{"id":253824,"date":"2026-07-13T03:05:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/because-they-wanted-to-mary-gaitskill\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T03:05:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T00:05:03","slug":"because-they-wanted-to-mary-gaitskill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/because-they-wanted-to-mary-gaitskill\/","title":{"rendered":"Because They Wanted To – Mary Gaitskill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Like, the cat\u2019s dead, there\u2019s nothing we can do, so let\u2019s go have our ice cream.\u201d \u201cBut it\u2019s normal to care about pets.\u201d \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that I didn\u2019t care. I just had a different set of responses than the conventional one.\u201d He sighed and stuck his feet in front of a furnace vent made of metal strips and dark, heat-breathing slits. \u201cActually I remember getting more upset about Midnight\u2019s brother, Walnut. He was obviously very distraught when he saw her body. He walked around the house for days, looking for her and meowing.<\/p>\n

That did seem sad to me. Partly because he didn\u2019t understand what had happened and we couldn\u2019t explain it to him.\u201d He got off the phone feeling okay. But later that night he lay in bed, wide awake and furious at Jacquie. He visited his mother every day during the ten days he stayed in Iowa. He got used to the thin hoop haloing her impaled head.<\/p>\n

The tube came out of her mouth, and her eyes began to show expression\u2014usually a dull and cantankerous one. Cards and flowers proliferated in her room. Daniel noticed with irritation that nothing had come from Jacquie. Finally she was able to talk. \u201cHow is Jacquie?\u201d she asked. \u201cPretty good.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s good. She\u2019s a nice girl.\u201d Her voice was devoid of inflection, flat and invulnerable.<\/p>\n

There was an undercurrent of grudging bitterness in it, as if she had concluded some time ago that there was no hope for her but was willing to pretend otherwise so that you wouldn\u2019t feel depressed, even though the pretense was a nuisance. Daniel realized with discomfort that she had talked like this for years. His mother\u2019s eyes shifted vaguely around the room. \u201cShe is a nice girl,\u201d she repeated.<\/p>\n

Her hand began to twitch on the rumpled bedsheet. He put his hand out to still it. It felt like an injured and panicking bird. His hand sweated, and he wondered if it repelled her. No, he thought. Just hold her hand. \u201cHas Harry been to see you?\u201d he asked. Harry was a talkative gynecologist whom she had been dating for the last three months. \u201cOh, yes. Several times. I think he\u2019s afraid of running into your father.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is he?\u201d \u201cOh, he\u2019s Harry. He\u2019s incredibly Harry.\u201d She smiled, and her eyes wrinkled elfishly. He saw for a second the pert little girl that smiled at him from old black-and-white photos in the family album. \u201cTell me about your music,\u201d she said. He told her about his one steady job, in a dark little bar with a crippled neon sign that blinked \u201cFree Crabs\u2014Funk Nite.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A New York Times Notable Book A man tells a story to a woman sitting beside him on a plane, little suspecting what it reveals about his capacity for cruelty and contempt. A callow runaway girl is stranded in a strange city with another woman\u2019s fractiously needy children. An uncomprehending father helplessly lashes out at the daughter he both loves and resents. In these raw, startling, and incandescently lovely stories, the author of Veronica yields twelve indelible portraits of people struggling with the disparity between what they want and what they know.<\/p>\n

Because They Wanted To is further evidence that Gaitskill is one of the fiercest, funniest, and most subversively compassionate writers at work today. 1kitap1.com\/en MARY GAITSKILL\u2019s most recent book, Veronica, was nominated for a 2005 National Book Award and was one of The New York Times\u2019s 10 Best Books of 2005. She is also the author of the acclaimed novel Two Girls, Fat and Thin and the short story collection Bad Behavior. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper\u2019s Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories (1993), and The O.<\/p>\n

Henry Prize Stories (1998). Her story \u201cSecretary\u201d was the basis for the film of the same name. She lives in New York. MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT SimonandSchuster.com THE SOURCE FOR READING GROUPS COVER IMAGES BY HONI WERNER 1kitap1.com\/en Praise for Because They Wanted To \u201cSplendid … Because They Wanted To is too rich to read at a sitting\u2014 too many good lines, too much precision about too many complex emotions \u2014yet it\u2019s too compelling not to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014David Gates, Newsweek \u201cGaitskill\u2019s brand of brainy lyricism, of acid shot through with grace, is unlike anyone else\u2019s. And it constitutes some of the most incisive fiction writing around.\u201d \u2014Meghan O\u2019rourke, The New York Times Book Review \u201cAn exploration that shows maturity, depth, and dazzling insight.\u201d \u2014Sherri Hallgren, San Francisco Chronicle \u201cSubtle and elegant . . . she sees what\u2019s worth saving in these outsiders lives, and as much as they mourn, these stories are also a jeremiad against the modern world\u2019s assault on the soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Ann Powers, The Village Voice \u201cIt is the essence of Mary Gaitskill\u2019s fiction to acknowledge all the impulses at war in the human heart, and to deliver them to her readers in the form of compelling, evocative art.\u201d \u2014Jessica Treadway, The Boston Globe \u201cSoulful, erotically charged .<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.<\/em><\/p>\n

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