Mary Gaitskill鈥檚 name has become synonymous with the 2002 film, Secretary, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. It was a Hollywood, Pretty Woman version of Gaitskill鈥檚 novella of the same name from her first short story collection Bad Behaviour (1988). Gaitskill comments 鈥淚 think it [Secretary] has charm 鈥 Pretty Woman has charm too, in a late-eighties sort of way 颅鈥 but that finally it is rather insipid. Even with my reservations about Secretary, I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 a piece of junk on its own terms, it is a fun little movie, and I鈥檓 sure it brought me some new readers.
Gaitkill鈥檚 writing contains a vast array of characters, from models to drug addicts, but how did she begin writing? 鈥淚 started writing as a small child. After learning how to write at six, I wrote a short story.鈥疘t was a very simple one, but clearly it was something I had a fundamental interest in. It鈥檚 a way of asserting self and identity.鈥疘 think that impulse is still present in anyone who continues to do any kind of art into adulthood,鈥痓ut other things come into it.鈥疘 remember as a teenager being perplexed and disturbed by what I saw happening between people and on a societal level, and I wanted to write about it.鈥疦ot so much as social criticism, but more to reveal, to say 鈥榣ook at this.鈥欌 I didn鈥檛 feel I had answers exactly, but I felt so much went on that wasn鈥檛 even seen or acknowledged. Things that were too mysterious to address socially or politically.鈥疶hat at the time was a great inspiration to me.鈥疉lso I loved to read.鈥疪eading great fiction moved me and nurtured me in a way nothing else did. I saw it as a beautiful and benign force, and I wanted to be part of that.鈥
Veronica is Gaitskill鈥檚 second novel, following Two Girls, Fat and Thin (1991). Veronica combines the decadence and debauchery of the 1980s, where Alison, a former modeling sensation and Veronica, an eccentric middle-aged proofreader dying of AIDS collide against the backdrop of New York. This electrified period is seen through Alison鈥檚 present-day situation, suffering from Hepatitis C and working as an office cleaner for a man who once photographed her.
Gaitskill was never a model, or involved in the fashion world, but she explains where the inspiration to write Veronica came from, 鈥渟omething that people sometimes don鈥檛 understand on this subject: how a writer鈥檚 environment influences her isn鈥檛 always literal. Veronica has a model as a main character and the fashion world as a backdrop for a good chunk of the book. I was never around models much or in the fashion world at all. I did get glimpses of it now and then, but it wasn鈥檛 part of my environment in a literal sense.鈥疕owever, I started writing the book in the 90s, when popular culture had a near-obsession with models and fashion.鈥疘 was very interested in this.鈥疘ntuitively, I found it a good oppositional counterpoint for the subject of illness and mortality.鈥
Gaitskill began writing Veronica in 1992, 鈥淲hen I wrote the first draft, I made myself write very quickly and roughly, because I wanted to communicate the rawness of Alison鈥檚 feelings. I didn鈥檛 want the fine quality that has characterised many of my short stories,鈥痓ut because I was so loose with the draft, it was very hard for me to work with it, I think partly because I was working with an emotional register that I didn鈥檛 yet understand mentally, and writing is a very mental process.鈥疧ver the years, I would take the manuscript out and look at it, and I simply did not know what to do with it.鈥疘t contained some of the best writing I had ever done, and some of the worst, and I didn鈥檛 know how to work with the discrepancy.鈥疊asically I would say it took a long time for my mental understanding to catch up with my intuitive understand颅ing of the material.鈥
Veronica鈥檚 themes include beauty and ugliness; sex and cruelty; youth and age and the relationship between surface and self. Veronica does not epitomise the sophisticated, falsely iconic myth of 鈥渃ool鈥, which Alison has learnt to view as ideal in the fashion world. There is an unspoken bond between the two women, which results in a friendship that is ultimately redemptive for both of them. 鈥淭o me Alison is someone who has learned from her mistakes.鈥疭he is in some ways a wretched person; she is sick and poor and would seem to have wasted her life.鈥疊ut she hasn鈥檛 wasted it altogether because she has learned some things many people never learn.鈥 She has learned that not everything is about her and that life is vast and strange, and she respects that.鈥疭he is suffering, but she has learned that life includes suffering, and that her suffering does not make her special, and that many suffer much worse. A person who understands these things is not prone to self-pity.鈥
So what are Gaitskill鈥檚 plans for the future? 鈥淚 am finishing a short story collection and I am planning to return to a novel that I started in 2000.鈥疘 hope it doesn鈥檛 take me ten years to finish it.鈥 Veronica is available now in all good bookshops.
Shona Fairweather
