This is Pleasure, and This is Pain

Mary Gaitskill’s era-defining novel of two parts following a British man in New York who falls from grace because of his behaviour, and has to live with the consequences Quin is an extrovert and a sensualist who thrives on flirtation and ambiguity. But when he is accused of repeated unforgiveable transgressions towards women in his orbit, his career and life collapse. He escapes New York in disgrace – first back to the life he left behind in London, and then on an ill-fated road trip across America. Margot has been friends with Quin for more than twenty years, and considers his behaviour with a mixture of ambivalence and affection. When they met, she rejected Quin’s advances, and doesn’t see why other women weren’t able to do the same. But left with his absence and their allegations, she seriously questions the relationship, what it meant for her and what it said about their world. As Quin moves through the alien landscape of rural America and fantasises about vindication, Margot stays in New York and tries to balance the damage her friend has caused with the loyalty he deserves. All the while, the voices of the women accusing Quin expand and multiply, complicating our understanding of what he has done and its consequences, in which the players are at once hurtful and hurting, sympathetic and maddening. This is Pleasure was first published in 2019. And This is Pain is its sequel. Together they form a visionary, electrifying story of the pleasure and the pain of desire and transgression, from one of our boldest writers working today.