Bad Behavior

by Mary Gaitskill

Overview

National Book Award finalist Mary Gaitskill’s debut collection, Bad Behavior—powerful stories about dislocation, longing, and desire which depict a disenchanted and rebellious urban fringe generation that is searching for human connection.

Now a classic, Bad Behavior made critical waves when it first published, heralding Gaitskill’s arrival on the literary scene and her establishment as one of the sharpest, erotically charged, and audaciously funny writing talents of contemporary literature. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times called it “Pinteresque,” saying, “Ms. Gaitskill writes with such authority, such radar-perfect detail, that she is able to make even the most extreme situations seem real...her reportorial candor, uncompromised by sentimentality or voyeuristic charm...underscores the strength of her debut.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439148877
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	07/21/2009
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	136,988
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Mary Gaitskill’s novel, Veronica, was nominated for a 2005 National Book Award and was one of The New York Times’s 10 Best Books of 2005. She is also the author of the acclaimed novels Because They Wanted To and Two Girls, Fat and Thin. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories (1993), and The O. Henry Prize Stories (1998). Her short story “Secretary” was the basis for the film of the same name. She lives in New York.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

November 11, 1954

Place of Birth:

Lexington, Kentucky

Education:

B.A., University of Michigan, 1980

Table of Contents

	Daisy's Valentine	9
	A Romantic Weekend	31
	Something Nice	53
	An Affair, Edited	74
	Connection	85
	Trying to Be	105
	Secretary	131
	Other Factors	148
	Heaven	173

Editorial Reviews

"Pinteresque...Ms. Gaitskill writes with such authority, such radar-perfect detail, that she is able to make even the most extreme situations seem real...[her] reportorial candor, uncompromised by sentimentality or voyeuristic charm...underscores the strength of her debut." — Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Ferocious, terrifying stories, skillful as they are scary. Gaitskill's voice and talents are wonderfully new, as honest as rain, and as welcome in a long, dry season." — Alice Adams

"A thrilling journey into the deep anxieties of romance and desire...Stunning." — Frederick Exley

"Stubbornly original, with a sort of rhythm and fine moments that flatten you out when you don't expect it, these stories are a pleasure to read." — Alice Munro

From the Publisher

With her first published gathering of stories, ''Bad Behavior,'' we meet a vital and gifted new writer, one whose work has an unusual importance at this time....None of the nine excellent stories is, by any means, trendy; all of them would be a challenge to any editor I know. For one thing, you actually have to read these stories and to let them happen to you before you rush to judgment. Technically, they are lean and quick and spare, tightly controlled. Ms. Gaitskill gives them the added psychological dimensions of flashing memories and dreams and fantasies to compete with their well-evoked perceptions. That she manages to accomplish these things within the confines of contemporary stories that move along as quickly and gracefully as anybody's is a small miracle. Style always works for substance, and she can and does give you plain writing or fancy, as needed....This is such a built collection, structured so that each story leads into the next, creating a new world. It is a collection I urge you to read and to read right - from beginning to end. -- New York Times

George Garrett

This collection of nine stories ``marks the debut of a promising and provocative new voice,'' PW remarked. These are tales of sexual obsession, drug addiction, the darkest sides of interpersonal relationships. ``Writing about human nature at its most perverse and hopeless, Gaitskill has created an intimate and almost beautiful series of images.'' Author tour. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Pinteresque…Ms. Gaitskill writes with such authority, such radar-perfect detail, that she is able to make even the most extreme situations seem real.”

New York Times

Intriguingly tart…Urban true grit.”

People

A thrilling journey into the deep anxieties of romance and desire…Stunning.”

William Faulkner Award–winning author Frederick Exley

Ferocious, terrifying stories, skillful as they are scary. Gaitskill’s voice and talents are wonderfully new, as honest as rain and as welcome in a long, dry season.”

author of The Last Lovely City Alice Adams

Stubbornly original, with a sort of rhythm and fine moments that flatten you out when you don’t expect it.”

New York Times bestselling author Alice Munro

This thirty-year-old collection is much more feminist than most of what we’ve got going, even these days. Good thing we can can still read it whenever we want.”

Literary Hub