PositivePop Matters...Gaitskill is an author of interiors. When you visualize her characters, you invariably imagine them locked within the confines of four walls. Often they find themselves revealed -- if not to each other, then at least to themselves -- in cramped apartments or seedy motels, in desensitized workspaces or within the claustrophobic confines of automobiles ... For all the myriad pleasures the novel holds -- and there are many, from the obvious beauty of language (in its lyricism, it occasionally recalls the work of Denis Johnson), to its brave experiments with structure and form -- the weakest aspect of the book is, surprisingly, the unlikely friendship around which it is built ... An intensely lyrical and poetic work, full of rich turns of phrase and brilliant, vivid metaphor.
