Bear Witness

Out of Line collection

By: Mary Gaitskill

Narrated by: Margo Martindale, R.C. Bray

Length: 1 hr and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

In the wake of a brutal crime, three people cross paths in this unflinching deconstruction of moral uncertainty, shifting perceptions, and sexual violence by Mary Gaitskill, the critically acclaimed author of Bad Behavior.

Mark is the accused rapist. Miss P. is the victim, his former teacher. Moira M. is an apathetic juror. As the trial unfolds in this intense short story, three personal histories emerge, along with three alarmingly different points of view: Obsessed and angry. Menaced and disillusioned. Disaffected and searching through an unexamined life for moral conviction.

Mary Gaitskill’s Bear Witness is part of Out of Line, an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

Audible narration by Margo Martindale (Mrs. America)

©2020 Mary Gaitskill (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Sickening rage

A well-crafted short story in which the author intended not to provide all the answers or a tidy conclusion... But left me with a feeling of sickening rage at the injustice and the violence nonetheless.

crazy but interesting

An interesting tale of how someone can become crazed by young obsession for a teacher.

Creepy. Disturbing.

This was a good story, although a little hard to follow. The writing is very good, and I enjoyed listening to the narration, both narrators. Very deeply disturbing, enhanced by the tone of the female narrator, who sounded, actually, very much like a man….😳. But I DID like it, in a deeply disturbing way….🤨

Brutal, brilliant, and moving

I've read a good deal, if not all, of Gaitskill's fiction and I can say this is as good as anything I've read to date. She happens to be one of my favourite writers, so I tend to approach her work with trepidation, afraid she might let me down but she definitely succeeded here. I think it does demand two listens, minimum, as this short story that has rape at its centre has a complex interweaving of different voices in different periods that weave in and out of each other so seamlessly that they will trip you up if you let your attention wander. POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT FOLLOWS. This story evidences the familiar Gaitskill territory of taboo sexual obsessions and fetishes, but they, or rather, it, in this case are/is manifested here in a way that departs somewhat from the often dispassionate narrative voice that populates her fiction. That is because towards the end we get to experience the heart-rending effect that the rape has on the victim, an elderly woman, albeit it is one of the other characters, Moira, a member of a jury, who voices the victim's rage and expresses to the reader how she would like to take revenge on the victim's behalf. The victim herself, the ex-teacher who is raped by her ex-, good-for-nothing pupil is in some ways unknowable due to the compressed nature of the story, with more time being spent on the dumbness of the rapist and his cohort. The side characters such as the other jurors Moira hangs out with all have interesting psychologies and there is a very interesting debate around the culpability or not of the now justice on the Supreme Court, Kavanagh, when he was questioned over a case not a millions miles away from the one discussed in this story. That discussion around Kavanagh is interestingly balanced and becomes more relevant as the trial of the rapist becomes the main focus of the story. There is so much here as ever with Gaitskill and I feel I might find more on a subsequent listen (or read). There really isn't anyone quite like Gaitskill writing today.

Confusing

The narrator did such a poor job that I did not realize there were two separate women until nearly the end of the story when I was so confused that I looked up the story description again. By then I had already mixed everything up. I couldn’t really tell you if I liked the story since I couldn’t follow it past the poor narrator.

Confusing

Not one of the better Audible Originals. The story was confusing because Margo Martindale, reading the two female characters POV, gave no voice distinction between them. She’s a good actress, but not a good narrator, she read everything in a monotone. R.C. Bray was great ( as always). The story doesn’t really have a conclusive ending, and there is no motivation for the crime. Not worth even 1 hour of listening.

Dont understand why

Contrary to other reviews I did find that the extremely mono tone of the narratir was fitting to the story. Like many readers I too didnt get till the end that the juror and old lady were two different people. TIll the end I was a bit confused, but overall dont even understand what was the point of the story. Dont have to worry about spoilers as the book details tells the whole story and THAT IS the whole story! But why was the book even written? There is no thought invoking, nothing to pounder, just nothing but the story. Nothing even revealed, the details is the book. If I missed something would love to know. I will not listen again to see.