Two Girls Fat and Thin [Paperback]

Mary Gaitskill (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 27, 1998

Reissued to coincide with the paperback publication of "Because They Wanted To" this captivating novel shimmers with dark intensity and wicked wit. In a stunning synthesis of eroticism, rage, pathos, and humor, Gaitskill's "fine storyteller's pace and brilliant metaphors" ("The New York Times Book Review") create a haunting and unforgettable journey into the dark side of contemporary life and the deepest recesses of the soul National print ads & publicity. .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This impressive but uneven novel by the author of the praised short fiction collection Bad Behavior makes promises it does not keep. Two women, totally unalike in background, personality and social class, are brought together by a shared fascination with the philosophical movement founded by the late Anna Granite (read Ayn Rand). Justine is a chic journalist who wants to write an article about the followers of Granite's philosophy, Definitism. Dorothy is an obese, nocturnal word processor who answers Justine's advertisement in Manhattan Thing and offers to be interviewed about her involvement with the Definitists. As the two women come to know each other, their dismal life experiences gradually emerge, and their present circumstances are seen as a repetition of past connections and betrayals. This is a hard, edgy book, and Gaitskill's energy and flashy intelligence notwithstanding, the perhaps deliberate lack of polish ultimately detracts. The novel's raw, unsparing view is like that of certain contemporary paintings, and there are extraordinary moments of deeply examined female sexuality where Gaitskill is at her most original. But an underdeveloped and fragmented style has not served her well with the narrative and structural demands here. Thus this distinctive novel falls short of its potential. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

It is a credit to Ms. Gaitskill's prose, with its fine storyteller's pace and brilliant metaphors, that we are drawn along, loath to abandon this grim story. -- The New York Times Book Review, Ginger Danto

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (February 27, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684843129
• ISBN-13: 978-0684843124
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #751,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's funny, and disturbing, because it's true ... June 5, 1999

By David M. Monroe ([e-mail])

Format:Paperback

Mary Gaitskill's Two Girls, Fat and Thin is a brilliantly satiric but nonetheless disturbingly realistic story of how cults appeal to the alienated and confused precisely by providing them with a sense of belonging and simple answers to complex questions. And, given the mixed messages they receive daily about gender, sexuality, identity, empowerment and the body (see any issue of YM, for example, or, for that matter, Cosmopolitan), it's hard to imagine anyone with greater potential for alienation and confusion that the adolescent American female. In Gaitskill's hilariously parodic roman a clef, the two girls of the title, "fat" Dorothy and "thin" Justine, are taken in by the "Definitivist" philosophy of one Anna Granite, in a transparently veiled, hysterically accurate spoof of Ayn Rand's "Objectivism." Anyone who's suffered through Rand's didactic, overwrought novels will be delighted by such details, such parodies within the parody, as Granite's fictional fictions, The Bulwark and The Gods Disdained. And given the essential similarities between Granite and Rand, Definitivism and Objectivism, Gaitskill's novel makes it difficult to see how anybody takes the latter seriously, although the Rand cult continues apace nonetheless (see Jeff Walker's excellent study, The Ayn Rand Cult [LaSalle, IL: Open Court, 1999]). It's funny, and disturbing, beacuse it's true ...

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Brutal, Lovely, and Amazing February 24, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This is a dark, nasty novel. I enjoyed the switching of POV and voice (the fat girl, Dorothy, is told in the 1st person while the thin girl, Justine, is told in the 3rd person limited). The voices fit the characters -- Dorothy is a much more forthcoming person, one who's had time and the desire to reflect upon her life, so the pseudo-confessional makes sense. The same can't be said for Justine, so the distance created by the 3rd person is a perfect fit.

The material in here is heinous stuff -- kids/people torturing one another, S&M, incest, childhood sexual abuse, stuff that Jerry Springer might not even touch -- but because of Gaitskill's powers of observation, I just couldn't help but to read and savor every word. I'd put her mastery of the language at about the same level as Franzen.

The main thing that distracted me from the main narrative was the Ayn Rand/Objectivism stuff, especially toward the end when things are really heating up and every peripheral discussion about Definitism (Gaitskill's version) sinks the emotion down a couple of notches. But I forgive her. It's an unpleasant story told with beauty and compassion, and although the ending may be a tad melodramatic, I was glad and thankful for it. After being put through so much pain, it was a relief to bask in the tiny sliver of happiness.

In the end, it really isn't a traditional novel, more like an accumulation of sketches, but I felt a whole lot throughout. For me, it worked.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine line between fat and thin. April 9, 2001

By A. Seibert

Format:Paperback

What I found most interesting about this book was the obvious and yet not so obvious parallels between the two protagonists. One is fat and one is thin. Both are unhappy and twisted up about their weight, their goals and their relationships or lack thereof. Both were molested as children, both were neglected by their parents - one is fat - the other is thin!

But truly the book is much more complex than the contrasts and similarities between the two main characters. The weaker one saves the one we perceive to be the stronger.

This is an unexpected story in that the characters do not turn out to be what they seem to be. Interestingly, one is writing about a woman, now dead, although named something other than Ayn Rand (Anna Granite), is Ayn Rand! How interesting to spin a story around two women who are not the best they can possibly be, but who seem to be equally interested in a writer who glorifies the individual who single-mindedly pursues attaining one's best. And of course, these two are at their worst for most of the book. Yet, their worst is their best, given what they have both been through.

The writing is clear, insightful and well-paced. You feel for these two women, who do not seem to be able to feel for themselves.