Bad Behavior
Stories
Published on 8. July 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-0-593-68940-0 (ISBN)
Description
National Book Award finalist Mary Gaitskill’s classic debut collection from the 1980s—powerful stories of dislocation, longing, and desire
Now towering and inevitable in its influence on writing by and for young urbanites, Bad Behavior heralded Mary Gaitskill’s arrival on the literary scene and her establishment as one of the sharpest writing talents of her time, or any time: exquisitely funny and startlingly honest; bold and eye-opening on relationships, sex, and the erotic.
Set in Manhattan's Lower East Side and peopled with artistic freelancers and intelligent sex workers, smug yuppies and love-torn masochists, Bad Behavior depicts a world equally cruel and tender, where romance and danger go hand in hand. Gaitskill delivers unforgettable stories of a disenchanted and rebellious urban fringe generation groping for human connection.
Now towering and inevitable in its influence on writing by and for young urbanites, Bad Behavior heralded Mary Gaitskill’s arrival on the literary scene and her establishment as one of the sharpest writing talents of her time, or any time: exquisitely funny and startlingly honest; bold and eye-opening on relationships, sex, and the erotic.
Set in Manhattan's Lower East Side and peopled with artistic freelancers and intelligent sex workers, smug yuppies and love-torn masochists, Bad Behavior depicts a world equally cruel and tender, where romance and danger go hand in hand. Gaitskill delivers unforgettable stories of a disenchanted and rebellious urban fringe generation groping for human connection.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Random House USA Inc
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 201 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
270 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-593-68940-0 (9780593689400)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
MARY GAITSKILL is the author of the story collections Because They Wanted To (nominated for a PEN/Faulkner Award) and Don't Cry, the novels The Mare, Veronica (nominated for a National Book Award), and Two Girls, Fat and Thin, and the essay collection Somebody with a Little Hammer. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories, and The O. Henry Prize Stories.