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Cut
The New Yorker's free online fiction:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
Unknown Binding
Published April 22, 2019
1 person is currently reading
474 people want to read
About the author
Catherine Lacey
27 books1,484 followersCatherine Lacey is the author of six books. Her honors include a Guggenheim fellowship, a Whiting Award, a Lambda Award for Lesbian Fiction and the 2021 NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award. She has been twice a finalist for both the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Jean Stein Book Award. She lives in México.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
August 16, 2021
“if you’re raised with an angry man in your house,
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.”
i think “cut” might fly over people’s head if they are not attentive enough, if they are not willing to understand. sometimes there’s no man around you who’s actively harming/trapping you. but at the same time there’s always the ghost of a man following you around, the ghost of a social stigma that undermines you and makes you feel lost and incapable. i think “cut” shows exactly that. we are living in a man's world and it makes me feel as if i'm ripping in half sometimes. i get you, peggy. 4,5/5 ⭐️
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.”
i think “cut” might fly over people’s head if they are not attentive enough, if they are not willing to understand. sometimes there’s no man around you who’s actively harming/trapping you. but at the same time there’s always the ghost of a man following you around, the ghost of a social stigma that undermines you and makes you feel lost and incapable. i think “cut” shows exactly that. we are living in a man's world and it makes me feel as if i'm ripping in half sometimes. i get you, peggy. 4,5/5 ⭐️
July 18, 2021
There’s a feeling of being trapped, stuck even, that is pervasive throughout the narrative of “Cut”. It reflects well the situations of the women themselves- a life and history chained by men, what men decide to do, the male gaze, their ghosts, their shadows. The way these women’s lives are always under scrutiny of the male gaze, the patriarchal one, is a realistic horror that settles like an unpleasant meal in your stomach. This is only further proven by the existence of Peggy’s sex announcer, an unwanted voyeurist that has stayed with Peggy as long as she has remembered. Even with no men around, there is still a man in Peggy’s house. The man.
But isn’t that what makes a house? A home? A place of safety; the most dangerous place a woman can be.
But what’s the second most dangerous place? The unknown. So invite him in. Better a monster than a ghost. A monster exists outside of your existence; a ghost is what you hold in yourself.
This story excently portrays the massive gap in understanding between men and women. A looking through someone rather than at them, the male birthright to decide what and what they don’t want to see.
Of course, they can never learn if women don’t speak up. But looking at their track record, who can blame them? Keeping quiet turns into a survival instinct; smiling and saying, showing that it’s all alright the “mature” thing to do (be “the bigger man”. Isn’t that ironic?).
It’s this ingrained fear that causes Peggy to imagine her death at the hands of her make student, who asks to see her alone without explanation; that makes her smile at her husband and brush off his caustic comment. And Elena! God, I hope there’s an afterlife so Peggy and I- and Elena too, if she’d like can beat the sh!t out of her deceased husbands. (Though this is fictional, I don’t doubt the fact that it will be all too easy to find two men who have used their wives as cruelly and carelessly as them.)
The world is built on weird little girls, and Tallulah similarly represents a possible future independent of all this. No doubt she will still have to wrangle with this corrosive influence, but I have no doubt she’ll be able to stick it to the man. You go kid!
In conclusion: why do Men.
P.S. Minor grammar mistake: “How easy it is to attempt to do one thing and effect the opposite.” should be “How easy it is to attempt to do one thing and affect the opposite.” Still a great story! Also, being aware that my personal experiences and worldview is limited, I would love to hear anyone who can relate to the struggles depicted in this story’s take on it.
But isn’t that what makes a house? A home? A place of safety; the most dangerous place a woman can be.
But what’s the second most dangerous place? The unknown. So invite him in. Better a monster than a ghost. A monster exists outside of your existence; a ghost is what you hold in yourself.
This story excently portrays the massive gap in understanding between men and women. A looking through someone rather than at them, the male birthright to decide what and what they don’t want to see.
Of course, they can never learn if women don’t speak up. But looking at their track record, who can blame them? Keeping quiet turns into a survival instinct; smiling and saying, showing that it’s all alright the “mature” thing to do (be “the bigger man”. Isn’t that ironic?).
It’s this ingrained fear that causes Peggy to imagine her death at the hands of her make student, who asks to see her alone without explanation; that makes her smile at her husband and brush off his caustic comment. And Elena! God, I hope there’s an afterlife so Peggy and I- and Elena too, if she’d like can beat the sh!t out of her deceased husbands. (Though this is fictional, I don’t doubt the fact that it will be all too easy to find two men who have used their wives as cruelly and carelessly as them.)
The world is built on weird little girls, and Tallulah similarly represents a possible future independent of all this. No doubt she will still have to wrangle with this corrosive influence, but I have no doubt she’ll be able to stick it to the man. You go kid!
In conclusion: why do Men.
P.S. Minor grammar mistake: “How easy it is to attempt to do one thing and effect the opposite.” should be “How easy it is to attempt to do one thing and affect the opposite.” Still a great story! Also, being aware that my personal experiences and worldview is limited, I would love to hear anyone who can relate to the struggles depicted in this story’s take on it.
February 18, 2022
Never know what to think about short stories i just read them on the toilet and think oh that was kinda fun. Anyways catherine lacey…she gets it….this is what makes us girls/woman moment/etc etc. I’m intrigued though I’m gonna look out for her novels🙏🏼
August 26, 2022
I had to read it twice.
Things I loved:
1. How all women in the story (Tallulah, Peggy, the distressed student, and Elena) had a different experience with regards to the society's treatment of women. (I'm including the pretty privilege comment because there has always been more pressure on women to look pretty).
2. Peggy's sex announcer. Peggy's internalization of a voice that objectifies her.
3. The dream. I think it's the dream that pulls you out of the story and makes you realise that the cut is a metaphor for how her identity is being torn in two by the society.
And, finally.
3. The best part of the story for me was how Peggy handles her cut and how she feels like she's "coming apart" as a result of it.
The cut is basically an (for the lack of a better word) unseemly problem that only she can fully understand. I think it's a good stand-in for struggles that women face, largely alone, before they hit mainstream cultural conversation. So, Peggy is left in a severely anxiety-inducing situation, with one other women's similar experience which she cannot relate to.
Why do I think so? Forget seeing a doctor, right off the bat, the story tells us that Peggy hadn't even told her husband.
Her inability to explain her wound is matched with her husband's strange reply which was essentially, "Is this a woman thing?"
The one line about her husband trying to make light of the situation and completely misreading her tone seals the scene. Peggy feels further isolated when he decides that he wouldn't have been that concerned about it, and that things like ripping in half just didn't happen to people. Throughout this exchange, he never asks her if it hurts and if yes, how badly does it hurt.
If not a medical issue, I am sure there are other women who relate to this situation: you have a problem that is largely invisible to the point that if you claim that it's happening, you're quickly told that it (a) does not happen, and (b) is nothing to be worried about.
The lack of available resources as well as the absence of the vocabulary needed to explain the problem is a problem on it's own. In the story, just like in real life, it only worsens Peggy's situation.
Her final breakdown a reply to the voice that she has internalized, also feels like a reply to her husband. "Stop it. This isn't funny."
Things I loved:
1. How all women in the story (Tallulah, Peggy, the distressed student, and Elena) had a different experience with regards to the society's treatment of women. (I'm including the pretty privilege comment because there has always been more pressure on women to look pretty).
2. Peggy's sex announcer. Peggy's internalization of a voice that objectifies her.
3. The dream. I think it's the dream that pulls you out of the story and makes you realise that the cut is a metaphor for how her identity is being torn in two by the society.
And, finally.
3. The best part of the story for me was how Peggy handles her cut and how she feels like she's "coming apart" as a result of it.
The cut is basically an (for the lack of a better word) unseemly problem that only she can fully understand. I think it's a good stand-in for struggles that women face, largely alone, before they hit mainstream cultural conversation. So, Peggy is left in a severely anxiety-inducing situation, with one other women's similar experience which she cannot relate to.
Why do I think so? Forget seeing a doctor, right off the bat, the story tells us that Peggy hadn't even told her husband.
…told her husband one morning after several weeks of pain.
Her inability to explain her wound is matched with her husband's strange reply which was essentially, "Is this a woman thing?"
The one line about her husband trying to make light of the situation and completely misreading her tone seals the scene. Peggy feels further isolated when he decides that he wouldn't have been that concerned about it, and that things like ripping in half just didn't happen to people. Throughout this exchange, he never asks her if it hurts and if yes, how badly does it hurt.
If not a medical issue, I am sure there are other women who relate to this situation: you have a problem that is largely invisible to the point that if you claim that it's happening, you're quickly told that it (a) does not happen, and (b) is nothing to be worried about.
The lack of available resources as well as the absence of the vocabulary needed to explain the problem is a problem on it's own. In the story, just like in real life, it only worsens Peggy's situation.
Her final breakdown a reply to the voice that she has internalized, also feels like a reply to her husband. "Stop it. This isn't funny."
November 22, 2020
Well, I cannot lie, the opening line was certainly provocative: "There’s no good way to say it—Peggy woke up most mornings oddly sore, sore in the general region of her asshole."
I kept thinking the rest of the story was going to turn into something I was going to love, but then it never did. It was perhaps a bit heavy-handed, and different sections kept pulling me in, but in the end it didn't come together in a satisfying way at all to me, so, meh, I guess.
I kept thinking the rest of the story was going to turn into something I was going to love, but then it never did. It was perhaps a bit heavy-handed, and different sections kept pulling me in, but in the end it didn't come together in a satisfying way at all to me, so, meh, I guess.
December 20, 2022
amazing. brilliant. the muliebrity poem is heartbreaking. it captures what it's like to be a woman trapped in societal expectations, chained by the patriarchy, even internalized thoughts trying to dismiss one's self. it captures the fear and uneasiness; even if there is no actual man or person that is harming you, you still fear for what is about to come. i love this so much.
January 23, 2022
ugh men am i right
March 29, 2023
I'm gonna title this — 'I don't understand' because I don't.
I have read eight reviews and discussions to understand the point of this story but none explained what I was searching for so here goes mine:
I can't seem to connect the dots with the events that happened following peggy's discovery of a 'cut' that was making her life terribly miserable. Wasn't the author supposed to address a serious medical issue or was the entire thing just metaphorical for patriarchy ripping the identity of women? In that case, I really didn't get the point of mentioning how peggy was aggravated by her husband's baldness enough to mention — "the pit bull had probably been right to attack this skinhead guy." Perhaps she was trying to justify women judging men in their heads as it somehow contributes to equality? So this is uh feminism? I don't understand this.
Moving to the other elements of the story, the elevator girl was trying to do something, the point of which was not comprehensible to me, and so was the interaction with the student who came for counseling. Elena and the poetry student's portrayal was done brilliantly, I might even calligraph the poem in my journals or something but again, most of it left me thinking — 'I don't understand.'
I have read eight reviews and discussions to understand the point of this story but none explained what I was searching for so here goes mine:
I can't seem to connect the dots with the events that happened following peggy's discovery of a 'cut' that was making her life terribly miserable. Wasn't the author supposed to address a serious medical issue or was the entire thing just metaphorical for patriarchy ripping the identity of women? In that case, I really didn't get the point of mentioning how peggy was aggravated by her husband's baldness enough to mention — "the pit bull had probably been right to attack this skinhead guy." Perhaps she was trying to justify women judging men in their heads as it somehow contributes to equality? So this is uh feminism? I don't understand this.
Moving to the other elements of the story, the elevator girl was trying to do something, the point of which was not comprehensible to me, and so was the interaction with the student who came for counseling. Elena and the poetry student's portrayal was done brilliantly, I might even calligraph the poem in my journals or something but again, most of it left me thinking — 'I don't understand.'
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 24, 2022
4.5/5
oof this was intense. the different parts of this text are honestly quite fragmented and all over the place but in an "i-can't-escape" kind of way because you think you know what's going to happen and then the scene changes. i don't think lacey's writing style is for everyone but i personally kinda enjoyed how it worked well with the subject matter (womanhood). this piece feels bitter and hopeful yet ultimately exhausting at the same time, and i think it encapsulates the struggles of being a woman very well. there are some very stunning lines in this piece and i think that it also triggers this post-reading emotion stew that makes me feel depressed and numb and angry at the world at the same time because it feels like as a woman, there's no way out. but at the same time, i also think that it makes this piece a very cathartic read in some way.
oof this was intense. the different parts of this text are honestly quite fragmented and all over the place but in an "i-can't-escape" kind of way because you think you know what's going to happen and then the scene changes. i don't think lacey's writing style is for everyone but i personally kinda enjoyed how it worked well with the subject matter (womanhood). this piece feels bitter and hopeful yet ultimately exhausting at the same time, and i think it encapsulates the struggles of being a woman very well. there are some very stunning lines in this piece and i think that it also triggers this post-reading emotion stew that makes me feel depressed and numb and angry at the world at the same time because it feels like as a woman, there's no way out. but at the same time, i also think that it makes this piece a very cathartic read in some way.
December 8, 2021
“if you’re raised with an angry man in your house, there will always be an angry man in your house. you will find him even when he is not there. and if one day you find that there is no angry man your house- well, you will go find one and invite him in.”
This piece is spilling with the most heartbreaking poetry.
This piece is spilling with the most heartbreaking poetry.
October 26, 2022
fucking depressing:)
June 8, 2022
‘ “Maybe you’re ripping in half” he said, smiling, employing his male birthright to decide when something was or was not a joke. ‘
This is a gut punch right up until the last paragraph, where it immediately falls off for me, introducing an idea that doesn’t get to be properly explored, it sortof feels tacked on. If the last paragraph wasn’t there it’d be 5 stars.
This is a gut punch right up until the last paragraph, where it immediately falls off for me, introducing an idea that doesn’t get to be properly explored, it sortof feels tacked on. If the last paragraph wasn’t there it’d be 5 stars.
January 22, 2023
read at: https://www.newyorker.com/contributor...
Really enjoyed her other piece.
I liked the topics, style, and related to Peggy. Not sure what I was expecting but it just seemed to end… not bad, just wanted a little more.
Elevator scenes were good.
Really enjoyed her other piece.
I liked the topics, style, and related to Peggy. Not sure what I was expecting but it just seemed to end… not bad, just wanted a little more.
Elevator scenes were good.
January 12, 2024
"if you’re raised with an angry man in your house,
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
August 11, 2023
thoroughly enjoyed reading this. catherine lacey's take on the unspoken side of womanhood is really interesting. the fragmentation of the piece and the dissimilarity between Peggy's interactions with other women did a really good job of portraying how the diversity of female narratives are all ultimately collectivised under the shadow of patriarchy, regardless of our individual differences. something that particularly stood out to me was the voyeuristic narration of the 'unrecognised man', the parasitic voice that not just pervades all aspects of Peggy's life but unleashes a sort of self-destructive fear and vulnerability from within her, just another reminder of truly how little agency she holds over her self; funnily enough this 'announcer' manages to sexualise literally every moment of Peggy's life, "fuck that squash", positioning Peggy as nothing more than an object of (heterosexual) male desire. with that, the superficiality of her relationship with her husband, in my perspective, further stressed the importance of 'muliebrity' (which, on a side note, truly did break me) - it is a strong commentary on the almost instinctive nature of men to trivialise and misconstrue the experiences of women, with her husband's immediate response to her pain being "is this something that just happens to women?... one of those things men don’t know about until we really have to?", followed by the joke, and his (and basically every medical professional's) inability to even remotely aid Peggy (the irony of it being Peggy's automatic response being to help her bleeding husband and hold back her tears for his pain). Peggy and basically every other woman's struggle to have autonomy over their identity is worsened by the inability to actually vocalise and receive support for such problems, we are left essentially to live in an endless state of anxiety, isolation, and pain - from this 'cut'.
reading this, I kept expecting at least one aspect of the story to provide a sense of closure to Peggy but ultimately that closure never came, and with the heavy unease that I felt throughout the piece it was simultaneously a really cathartic experience. Lacey did a good job of capturing the unending physical and emotional burden of meeting the expectations upheld by patriarchal society, but I will say, the final paragraph really threw me off - it to some extent undid the significance of the 'cut' being an extended metaphor.
reading this, I kept expecting at least one aspect of the story to provide a sense of closure to Peggy but ultimately that closure never came, and with the heavy unease that I felt throughout the piece it was simultaneously a really cathartic experience. Lacey did a good job of capturing the unending physical and emotional burden of meeting the expectations upheld by patriarchal society, but I will say, the final paragraph really threw me off - it to some extent undid the significance of the 'cut' being an extended metaphor.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2025
I read this for the first time during the school year last year and I thought a lot about it and then emailed my therapist about it. I feel solidarity, and also frustration, and also hopelessness. I liked this part:
And I liked the fragmented writing, it's my favorite style to write and sometimes my favorite style to read.
Really, Peggy thought, what else was even in a person’s life save the most immediate person in that life? Other things take up time—jobs, children, pets, housekeeping—but a spouse is the only one with the power to fully colonize a person, to become the answer to “How are you?”
And I liked the fragmented writing, it's my favorite style to write and sometimes my favorite style to read.
September 22, 2023
Catherine Lacey is slowly becoming one of my favorite authors as of late. The symbolism in "Pew" and the diction in "The Biography of X" led me to read Cut and it didn't disappoint. I didn't even realize that the angry man poem was written by Lacey, and its been one of my favorites for a while. Lacey does a wonderful job of writing men exactly right. No one is outwardly rude, or annoying, but every man mentioned is ignorant to everything about women, which hits home. Women will always feel a sense of pity, and invite the angry man in.
January 13, 2024
“it’s been proven that the home is the most dangerous place for a woman to be. To which I say, sure, but what’s the second most dangerous place?”
my heart literally broke reading this. and then, the poem:
"if you’re raised with an angry man in your house,
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
made me die inside a little bit. one of the best works I've read in a long time!
my heart literally broke reading this. and then, the poem:
"if you’re raised with an angry man in your house,
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
made me die inside a little bit. one of the best works I've read in a long time!
March 2, 2023
"if you’re raised with an angry man in your house,
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
“it’s been proven that the home is the most dangerous place for a woman to be. To which I say, sure, but what’s the second most dangerous place?”
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
“it’s been proven that the home is the most dangerous place for a woman to be. To which I say, sure, but what’s the second most dangerous place?”
January 29, 2024
Short but sweet, I still think the small poem that brought me to read this short tale is the best part "muliebrity
if you’re raised with an angry man in your house,
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
Its very much a fear we have, to be raised with an angry man and never be able to get away from the structure you know.
if you’re raised with an angry man in your house,
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
Its very much a fear we have, to be raised with an angry man and never be able to get away from the structure you know.
August 4, 2022
this was fun ngl. and im sure i missed quite a few things in between the lines, reading this for the first time (so i may re-read this since its very short) but this was still awesome and because its been weeks since i read a book, i just wanted to read something so i dont fall in a reading slump lol
November 17, 2024
I had to find a piece of writing to use for my literary theory course, I used the poem within the story. I decided to read the entire short story and I am not disappointed. It is such a subtle reminder of how we are haunted as women. This story and its parallels to the meaning of womanhood are unwavering.
June 19, 2021
“If you’re raised with an angry man in your house, there will always be an angry man in your house. You will find him even when he is not there.” No because like shut the fuck up… oh my god… going insane… (I enjoyed this)
October 20, 2021
"if you’re raised with an angry man in your house,
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
November 17, 2021
"if you’re raised with an angry man in your house,
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in!"
Read
June 19, 2023I've read this three times (I keep going back for the imbedded poem about there always being an angry man in your house) and truly I just don't think that I get it. Like something's going on here that I can't quite pin down and I'm not sure if it's a fault with myself or with the work.
June 28, 2023
Short stories like this always leave something to be desired for me, but I enjoyed this short story nonetheless. Catherine Lacey's take on womanhood is uniquely personal, but I found myself relating to many parts throughout.
August 31, 2023
“if you're raised with an angry man in your house,
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is no angry man in your house-
well, you will go find one and invite him in!”
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is no angry man in your house-
well, you will go find one and invite him in!”
June 27, 2025
“if you’re raised with an angry man in your house,
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in”
there will always be an angry man in your house.
you will find him even when he is not there.
and if one day you find that there is
no angry man in your house—
well, you will go find one and invite him in”
October 12, 2021
"If you’re raised with an angry man in your house, there will always be an angry man in your house. You will find him even when he is not there"
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews