Veronica

Woahhhh. There's something shameful about Gaitskill's stories, a shame I indulge in.

Too scattered to be engaging. Nonsensical metaphors and glossed over plot points made it a disappointing read.

There's no question, Mary Gaitskill is a brilliant writer. What impressed me the most was her poetic imagery. She has a unique spin on describing what her character feels, notices, and says. Her protagonist's relationship with Veronica and her father were particularly intriguing, and there I found she had some heart.But though I was impressed, I wondered why I found the book so easy to put down. At first, I thought it was because the main character seemed to fall into situations that didn't serve her. It was like she had little control over her life and I soon became weary reading about one dilemma after the other, where she came out the loser. But as I analyzed the book further, what bothered me and slowed down my reading, was her overuse of adjectives and the poetic prose.

So, even though I admire the author's brilliance, I had to stop at times to consider what she'd written, much as you do when you read poetry. Mary Gaitskill is a master of painting scenes and the inner world of her characters, but I guess as Hemingway pointed out, less is more.