MixedThe Buffalo NewsWoven throughout this tale are the details: the development of a signature sound, the stories of how our favorite songs were written. The encounters with other famous names of the time, including the rundown of what other notables the star slept with and what drama ensued … Mitchell’s unimpeachable status as subject rather than object, artist rather than muse, earns her the right to be honored with a biography of this kind despite her usually incompatible gender. The raw material is all there for the taking, right down to the subject’s cranky unwillingness to cooperate in the operation. Mitchell naturally inhabits the archetype of revered, difficult artist whose life and work invite scholarly examination … But it still feels like there’s an understanding that’s frustratingly absent. Yaffe seems to understand Mitchell’s life and her music, and makes a good attempt at drawing the connections, but they still don’t resonate.
Mary Gaitskill
RaveThe Buffalo News['Lost Cat' is] a gutting, brutal, lovely piece of work. Deserving of many more adjectives, though these will suffice. It’s 'ideal Gaitskill' as well, and a pinnacle display of her power as a writer. It’s worth the purchase of Somebody With A little Hammer just to read it ... Gaitskill’s bi-pronged commitment to both gentleness and unsparing clarity gives us a wholly new perspective from which to consider her subject. This is her style, and largely hers alone, crafted over decades; she's emotional without ever being cloudy or sodden, intellectual but never cold or removed. And not only is there no one doing what she does better than she does it, there's really no one else doing it at all ... Too much at once can be repellent. But Gaitskill’s writing is somehow crucial in a way few of her peers can achieve. She says the things you didn’t know needed to be said until she says them, and only then do you know what you’ve been missing.
Mary Gaitskill
PositiveThe Buffalo NewsGaitskill takes a ‘fair and balanced’ approach to issues of sexual morality, always championing the experiential underdog: the person who might not be able to articulate a point of view with perfect clarity, but whose voice is crucial any real lasting understanding … Gaitskill’s bi-pronged commitment to both gentleness and unsparing clarity gives us a wholly new perspective from which to consider her subject. This is her style, and largely hers alone, crafted over decades; she's emotional without ever being cloudy or sodden, intellectual but never cold or removed. And not only is there no one doing what she does better than she does it, there's really no one else doing it at all.
