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Veronica
Veronica | Mary Gaitskill
8 posts | 12 read | 25 to read
The extraordinary new novel from the acclaimed author of Bad Behavior and Two Girls, Fat and Thin, Veronica is about flesh and spirit, vanity, mortality, and mortal affection. Set mostly in Paris and Manhattan in the desperately glittering 1980s, it has the timeless depth and moral power of a fairy tale. As a teenager on the streets of San Francisco, Alison is discovered by a photographer and swept into the world of fashion-modeling in Paris and Rome. When her career crashes and a love affair ends disastrously, she moves to New York City to build a new life. There she meets Veronicaan older wisecracking eccentric with her own ideas about style, a proofreader who comes to work with a personal office kit and a plaque that reads Still Anal After All These Years. Improbably, the two women become friends. Their friendship will survive not only Alisons reentry into the seductive nocturnal realm of fashion, but also Veronicas terrible descent into the then-uncharted realm of AIDS. The memory of their friendship will continue to haunt Alison years later, when she, too, is aging and ill and is questioning the meaning of what she experienced and who she became during that time. Masterfully layering time and space, thought and sensation, Mary Gaitskill dazzles the reader with psychological insight and a mystical sense of the souls hurtling passage through the world. A novel unlike any other, Veronica is a tour de force about the fragility and mystery of human relationships, the failure of love, and loves abiding power. It shines on every page with depth of feeling and formal beauty.
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review
BkClubCare
Veronica | Mary Gaitskill
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Pickpick

Oh this book is fascinating. Definitely a pick and perhaps not one that I would recommend to many. If you like complicated characters and extreme introspection with amazing poetic imagery then check into this one. Glamour, family dynamics, female friendship and what it means to love. I will be thinking of this one for a long time. Who the hell is Veronica?! *Who is Alison?* is the pressing question. #roadtrip #KSandNE Book57 #Aug2024

Ruthiella Stacking! I definitely need to read something /everything from Gaitskill. 3mo
BkClubCare The way the author weaves storylines and dropped plotpoints and twists and knits it together = bewitching 3mo
46 likes4 stack adds2 comments
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BkClubCare
Veronica | Mary Gaitskill
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Starting this #library #eBook and I know nothing - I really prefer to go into books totally unknowing. I was attracted to it because it is

dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 3mo
35 likes1 comment
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Billypar
Veronica | Mary Gaitskill
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Pickpick

Although I would have enjoyed some more plot escalation as it goes, the writing is just magnificent. Gaitskill weaves together whole paragraphs of recurring themes and references with seeming effortlessness. The story--a former model recalling her career and the lasting impact of one friend-- is secondary to the effect remembering it has on the inner life of the protagonist via prose that brims with guilt, uncertainty, and hard-won wisdom.

readordierachel Wow, I love that quote! 5y
Billypar @readordierachel Yeah, it's a good one: this book had me stopping many times to admire quotes and passages. 5y
44 likes2 comments
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Billypar
Veronica | Mary Gaitskill
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"When I was young, my mother read me a story about a wicked little girl."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

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batsy
Veronica | Mary Gaitskill
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I always go on about Mary Gaitskill but I've only read one book by her, Two Girls, Fat and Thin. It's like I'm always recovering from that book; so brutal and raw and urgent. I can't wait to read more Gaitskill but also feel like I need to be prepared. This is still to be read and features one character who's a #supermodel (or at least, a model 😬).

#Aprella @Cinfhen @Mdargusch @emilyhaldi @Reviewsbylola

Cinfhen Hi Batsy!!! Miss u...this book sounds good, but it‘s not YA right !?!?? 😜😬 7y
batsy @Cinfhen Hi Cindy!! Miss you in "our" timezone ? And it's as far as can be from YA ? 7y
Cinfhen Woohoo!!! #stacked 7y
See All 18 Comments
Cinfhen Only a few days more & I‘ll be back in “our” time zone and hopefully then my Litsy will be working properly 💋 7y
Reviewsbylola I‘ve been curious about Gaitskill! 7y
erzascarletbookgasm Never read her, will look her up 🙂 7y
Autumnlong Her short stories are *incredible!* I am not so fond of her novels, but that‘s just me. But I really highly recommend Bad Behavior 7y
batsy @Autumnlong I really want to read that! It's been on my TBR forever 🙃 7y
Mdargusch Sounds like a good one! 7y
emilyhaldi I‘m stacking this too!! Haven‘t read anything by her 😁 7y
RohitSawant I wasn't aware of her work. Stacked! 7y
readordierachel I've been reading to read more by her too. I've only read the short story Secretary is based on. 7y
UrsulaMonarch @Autumnlong @batsy I'm interested in that one & 7y
UrsulaMonarch And / but she DOES seem intense! Love that you're bringing her up @batsy !! 👏👏👏 7y
batsy @UrsulaMonarch Yes, she is! 💜 I'm interested in The Mare, too. Just a bit nervous about the race angle of that story, but I do want to read it! 7y
UrsulaMonarch @batsy me too! I think when it first came out, I thought I'd pass on it, but I've since become more intrigued... let me know if you start it! 👍 7y
batsy @UrsulaMonarch I will :) I'm very easily distracted from my TBR by other new shiny books so pls feel free to let me know when you're ready to read it 😆 7y
UrsulaMonarch @batsy (same!!!!) 😁 7y
100 likes10 stack adds18 comments
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PicklesTFC
Veronica | Mary Gaitskill
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I can usually recall the source of a recommendation on my reading list. I'm at a loss with this one. Therefor, I don't know who to thank for the tearful interlude at work today as I listened to the final chapter. I suppose I'll just have to send my gratitude to Mary Gaitskill for breaking down my emotional armor. (Bitch :)

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review
gaski
Veronica | Mary Gaitskill
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Pickpick

People kept mentioning Mary Gaitskill and then I came upon this one in a used bookstore, so I figured it was a sign from the heavens. I underlined so much of it, there are really amazing sentences and bits and it left me feeling hopeful and like whatever happens in your life is possibly worth it in the long run.

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SarahKat84
Veronica | Mary Gaitskill
Mehso-so

Beautiful writing. However, it was a giant black hole of depression for me and so not my cup of tea. Leaving a book feeling negative and dark about humanity - just not what I'm into right now. Life is beautiful! Maybe I'll like it at some other time in my life.