《依然美麗》、《Bad Behavior》瑪麗.蓋茨基爾最新作品
他是加害者,她們是受害者?而她,是縱容犯罪的人嗎?
一個輕薄短小的故事,瞬間引爆你對「真相」的認知
小說圍繞著兩名已婚、在出版業工作多年好友:昆恩(Quin),具有良好社經背景,妻子是美麗的時尚界人士,他們還擁有一個聰慧的女兒,但他仍然享受和不同女人的豔遇──無論情感上或肉體上的;瑪歌(Margot),因一場沒有成功的面試結識昆恩,她而後另循其他途徑踏入這個行業。他們之間情感強烈的友誼,包含了各取所需、男女之間隱隱的電流,以及一段長而複雜的歷史。
昆恩了解人,更精確地說,他了解許多年輕女人,明白她們渴望什麼,於是他成為那些女人們眼中致命、具挑戰性、擁有毀滅性吸引力的男人。這個過程有時候讓瑪歌驚異不已,她時常近乎著迷地看著昆恩施展他的幻術。
當昆恩被幾名年輕女子指控性騷擾,面臨失去事業和社會地位的危機──這個看似典型探討女性身體自主權的故事,卻在一開頭就有非典型的展開:曾斷然拒絕與昆恩發生近一步性關係的瑪歌,力圖為他辯護,認為那些聲稱受害的年輕女子,多少是抱持著想要在與昆恩的情感遊戲裡得到好處的想法,因此他不應該被如此嚴厲地譴責;而那些牽涉其中的女子,有人後悔提出控訴,有真正遭遇昆恩逾越界線行為的人,為他寫了表達支持的文字;昆恩的妻子失望、痛苦,他對她辯稱自己與他人調情,是為了感覺自己活著,她只是對他說:「(但)你甚至連性犯罪裡的捕獵者都不是。」
善、惡就是故事的全部嗎?真正的惡,或許比還保留善意的犯行更容易被接受?為昆恩辯護的瑪歌,是否能被斷定是一個應該被輕視的、縱容犯罪的人呢?而昆恩是否真如他所宣稱,他的一切婚姻外的情感冒險,都是以「無害」的方式進行?
蓋茨基爾鑽進真相的縫隙,深入探索隱藏在「性」搖擺的權力結構中的灰色地帶,提供了讀者進行自我判斷和思索的空間,提出了更多的問題而非一目瞭然的解答。她在小說中某程度上揭示了所謂「真相」的真實面貌:有時候,那是模糊到令人痛苦的樣貌。(文/博客來編譯)
'Gets deep under your skin ... Gaitskill is uniquely attuned to the moment.' Sunday Times
'Gaitskill achieves a superb feat. She distils the suffering, anger, reactivity, danger and social recalibration of the #MeToo movement into an extremely potent, intelligent and nuanced account. Sarah Hall, Guardian
'The work of an expert iconoclast elegantly prising the lid from a can of worms.' Metro
'I don't know why I behaved the way I did, and I kept doing it; he kept doing it. And though I might once have easily brushed it away, suddenly I could not. Nor could I confront him. The conversation moved too quickly.'
This is Pleasure is an extraordinary work by one of the world's finest writers, and achieves more in 15,000 words than most full-length novels. Following the unravelling of the life of a male publisher undone by allegations of sexual impropriety and harassment, and the female friend who tries to understand, and explain, his actions, it looks unflinchingly at our present moment and rejects moral certainties to show us that there are many sides to every story.
Mary Gaitskill has spent her whole career mining the complexity of human relationships on both an individual and societal scale with wisdom and grace. Here her insights are more piercing and timely than ever.