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This Is Pleasure

A Story

Author Mary Gaitskill
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Ebook
$10.99 US
Knopf | Pantheon
On sale Nov 05, 2019 | 96 Pages | 978-1-5247-4914-9
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  • English > Comparative Literature > Major Themes: Gender
  • English > Comparative Literature > Women in Literature
  • English > Literature > American Literature – 21st Century
  • About
  • Excerpt
  • Author
Starting with Bad Behavior in the 1980s, Mary Gaitskill has been writing about gender relations with searing, even prophetic honesty. In This Is Pleasure, she considers our present moment through the lens of a particular #MeToo incident.
 
The effervescent, well-dressed Quin, a successful book editor and fixture on the New York arts scene, has been accused of repeated unforgivable transgressions toward women in his orbit. But are they unforgivable? And who has the right to forgive him? To Quin’s friend Margot, the wrongdoing is less clear. Alternating Quin’s and Margot’s voices and perspectives, Gaitskill creates a nuanced tragicomedy, one that reveals her characters as whole persons—hurtful and hurting, infuriating and touching, and always deeply recognizable.
 
Gaitskill has said that fiction is the only way that she could approach this subject because it is too emotionally faceted to treat in the more rational essay form. Her compliment to her characters—and to her readers—is that they are unvarnished and real. Her belief in our ability to understand them, even when we don’t always admire them, is a gesture of humanity from one of our greatest contemporary writers.
“I don’t want to say, ‘I don’t understand.’ That’s weak and whining,” I said. “And besides, I do understand.”
 
“What do you understand?” she asked.
 
I answered calmly. “That this is the end of men like me. That they are angry at what’s happening in the country and in the government. They can’t strike at the king, so they go for the jester. They may not win now, but eventually they will. And who am I to stand in the way? I don’t want to stand in the way.”
Copyright © 2019 by Mary Gaitskill. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
© Derek Shapton
Mary Gaitskill is the author of the story collections Bad Behavior, Because They Wanted To (nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award), and Don’t Cry, and the novels The Mare, Veronica (nominated for the National Book Award), and Two Girls, Fat and Thin. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Artforum, and Granta, among many other journals, as well as in The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories. View titles by Mary Gaitskill

About

Starting with Bad Behavior in the 1980s, Mary Gaitskill has been writing about gender relations with searing, even prophetic honesty. In This Is Pleasure, she considers our present moment through the lens of a particular #MeToo incident.
 
The effervescent, well-dressed Quin, a successful book editor and fixture on the New York arts scene, has been accused of repeated unforgivable transgressions toward women in his orbit. But are they unforgivable? And who has the right to forgive him? To Quin’s friend Margot, the wrongdoing is less clear. Alternating Quin’s and Margot’s voices and perspectives, Gaitskill creates a nuanced tragicomedy, one that reveals her characters as whole persons—hurtful and hurting, infuriating and touching, and always deeply recognizable.
 
Gaitskill has said that fiction is the only way that she could approach this subject because it is too emotionally faceted to treat in the more rational essay form. Her compliment to her characters—and to her readers—is that they are unvarnished and real. Her belief in our ability to understand them, even when we don’t always admire them, is a gesture of humanity from one of our greatest contemporary writers.

Excerpt

“I don’t want to say, ‘I don’t understand.’ That’s weak and whining,” I said. “And besides, I do understand.”
 
“What do you understand?” she asked.
 
I answered calmly. “That this is the end of men like me. That they are angry at what’s happening in the country and in the government. They can’t strike at the king, so they go for the jester. They may not win now, but eventually they will. And who am I to stand in the way? I don’t want to stand in the way.”
Copyright © 2019 by Mary Gaitskill. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Author

© Derek Shapton
Mary Gaitskill is the author of the story collections Bad Behavior, Because They Wanted To (nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award), and Don’t Cry, and the novels The Mare, Veronica (nominated for the National Book Award), and Two Girls, Fat and Thin. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Artforum, and Granta, among many other journals, as well as in The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories. View titles by Mary Gaitskill

Additional formats

  • This Is Pleasure
    This Is Pleasure
    A Story
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-0-593-21578-4
    $10.00 US
    Audiobook Download
    Random House Audio
    Nov 05, 2019
  • This Is Pleasure
    This Is Pleasure
    A Story
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-0-593-21578-4
    $10.00 US
    Audiobook Download
    Random House Audio
    Nov 05, 2019

Other Books by this Author

  • Somebody with a Little Hammer
    Somebody with a Little Hammer
    Essays
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-0-307-47233-5
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 17, 2018
  • The Mare
    The Mare
    A Novel
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-0-307-74360-2
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 04, 2016
  • Today I'm Yours
    Today I'm Yours
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-1-101-91232-4
    $0.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    May 24, 2015
  • Don't Cry
    Don't Cry
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-0-307-27587-5
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 09, 2010
  • Veronica
    Veronica
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-0-375-72785-6
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 18, 2006
  • Somebody with a Little Hammer
    Somebody with a Little Hammer
    Essays
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-0-307-47233-5
    $18.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Apr 17, 2018
  • The Mare
    The Mare
    A Novel
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-0-307-74360-2
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Oct 04, 2016
  • Today I'm Yours
    Today I'm Yours
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-1-101-91232-4
    $0.99 US
    Ebook
    Vintage
    May 24, 2015
  • Don't Cry
    Don't Cry
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-0-307-27587-5
    $16.00 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Mar 09, 2010
  • Veronica
    Veronica
    Mary Gaitskill
    978-0-375-72785-6
    $16.95 US
    Paperback
    Vintage
    Jul 18, 2006
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