A Guardian Book of the Year
A Guardian Writers' Choice Book of the Year
'Gets deep under your skin ... Gaitskill is uniquely attuned to the moment.' Sunday Times
'Gaitskill achieves a superb feat. She distils the suffering, anger, reactivity, danger and social recalibration of the #MeToo movement into an extremely potent, intelligent and nuanced account. Sarah Hall, Guardian
'The work of an expert iconoclast elegantly prising the lid from a can of worms.' Metro
'I don't know why I behaved the way I did, and I kept doing it; he kept doing it. And though I might once have easily brushed it away, suddenly I could not. Nor could I confront him. The conversation moved too quickly.'
This is Pleasure is an extraordinary work by one of the world's finest writers, and achieves more in 15,000 words than most full-length novels. Following the unravelling of the life of a male publisher undone by allegations of sexual impropriety and harassment, and the female friend who tries to understand, and explain, his actions, it looks unflinchingly at our present moment and rejects moral certainties to show us that there are many sides to every story.
Mary Gaitskill has spent her whole career mining the complexity of human relationships on both an individual and societal scale with wisdom and grace. Here her insights are more piercing and timely than ever.
About the Author
Mary Gaitskill is the author of the story collections Bad Behavior, Because They Wanted To, and Don't Cry, and the novels Veronica, The Mare and Two Girls Fat and Thin. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories, and the O. Henry Prize Stories.
Industry Reviews
'I really admire how Mary Gaitskill is willing to think about the problematic with complexity and humanity, and without taking sides or engaging in all the fashionable moral hectoring that passes for serious thought these days. This is Pleasure is a breath of intellectual fresh air and badly needed.'
Eimear McBride
'At the heart of this extraordinary, daring, provocative, pitch perfect story lies the idea that, sometimes, we act out a truth, only to run from it.'
Rachel Cooke
'Mary Gaitskill is just the person to take on the task of questioning #MeToo's harasser vs. victim scenarios in a fictional context ... Whether you agree or disagree, it is time to have these conversations ... Give This is Pleasure to someone you want to talk to.'
Washington Post
'Gaitskill is enormously gifted'
The New York Times Book Review
'Gaitskill's willingness to ignore common wisdom and consider controversial and complex questions from different viewpoints is a true literary pleasure'
Kirkus starred review
