Mary Gaitskill's range is limited, but her work is nevertheless important, as she deals with subjects that are frequently ignored in serious American fiction. Her fundamental theme is relational connection and maneuvering between "bohemian" single...

MARY GAITSKILL'S 1988 short-story collection Bad Behavior had the effect of a slap in the face. I was 17 at the time and I was reading anything tagged transgressive that I could get my hands on. That meant mostly hard, weird novels by men....

This essay applies trauma theory and relational psychoanalysis to a close reading of Mary Gaitskill's short story "The Dentist." It argues that the sadomasochistic relationship central to this story, and to much of Gaitskill's fiction, is rooted in trauma and can be illuminated...

“There are only so many things you can count on in this world,” declares Rebekah Kettle, the protagonist of Jennifer Belle’s third novel, Little Stalker. “I know that every winter I can find a great vintage coat and that every spring it will fall apart....

If book publishing is a horse race, this fall we’re being treated to a Nobel trifecta. In September, we have Slow Man (Viking), a bag of tricks from the newest laureate, J.M. Coetzee (b. 1940); in October, Memories of My Melancholy Whores (Knopf), a typically...