P.Y.T.

Finished Veronica, by Mary Gaitskill, and have to say that while I enjoyed the author’s use of language and her writing style, I think I read this book incorrectly. The prose is beautiful, but the plot, characters, and story are forgettable; I take it this was intentional, as the story revolves around a young woman who becomes a model and is, herself, beautiful and forgettable. Because of this, I think this book would be great to read inside of an International Coffees commercial: on the couch, cup of (pseudo) coffee steaming next to you, rain smacking lightly on the windows, pausing occasionally and thinking about Jean Luc. You would have a chance to enjoy the language all at once, and then put the book away and let it drift quickly out of your memory, like literary cotton candy. Instead, I read this book in short bursts on the train, surrounded by loud, often smelly people, which didn’t allow me to get very involved in the language, and only heightened the shallowness of the story itself.

I’ll give this book a B-, but have a feeling it could have gone higher if I had read it differently.