Unfolding Primal Emotions with Patience

Authors

  • Raymond M. Vince Author

Keywords:

Mary Gaitskill, Somebody with a Little Hammer, An American Dream, The Armies of the Night, personal essay

Abstract

Raymond M. Vince reviews Mary Gaitskill’s Somebody with a Little Hammer: Essays (Pantheon Books), a collection of essays and reviews written between 1994 and 2016. Vince gives particular attention to “This Doughty Nose,” Gaitskill’s paired reading of An American Dream and The Armies of the Night, which calls Mailer narcissistic yet hails him as the ideal witness to 1968. He also praises her essay on the covers of Lolita and above all “Lost Cat: A Memoir,” finding the collection skeptical but never cynical in its patient unfolding of emotion.

Author Biography

  • Raymond M. Vince

    Raymond M. Vince has taught American Literature & Writing, Religion, and History of Science & Mathematics for over twenty-five years—at Richmond College London, various Episcopal schools, The University of Tampa, USF, Eckerd College, & HCC. He earned graduate degrees in English Literature, Theology, and Logic & Scientific Method. He has published a book, War, Heroism, and Narrative (VDM 2008), a chapter on William Morris in Arthurian Writers (2008), and five articles in The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review and The Mailer Review.

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Published

2017-10-26

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Book Reviews

How to Cite

Vince, Raymond M. “Unfolding Primal Emotions With Patience”. The Mailer Review, vol. 11, no. 1, Oct. 2017, pp. 285–289, https://mailerreview.org/journal/article/view/633.