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Title: A major disappointment
Review: I've enjoyed Gaitskill's writing before in some of her short stories -- at her best she's edgy and dark, but here's she's slipped from dark to just plain dreary. I tried to think of something interesting about the book to give it even 2 stars, but it isn't possible. The writing about a woman dying of AIDS is dated and cliched; the model bits are mostly silly and insulting to even the most shallow of models; the parts in present tense are nearly unreadable; and the characters are simply dull. There's not a surprise in the book, not a sexy scene, not even a believable character to care about. Be warned - I read a good review of this, but I suspect that the reviewer just didn't know what to make of the subject matter, and given Gaitskill's name, probably tried to be cool by making it seem profound. But come on, we live in a post-"Angels-in-America"-on-TV world, a story about the 70's-80's + needs to be a whole lot sharper than this.
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