Don't Cry

Mary Gaitskill's shimmering collection of stories, Don't Cry seemed to seep into my heart as I read them.

I'm a big fan of Gaitskill (although I didn't care for her celebrated Veronica and don't know if anything she has written since Bad Behavior effected me as much as that debut collection).

These stories glimmer and twitch with the mundane erotic and neurotic nuances of interaction. Lust, romantic confusion, loss, disappointment. What she is truly great at is capturing the subtleties of emotion that are constantly at play.

My favorite story, "Mirror Ball", describes the interaction of her characters' souls alongside their actual interaction. It is beautifully written. It doesn't seem surreal or magical, because there is such a concrete sense of truth to the idea that in many situations two conversations are going on at once -- the surface one and the nerve-infused one. The nerve infused connections between people come to the surface in each story.

Other favorites: "The Agonized Face"; "Today I'm Yours"; "The Little Boy" -- LOVED that one; and "Description."

I didn't read the last story, "Don't Cry." I was sitting in the waiting room of an MRI testing place, freaking out about what disease I might have, and, needless to say, had trouble concentrating. When I got home just now, I picked it up, and just had the feeling that I was finished. So there.