A rare work of criticism, memoir, and mythography from an author
"aware of all the hidden chambers of the heart." (Greil Marcus, New
York Times Magazine)
Mary Gaitskill is unique among American novelists in "her ability to
evoke the hidden life, the life unseen, the life we don't even know we
are living."* In this searching biography of the writer's imagination,
Gaitskill excavates her own novels, revealing their origins and
obsessions, the personal and societal pressures that formed them, and
the life story hidden between their pages. Using the techniques of
collage, The Devil's Treasure splices fiction together with commentary
and personal history, and with the fairy tale that gives the book its
title, about a little girl who ventures into Hell through a suburban
cellar door.
The result is an answer to Gaitskill's critics and, simultaneously, the
best book we have about contemporary fiction, the forces ranged against
it, and the forces that bring it into being.
"Even among other artists attracted to weakness as a theme,
[Gaitskill] is rare in being able to look at it on its own terms. She
doesn't treat it like a curiosity, like Diane Arbus, or a chink in the
armor that might let in faith, like Flannery O'Connor. She isn't afraid
of it, like Muriel Spark; nor does she insist its depictions rouse us to
action, like Sontag. She looks--just looks--and sees everything."
--Parul Seghal, New York Times Magazine*
