thing to forget: on Carl Wilson's Let's Talk About Love -- She's supposed to make you sick: a review of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn -- Icon: on Linda Lovelace -- That running shadow of your voice: on Nabokov's Letters to V©♭ra

"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 Wurtzel: "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"--Provided by publisher.

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