Mary Gaitskill says that when she had trouble getting going on a “political sci-fi story” about Ashlee Dupree and other scandalous women, a Post headline kick-started her imagination.
“I think it was ‘Feisty NY gal kicks some Ash,’ “ Gaitskill tells The Post’s Barbara Hoffman. “And in the same paper, I saw ‘Pity the fool who messes with our shul,’ a story about rabbis with guns.”
It’s always nice to inspire someone like Gaitskill, whose short story “Secretary,” from “Bad Behavior,” in turn inspired the James Spader-Maggie Gyllenhaal flick of the same name. (If you thought the 2002 film was kinky, you should read the story.) Now a newly minted fellow of the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center, Gaitskill takes her reading very seriously. Here’s what’s in her library.
Agaat
by Marlene Van Niekerk
This is set in South Africa in the apartheid era and focuses on a perverse and tragic relationship between a white woman (Milla) and a “colored” woman (Agaat) whom she rescued as a tiny child from an abusive family, raised as a daughter and then turned into a servant — a boundlessly cruel action made worse by Milla’s good intentions.
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
A profound, horrible book — profound in its unmediated, awe-struck, stunned vision of life and horrible in the sheer power of its despair. Brilliant for the contemptuous way it describes the ridiculous, random nature of human social structures. I was surprised at how disappointing the end is.
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
It is literally about the Devil on a junket to Moscow with an assortment of demons, including a monstrous and very clever cat . . . It is also about human cynicism, brutality, vanity, idiocy, plus love and a fantastic party in Hell. It is whimsical, sad and deep in just about equal measure. Guillermo del Toro (“Hell Boy,” “Pan’s Labyrinth”) should make a movie of it!
Super Sad True Love Story
by Gary Shytengart
Outrageously funny and nightmarishly true, it describes a world where everyone’s economic status and f – – – ability index are on display through everyone else’s iPhones as soon as they walk into the room . . . Meanwhile, the protagonist is being destroyed by his love for a barely legal girl with problems of her own. Really, it is funny.