Bad Behavior

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Bad Behavior: Stories (eBook) Pub. Date: 3/13/2012 Publisher: Simon & Schuster
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Bad Behavior (Reprint) Pub. Date: 7/21/2009 Publisher: Simon & Schuster

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Bad Behavior Pub. Date: 5/28/1989 Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
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Bad Behavior Pub. Date: 6/15/1988 Publisher: Simon & Schuster

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Overview

A trade paperback reissue of 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.”

Powerful stories of dislocation, longing and desire depicting a disenchanted and rebellious urban fringe.

Editorial Reviews

George Garrett

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

Publishers Weekly

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)

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781439148877
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: 7/21/2009
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 224
Sales rank: 220,303
Product dimensions: 5.50 (w) x 8.30 (h) x 0.60 (d)

Meet the Author

Mary Gaitskill

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.

Biography

Mary Gaitskill is the author of Veronica, nomiated for a 2005 National Book award in the Fiction category. She is also the author of Because They Wanted To, which was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1998. 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 story "Secretary" was the basis for the film of the same name. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she teaches creative writing at Syracuse University. She lives in New York.

Author biography courtesy of Random House, Inc.

1. Hometown:
  
  New York, New York
1. Date of Birth:
  
  November 11, 1954
2. Place of Birth:
  
  Lexington, Kentucky
1. Education:
  
  B.A., University of Michigan, 1980

	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

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5

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Anonymous

Posted October 7, 2010

Highly Recommended - you must check it out!! :)

This collection of short stories is my absolute favorite. I purchased it around the release of the film "Secretary" and enjoyed not only that story, but the entire collection of dysfunctional relationships Gaitskill magnificently captures set in the 80s. I was surprised to read the differences between the film and written version of "Secretary", but it blends seamlessly into the atmosphere created of persons searching for love in any manner they can find it. A darkly humorous take on using pain to illustrate connections that can occur, no matter how fleeting. Great if you like love stories that aren't standard or typical love stories.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 6, 2010

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