Veronica Book

"What stood out, most loudly and violently were images of beauty so intense they were almost warped; some of these images were human. The fashion model seemed suddenly at the centre of the cultural world, inextricably wound in with art, music and cinema. These human images snagged my imagination, which twisted and turned reactively, picking and chewing over them, foolishly trying to get nourishment from them - for I wanted to be part of this vibrant and powerful world".

Mary Gaitskill's 'Veronica' is the intense and stylistic study of a friendship. Of love, pain, illness, and rejection set mostly in 1980's New york, it's a richly metaphorical tale, set against the nocturnal glamorous tyranny of the fashion modelling industry, and unfortunately for some, during an eruption of AIDS cases. There are moments when the world is at your feet, a dream come true. But also times when it's nothing more than a sleazy, degrading nightmare. One thing is certain, it pays well, even if it means having to spend days in the company of complete arrogant sexist assholes. For Allison and Veronica, both would experience the highs and lows of this hectic ruthless, and narcissistic lifestyle, both would find ways to grow stronger, but also succumb to weaknesses beyond their control.

The novel could be looked at as a kind of exercise in tainted nostalgia. The narrator, Allison is in her 40's, cleaning offices for a living, as we go back through her thoughts to a time when she made it as a model. It all started in Paris, strutting her stuff on the catwalk and becoming the mistress of one of the city's most successful modelling agents, she is still pretty young, and not exactly wise in all her decisions, losing a lot of money, falling in and out with acquaintances (some were never even worth knowing), before ending up back in the States, after her illicit relationship crashed and burned in the city of love. After a stint back with her parents and sisters, she heads off to The Big Apple looking for work. And it's here she meets Veronica whilst proofreading as a temp, a brash, head-strong former model, twenty years her senior, who shows unpredictable oddball behaviour, and dates a bisexual (Duncan) who she adores. Both seem mismatched, and Allison finds her at times deplorable, being appalled and fixated by Veronica in equal measures. So to call the novel an out and out buddy story is misleading. You never get the impression they are true friends, but each still leaves an impression on the other. In a strange way they seem the right fit, but you also feel a coldheartedness between them, like they wouldn't be bothered if they were never to meet again. After Veronica is diagnosed with HIV, she losing all those closest to her, Allison is drawn to her more than ever, but with a strong sense of pity, as she rapidly loses her health.

On the whole the novel carries a sombre feeling throughout, portraying a brittle, echoing emptiness for it's two leading ladies, even though it's set in a booming New York, bursting at the seems with life and partying. The two main characters I eventually came to like, with all their issues and hiccups along the way, they were just two people trying to make their way in life, Gaitskill speaks an emotion that is easy to relate to. I was partially impressed with her richly drawn world, bringing to life the downtown art scene of the decade, for its beauty and glamour but also its fair share of grime and filth. She sees the whole picture with a larger canvas of almost viscerally aching melancholy, with depictions of some the most unsavoury elements of human interaction, big themes being nihilism, pity and rejection. The plot is somewhat beside the point (there isn't really one anyway) as its structure relies on a frenetic assemblage of vignettes flashing between the 80's and the present, and my biggest praise for Gaitskill, is it's humane and unsentimental approach, mixing a cocktail of brutal loneliness with moments of raw tenderness, and she gets down and dirty when the story needs to be, Mary is not afraid to articulate the anguished thoughts and feelings from which we prefer to turn away.

But that's just life, and the pains and joys, beauty and ugliness that go with it. I found it an engaging and penetrating work, as soulful as it was sorid, with characters who were realistic carrying flaws and problems like the rest of us. There were a few moments that I found too uncomfortable and below the belt, and it might have helped being a tad longer to give more of a backstory to Veronica, who still felt like a bit of an enigma to me, but some of Gaitskill's sentences were just like, wow. Sincere, and oh so true.

Pondered on giving three stars, but have upped it to four on deeper reflection.