A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A stunning synthesis of eroticism, rage, pathos, and humor, this evergreen debut novel, with its "fine storyteller's pace and brilliant metaphors" (New York Times Book Review) examines the lives of two women as they journey into the dark side of contemporary life and the deepest recesses of the soul

"Darkly, erotically compelling."-USA Today

Originally published in 1991, this exploration of loneliness and connection draws us into an unforgettable and unlikely friendship. Dorothy Never-"fat"-lives alone in New York, eats and works the night shift as a proofreader. Justine Shade-"thin"-is a freelance journalist who sleeps with unsuitable men. They are superficially a study in contrasts, yet share equally haunting sexual burdens carried since youth. When Justine interviews Dorothy about her involvement with an infamous and charismatic philosophical guru, the two women are drawn together with an intense magnetism that throws their lives off balance.

Now a classic, Gaitskill's first novel sets out the concerns of all her work: the search for intimacy and for sexual frankness; the challenge, especially for women, of discovering our destiny as unique individuals in the complex thicket of our relationships, desires, and needs.