Overview

In essays on matters literary, social, cultural, and personal, Mary Gaitskill explores date rape and political adultery, the transcendentalism of the Talking Heads, the melancholy of Björk, and the playfulness of artist Laurel Nakadate. She celebrates the clownish grandiosity and the poetry of Norman Mailer’s long career and maps the sociosexual cataclysm embodied by porn star Linda Lovelace. Witty, wide-ranging, tender, and beautiful, Somebody with a Little Hammer displays the same heat-seeking, revelatory understanding for which Gaitskill’s writing has always been known.

Full Product Details

Author:   Mary Gaitskill
Publisher:   Random House USA Inc
Imprint:   Vintage Books
Dimensions:   Width: 13.10cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 20.30cm
Weight:   0.244kg
ISBN:  

9780307472335

ISBN 10:   0307472337
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   17 April 2018
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

A Lot of Exploding Heads On Reading the Book of Revelation  The Trouble with Following the Rules On “Date Rape,” “Victim Culture,” and Personal Responsibility  A Lovely Chaotic Silliness A Review of The Fermata by Nicholson Baker  Toes ’n Hose A Review of From the Tip of the Toes to the Top of the Hose by Elmer Batters, and Nothing But the Girl, edited by Susie Bright and Jill Posener  Crackpot Mystic Spirit A Review of Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes by Greil Marcus  Bitch A Review of Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel  Dye Hard A Review of Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates  Mechanical Rabbit A Review of Licks of Love by John Updike  I’ve Seen It All Thoughts on a Song by Björk  And It Would Not Be Wonderful to Meet a Megalosaurus On Bleak House by Charles Dickens  Remain in Light On the Talking Heads  Victims and Losers: A Love Story Thoughts on the Movie Secretary  The Bridge A Memoir of Saint Petersburg  Somebody with a Little Hammer On Teaching “Gooseberries” by Anton Chekhov  Enchantment and Cruelty On Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie  Worshipping the Overcoat An Election Diary  This Doughty Nose On Norman Mailer’s An American Dream and The Armies of the Night  Lost Cat A Memoir  I See Their Hollowness A Review of Cockroach by Rawi Hage  Lives of the Hags A Review of Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic  Leave the Woman Alone! On the Never-Ending Political Extramarital Scandals  Master’s Mind A Review of Agaat by Marlene van Niekerk  Imaginary Light A Song Called “Nowhere Girl”  Form over Feeling A Review of Out by Natsuo Kirino  Beg for Your Life On the Films of Laurel Nakadate  The Cunning of Women On One Thousand and One Nights by Hanan al-Shaykh  Pictures of Lo On Covering Lolita  The Easiest Thing to Forget On Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk About Love  She’s Supposed to Make You Sick A Review of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn  Icon On Linda Lovelace  That Running Shadow of Your Voice On Nabokov’s Letters to Véra  Acknowledgments 

Reviews

Gaitskill's intuition . . . borders on clairvoyance. Her prescience is agenda-free, but it's her exceptionally discerning writings on women--Linda Lovelace, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton--that make one wish she had (or even wanted) her own syndicated newspaper column. --Kate Bolick, The New York Times Book Review Indispensable . . . Gaitskill has a gift for traversing taboo territory with a subtlety that's sometimes downright Jamesian . . . She draws on her personal experience to crack the veneers of the social codes and sexual ambiguities we all navigate . . . Essential reading. --Michael Upchurch, The Boston Globe It feels refreshing to finally have a grownup in the room, laying down the law but not really caring whether you follow it or not. --Merve Emre, The Boston Review If you have not yet worked through a thought with Gaitskill, Somebody with a Little Hammer is a primer. It makes entirely clear how seriously she takes the idea of fairness, in life and in fiction, and how averse she is to even the lightest thumb on the scale. --Sasha Frere-Jones, Bookforum As in her fiction, Gaitskill sees everything . . . The essays in Somebody with a Little Hammer . . . further establish her as the important critical thinker she's always been. Her extreme sensitivity makes her one of the most reliable witnesses to life in the US. --Chris Kraus, 4Columns While Gaitskill is best known for her fiction, this collection demonstrates her power as an essayist, and thrums with the same sexual energy. --The New Yorker Mary Gaitskill never fails to transport her reader . . . These essays not only embrace but define their subjects, making you rethink the way you interact with the things around you in a much more meaningful way. --Newsweek [Gaitskill's] explorations are incisive and unpredictable . . . The emotional centerpiece of this collection, 'Lost Cat: A Memoir, ' is as fine a personal essay as you will find anywhere . . . A bracing, terrific new collection. --Mark Cecil, The Millions A voice of reason and sanity, of piercing intelligence and generous humanity. --Sariah Dorbin, Los Angeles Review of Books [Mary Gaitskill] says the things you didn't know needed to be said until she says them, and only then do you know what you've been missing. --Emily Simon, The Buffalo News A cool and formidable collection. --Dwight Garner, The New York Times Immersing yourself in [Gaitskill's] world for a page or three has the bracing aliveness of throwing yourself into almost-freezing water. --Margaret Quamme, The Columbus Dispatch Expect to never look at any of her subjects the same way again. --Cosmopolitan Gaitskill is as original in these reviews and personal essays, gathered over two decades, as she is in her fiction; from pieces on Gone Girl and Talking Heads to others on losing her cat, date rape, and born-again Christianity her trajectory may seem apparent but she often takes us to unexpected, revelatory places. --Paul S. Makishima, The Boston Globe Gaitskill uses compassion as a conduit for interpretation. --Larissa Pham, The Nation Mary writes with startling, otherworldly clarity, peeling back the surface of things we might think we understand to peer into the slippery psychological realities underneath. --Jason Gots, Big Think A beautiful, thought-provoking work that cements Mary Gaitskill as one of the sharpest critical thinkers and most important cultural critics of our time. --Sadie L. Trombetta, Bustle Gaitskill's biting tongue and literary pyrotechnics make for a delightful combination. --Poornima Apte, Booklist This collection of essays spanning two decades has the same fearless curiosity about the human psyche that Gaitskill exhibits in her fiction, along with the same unerring precision of prose . . . The pages burst with insight and a candid, unflinching self-assessment sure to thrill Gaitskill's existing fans and win her new ones. --Publisher's Weekly (starred review)-------------------- PRAISE FOR MARY GAITSKILL No writer is sharper about the fickle exigencies of desire. --Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker Ambiguity--the inseparability of light and darkness, love and pain, nurture and destruction, progress and regress--is her metier. The question she seems to ask again and again, and with astonishing force . . . is how to feel, how we do feel. --Stacey D'Ersamo, The New York Times Book Review Gaitskill's prose has never been cold, that's only what it has been called; and her writing has never been about the absence of emotion so much as its unapologetic abundance. She resists sentimentality not by banishing feeling to the white margins with understatement but by granting emotion enough space to misbehave. --Leslie Jameson, Bookforum Gaitskill's strange gift is to unfold emotions, no matter how petty or upsetting, and describe them with disarming patience for their stutters and silences, their repetitions and contradictions. The result often feels both primal and electric, something like a latter-day D. H. Lawrence. --Amy Gentry, Chicago Tribune Bracing in its rigorous truth-seeking, subtle and capacious in its moral vision, Gaitskill's work feels more real than real life, and reading her leads to a place that feels like a sacred space. --Priscilla Gilman, The Boston Globe

A cool and formidable collection. --The New York Times Essential reading. . . . [Gaitskill] has a gift for traversing taboo territory with a subtlety that's sometimes downright Jamesian, even if the shenanigans that catch her eye would have shocked the Old Master out of his wits. --The Boston Globe [Gaitskill's] exceptionally discerning writings on women . . . make one wish she had (or even wanted) her own syndicated newspaper column. --The New York Times Book Review Gaitskill never fails to transport her reader . . . These essays not only embrace but define their subjects, making you rethink the way you interact with the things around you in a much more meaningful way. --Newsweek While Gaitskill is best known for her fiction, this collection demonstrates her power as an essayist, and thrums with the same sexual energy. --The New Yorker A beautiful, thought-provoking work [that] cements Mary Gaitskill as one of the sharpest critical thinkers and most important cultural critics of our time. . . . A deep-dive into everything from contemporary fiction to modern politics to American womanhood, [that] will shake you to your core. --Bustle If you have not yet worked through a thought with Gaitskill, Somebody with a Little Hammer is a primer. It makes entirely clear how seriously she takes the idea of fairness, in life and in fiction, and how averse she is to even the lightest thumb on the scale. --Bookforum Strewn with . . . pearls. . . . Readers of Gaitskill's novels and short stories will recognize the shrewdness, and the themes. --Harper's Magazine It feels refreshing to finally have a grownup in the room, laying down the law but not really caring whether you follow it or not. --Boston Review Gaitskill's writing is somehow crucial in a way few of her peers can achieve. She says the things you didn't know needed to be said until she says them, and only then do you know what you've been missing. --The Buffalo News When Gaitskill writes about any book, it's a full-on contact sport, where the boundaries between her and the book are so fluid as to be barely there. . . . Immersing yourself in her world for a page or three has the bracing aliveness of throwing yourself into almost-freezing water. --The Columbus Dispatch The pages burst with insight and a candid, unflinching self-assessment. --Publishers Weekly (starred review) A voice of reason and sanity, of piercing intelligence and generous humanity. --The Los Angeles Review of Books The world is Mary Gaitskill's nail in Somebody with a Little Hammer. --Vanityfair.com

A cool and formidable collection. --The New York Times Essential reading. . . . [Gaitskill] has a gift for traversing taboo territory with a subtlety that's sometimes downright Jamesian, even if the shenanigans that catch her eye would have shocked the Old Master out of his wits. --The Boston Globe [Gaitskill's] exceptionally discerning writings on women . . . make one wish she had (or even wanted) her own syndicated newspaper column. --The New York Times Book Review Gaitskill never fails to transport her reader . . . These essays not only embrace but define their subjects, making you rethink the way you interact with the things around you in a much more meaningful way. --Newsweek While Gaitskill is best known for her fiction, this collection demonstrates her power as an essayist, and thrums with the same sexual energy. --The New Yorker A beautiful, thought-provoking work [that] cements Mary Gaitskill as one of the sharpest critical thinkers and most important cultural critics of our time. . . . A deep-dive into everything from contemporary fiction to modern politics to American womanhood, [that] will shake you to your core. --Bustle If you have not yet worked through a thought with Gaitskill, Somebody with a Little Hammer is a primer. It makes entirely clear how seriously she takes the idea of fairness, in life and in fiction, and how averse she is to even the lightest thumb on the scale. --Bookforum Strewn with . . . pearls. . . . Readers of Gaitskill's novels and short stories will recognize the shrewdness, and the themes. --Harper's Magazine It feels refreshing to finally have a grownup in the room, laying down the law but not really caring whether you follow it or not. --Boston Review Gaitskill's writing is somehow crucial in a way few of her peers can achieve. She says the things you didn't know needed to be said until she says them, and only then do you know what you've been missing. --The Buffalo News When Gaitskill writes about any book, it's a full-on contact sport, where the boundaries between her and the book are so fluid as to be barely there. . . . Immersing yourself in her world for a page or three has the bracing aliveness of throwing yourself into almost-freezing water. --The Columbus Dispatch The pages burst with insight and a candid, unflinching self-assessment. --Publishers Weekly (starred review) A voice of reason and sanity, of piercing intelligence and generous humanity. --The Los Angeles Review of Books The world is Mary Gaitskill's nail in Somebody with a Little Hammer. --Vanityfair.com Gaitskill's intuition . . . borders on clairvoyance. Her prescience is agenda-free, but it's her exceptionally discerning writings on women--Linda Lovelace, Elizabeth Wurtzel, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton--that make one wish she had (or even wanted) her own syndicated newspaper column. --Kate Bolick, The New York Times Book Review Indispensable . . . Gaitskill has a gift for traversing taboo territory with a subtlety that's sometimes downright Jamesian . . . She draws on her personal experience to crack the veneers of the social codes and sexual ambiguities we all navigate . . . Essential reading. --Michael Upchurch, The Boston Globe It feels refreshing to finally have a grownup in the room, laying down the law but not really caring whether you follow it or not. --Merve Emre, The Boston Review If you have not yet worked through a thought with Gaitskill, Somebody with a Little Hammer is a primer. It makes entirely clear how seriously she takes the idea of fairness, in life and in fiction, and how averse she is to even the lightest thumb on the scale. --Sasha Frere-Jones, Bookforum As in her fiction, Gaitskill sees everything . . . The essays in Somebody with a Little Hammer . . . further establish her as the important critical thinker she's always been. Her extreme sensitivity makes her one of the most reliable witnesses to life in the US. --Chris Kraus, 4Columns While Gaitskill is best known for her fiction, this collection demonstrates her power as an essayist, and thrums with the same sexual energy. --The New Yorker Mary Gaitskill never fails to transport her reader . . . These essays not only embrace but define their subjects, making you rethink the way you interact with the things around you in a much more meaningful way. --Newsweek [Gaitskill's] explorations are incisive and unpredictable . . . The emotional centerpiece of this collection, 'Lost Cat: A Memoir, ' is as fine a personal essay as you will find anywhere . . . A bracing, terrific new collection. --Mark Cecil, The Millions A voice of reason and sanity, of piercing intelligence and generous humanity. --Sariah Dorbin, Los Angeles Review of Books [Mary Gaitskill] says the things you didn't know needed to be said until she says them, and only then do you know what you've been missing. --Emily Simon, The Buffalo News A cool and formidable collection. --Dwight Garner, The New York Times Immersing yourself in [Gaitskill's] world for a page or three has the bracing aliveness of throwing yourself into almost-freezing water. --Margaret Quamme, The Columbus Dispatch Expect to never look at any of her subjects the same way again. --Cosmopolitan Gaitskill is as original in these reviews and personal essays, gathered over two decades, as she is in her fiction; from pieces on Gone Girl and Talking Heads to others on losing her cat, date rape, and born-again Christianity her trajectory may seem apparent but she often takes us to unexpected, revelatory places. --Paul S. Makishima, The Boston Globe Gaitskill uses compassion as a conduit for interpretation. --Larissa Pham, The Nation Mary writes with startling, otherworldly clarity, peeling back the surface of things we might think we understand to peer into the slippery psychological realities underneath. --Jason Gots, Big Think A beautiful, thought-provoking work that cements Mary Gaitskill as one of the sharpest critical thinkers and most important cultural critics of our time. --Sadie L. Trombetta, Bustle Gaitskill's biting tongue and literary pyrotechnics make for a delightful combination. --Poornima Apte, Booklist This collection of essays spanning two decades has the same fearless curiosity about the human psyche that Gaitskill exhibits in her fiction, along with the same unerring precision of prose . . . The pages burst with insight and a candid, unflinching self-assessment sure to thrill Gaitskill's existing fans and win her new ones. --Publisher's Weekly (starred review)-------------------- PRAISE FOR MARY GAITSKILL No writer is sharper about the fickle exigencies of desire. --Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker Ambiguity--the inseparability of light and darkness, love and pain, nurture and destruction, progress and regress--is her metier. The question she seems to ask again and again, and with astonishing force . . . is how to feel, how we do feel. --Stacey D'Ersamo, The New York Times Book Review Gaitskill's prose has never been cold, that's only what it has been called; and her writing has never been about the absence of emotion so much as its unapologetic abundance. She resists sentimentality not by banishing feeling to the white margins with understatement but by granting emotion enough space to misbehave. --Leslie Jameson, Bookforum Gaitskill's strange gift is to unfold emotions, no matter how petty or upsetting, and describe them with disarming patience for their stutters and silences, their repetitions and contradictions. The result often feels both primal and electric, something like a latter-day D. H. Lawrence. --Amy Gentry, Chicago Tribune Bracing in its rigorous truth-seeking, subtle and capacious in its moral vision, Gaitskill's work feels more real than real life, and reading her leads to a place that feels like a sacred space. --Priscilla Gilman, The Boston Globe

A cool and formidable collection. -The New York Times Essential reading. . . . [Gaitskill] has a gift for traversing taboo territory with a subtlety that's sometimes downright Jamesian, even if the shenanigans that catch her eye would have shocked the Old Master out of his wits. -The Boston Globe [Gaitskill's] exceptionally discerning writings on women . . . make one wish she had (or even wanted) her own syndicated newspaper column. -The New York Times Book Review Gaitskill never fails to transport her reader . . . These essays not only embrace but define their subjects, making you rethink the way you interact with the things around you in a much more meaningful way. -Newsweek While Gaitskill is best known for her fiction, this collection demonstrates her power as an essayist, and thrums with the same sexual energy. -The New Yorker A beautiful, thought-provoking work [that] cements Mary Gaitskill as one of the sharpest critical thinkers and most important cultural critics of our time. . . . A deep-dive into everything from contemporary fiction to modern politics to American womanhood, [that] will shake you to your core. -Bustle If you have not yet worked through a thought with Gaitskill, Somebody with a Little Hammer is a primer. It makes entirely clear how seriously she takes the idea of fairness, in life and in fiction, and how averse she is to even the lightest thumb on the scale. -Bookforum Strewn with . . . pearls. . . . Readers of Gaitskill's novels and short stories will recognize the shrewdness, and the themes. -Harper's Magazine It feels refreshing to finally have a grownup in the room, laying down the law but not really caring whether you follow it or not. -Boston Review Gaitskill's writing is somehow crucial in a way few of her peers can achieve. She says the things you didn't know needed to be said until she says them, and only then do you know what you've been missing. -The Buffalo News When Gaitskill writes about any book, it's a full-on contact sport, where the boundaries between her and the book are so fluid as to be barely there. . . . Immersing yourself in her world for a page or three has the bracing aliveness of throwing yourself into almost-freezing water. -The Columbus Dispatch The pages burst with insight and a candid, unflinching self-assessment. -Publishers Weekly (starred review) A voice of reason and sanity, of piercing intelligence and generous humanity. -The Los Angeles Review of Books The world is Mary Gaitskill's nail in Somebody with a Little Hammer. -Vanityfair.com

Author Information

Mary Gaitskill is the author of the story collections Bad Behavior, Because They Wanted To (nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award), and Don’t Cry, and the novels The Mare, Veronica (nominated for the National Book Award), and Two Girls, Fat and Thin. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Artforum, and Granta, among many other journals, as well as in The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories.

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