An acquaintance once asked Mary Gaitskill and her then husband about their house, which sat at the edge of a college campus, surrounded by woods.

I said it was nice but that it had been partly spoiled for me by the loss of our cat. I told him the story and he said, “Oh, that was your trauma, was it?”

I said yes. Yes, it was a trauma.

“Misthaven #4,” by Amy Kanka Valadarsky. Courtesy the artist

“Lost Cat,” the essay from which this scene is taken, is an account of several traumas — Gaitskill…