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Title: Snore...
Review: I was on the fence about buying this book, until I found out that Gaitskill wrote the story that became the movie SECRETARY, at which point I bought the book and jumped right in, hoping it might have some of the wit and humanity of that terrific little movie. Alas, it did not. "Veronica" is a novel that charts new realms in humorless navel-gazing. Time and again Gaitskill sets up scenes with great dramatic, comic, or erotic potential, only to abandon them in favor of some trite observation about decaying trees or city bus drivers. And her characters evaporate the moment you turn the page. Whatever happened to STORY? Whatever happened to CONFLICT? This book has neither...just a lot of fuzzy imagery, and really good jacket copy.
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