“Sexual violence is an all too prevalent part of life, so it is often part of the narrative,” she says.
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The stories are full of sex and sexual violence, but Gay is neither prurient nor gratuitous. This story is not for the faint of heart and sets the tone for the rest of the book. The book opens with “I Will Follow You,” a story about two young girls who are snatched from their neighbourhood, imprisoned and sexually assaulted. Violence against women is a consistent theme, appearing in fully half of the stories, and while the book is a difficult read, it is worth every tear you will shed, every uncomfortable emotion it will dredge up. I just couldn’t bring myself to turn the book in.” (Last month, Simon & Schuster cancelled Yiannopoulos’ book after a video appeared of him arguing that, in some cases, sex between adults and children can be “perfectly consensual.”)ĭifficult Women is a collection of short stories that is beautiful in some parts and as painful as a punch to the gut in others. Of her decision, Gay wrote, “I kept thinking about how egregious it is to give someone like Milo a platform for his blunt, inelegant hate and provocation.
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Gay recently hit headlines when she pulled her forthcoming book, How to Be Heard, from TED Books (an imprint of US publishing giant Simon & Schuster) after discovering they would publish a book by alt-right provocateur and former Breitbart News editor, Milo Yiannopoulos. Previous works include her 2014 novel, An Untamed State, a 2011 collection of writing called Ayiti, and a comic series entitled World of Wakanda, with which Gay became the first black woman to write for Marvel. Since the release of Gay’s 2014 bestselling collection of essays, Bad Feminist, the writer’s popularity has soared. Tickets to the show sold out in a record-breaking eighty-eight seconds. The duo will chat about feminism and Gay’s latest book of short stories, Difficult Women. New York Times’ bestselling author Roxane Gay will appear in conversation with Good Morning Toronto’s Garvia Bailey at the Toronto Reference Library this Thursday (March 16).