'This is Pleasure' by Mary Gaitskill is one of those short, 100-page books that have me obsessing over finding closure to the tale. I barely found any discourse surrounding the book here, which is surprising considering how relevant to our times this is.
What's it about?
Set in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, the book deals with an accused, the accusers, their motives, and the fall.
Q is a charming, dandy Englishman who enjoys having ambiguous relationships with women. M is his friend of 20 years who views his antics with a lens of affection, curiosity, and humor. But in the aftermath of various allegations against Q, we see how these characters analyze their past actions and come to terms with a society that now forces people to pick sides.
Q has to relive his memories as more and more people sign a petition against him and find new meaning in his interactions with them. M finds new-found layers to their earlier interactions that she has viewed with innocent affection.
The story mainly highlights how so many MeToo cases are ambiguous and based on a 'he said, she said' narrative that makes it hard for us to judge the morally right path. Is there even a morally right path? The cases are shrouded in nuance and situational context.
The reader has an omnipresent view of everything happening - and rightly so as a character-driven narrative would've left too much to the imagination. However, even this omnipresence that offers hard facts makes the situations hard to decipher. You're never in the characters' heads, you can only
Wrapping up
The book offers no moral high ground, nor pushes any side of the narrative. But it sure will make you think more on the grey areas of the Movement.
Overall rating: ✰✰✰✰/5
Let me know how you found this book! Buy it from Amazon here.
Thanks to Vaidehi Vishwarao for the recommendation!
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