Bad Behavior

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.

Powerful stories of dislocation, longing and desire which depict a disenchanted and rebellious urban fringe generation that is groping for human connection. (Or, more simply put, the angst of people-who-wear-black.)

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

From short stories like the S&M-tinged "Secretary" (the inspiration for the indie film of the same name) to her 2005 National Book Award-nominated novel, Veronica, Mary Gaitskill's words are often etched on a dark canvas -- but still manage to illuminate. "Gaitskill is an unforgiving writer, harsh, caustic and raw," reads the National Book Award judges' citation. "All that masks the enormous accomplishment of her work, the ability to use the dark to cast light."