"Veronica" by Mary Gaitskill

Location at member's community room in Middleton. Will be sent to those who RSVP yes the weekend before the event.
From the NYTBR of Veronica by Meghan O'Rourke
"'Veronica,' Gaitskill's fourth book, marks something of a departure from her usual taut style. A rumination on the relationship between beauty and cruelty, it moves around disorientingly in time, as if to mimic the emotional distress of its narrator, Alison. A former model now in her late 40's, she is haunted by her friendship with Veronica, an older woman who died of AIDS....
"Much of "Veronica" dissects, in an almost Proustian manner, the obsessive pursuit of a way of feeling. In Paris, Alison is horrified by what she sees powerful, corrupt agent ended badly...
"[Returned to] the security of her family in suburban New Jersey, and then office life in New York, she is buffeted by contradictions: she understands she is safer and healthier at home, where she attends college and reconnects with her sisters, and yet the safety leaves some essential part of her untouched...
"In 'Veronica,' as ever, Gaitskill's brand of brainy lyricism, of acid shot through with grace, is unlike anyone else's. And it constitutes some of the most incisive fiction writing around.