A selection of Ann Beattie's nonfiction essays, chosen and introduced by the author. Ann Beattie's nonfiction (originally published in Esquire, The American Scholar, Life, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and many others) has never before been gathered and published in book form. With subjects ranging from Alice Munro to Elmore Leonard, from Sally Mann to John Loengard, this is a wide-ranging, and always penetrating and surprising, collection by a curious and fascinating mind.
Ann Beattie Books
September 8, 1947
Ann Beattie is an American short story writer and novelist whose work is celebrated for its incisive look at modern life and relationships. Her distinctive style, often compared to literary giants, delves into the complexities of everyday existence with a nuanced understanding of human psychology. Beattie masterfully captures quiet moments, unspoken thoughts, and subtle nuances of communication, crafting narratives that resonate with readers for their authenticity and depth. Her fiction is admired for its ability to reveal the hidden emotional currents and existential anxieties within seemingly ordinary situations.
These fifteen stories by Ann Beattie garnered universal critical acclaim on their first publication, earning Beattie the reputation as the most celebrated new voice in American fiction. Today these stories -- "A Vintage Thunderbird;" "The Lawn Party, " " La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans," to name a few -- seem even more powerful, and are read and studied as classics of the short-story form. Spare and elegant, yet charged with feeling and with the tension of things their characters cannot say, they are masterly portraits of improvised lives.
This stunning collection of 28 stories brings readers a literary portrait of the American family from 1894 to today. A collection of works that captures the essence of American families from living together and apart to loving and letting go.Regret / Kate Chopin --The lombardy poplar / Mary Wilkins Freeman --The widow's might / Charlotte Perkins Gilman --Old Rogaum and his Theresa / Theodore Dreiser --The sorrows of gin / John Cheever --I stand here ironing / Tillie Olsen --Simple and Counsin F.D. Roosevelt Brown / Langston Hughes --The sky is gray / Ernest J. Gaines --My Coney Island uncle / Harvey Swados --My son the murderer / Bernard Malamud --Final dwarf / Henry Roth --And Sarah laughed / Joanne Greenberg --Wedding day / Roberta Silman --The legacy of Beau Kremel / Stephen Wolf --Kiswana Brown / Gloria Naylor --Tuesdays / Mary Hedin --Afloat / Ann Beattie --Winterblossom garden / David Low --Old things / Bobbie Ann Mason --Starlight / Marian Thurm --The writer in the family / E.L. Doctorow --The rich brother / Tobias Wolff --My legacy / Don Zacharia --Violation / Mary Gordon --Appropriate affect / Sue Miller --What I did for love / Lynne Sharon Schwartz --Still of some use / John Updike --Elephant / Raymond Carver
A Wonderful Stroke of Luck
- 288 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Perfect Recall
- 347 pages
- 13 hours of reading
These eleven stories "are peopled by characters coming to terms with the legacies of long-held family myths or confronting altered circumstances--new frailty or sudden, unlikely success."--Jacket.
Onlookers
- 288 pages
- 11 hours of reading
"Onlookers is a story collection about people living in the same Southern town whose lives intersect in surprising ways"--
From an award-winning, national bestselling author comes a "ferociously funny” novel (The Los Angeles Times) about an advice columnist in Vermont whose life is about to be turned upside down. Lucy Spenser, the Miss Lonelyhearts of a chic counter-cultural magazine, finds her unflappable Vermont life completely upended by her teenaged soap-opera-star niece, Nicole, and her hangers-on.
Amerika, Amerika
- 311 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Bloemlezing
Damals in New York
- 144 pages
- 6 hours of reading
»Ann Beattie eine gute Schriftstellerin zu nennen, ist eine Untertreibung.« Margaret Atwood "1980 begegnete ich in New York einem Mann, der mir versprach, mein Leben zu verändern. Er würde mir alles erklären, wirklich alles." New York in den achtziger Jahren: Die junge und attraktive Jane hat ihren Abschluss aus Harvard in der Tasche und erkundet die Großstadt – dort begegnet sie Neil, einem zwanzig Jahre älteren Schriftsteller. Die beiden beginnen eine leidenschaftliche Affäre und Neil weiht sie in seine Regeln für ein gutes Leben ein. Zunächst kauft er seiner Schutzbefohlenen aber eine Barbour-Jacke und einen Schal von Burberry: guter Stil sei die Voraussetzung für ein gutes Leben, und dann gibt es da noch ein paar Dinge, die sie über das Verhältnis zwischen Frauen und Männern wissen sollte. Zu den Lebensweisheiten des Literaten gehört auch: habe Sex in Flugzeugkabinen, lerne, ein Rad zu schlagen, wenn du keinen Handstand kannst, trage nur Regenjacken aus England. Doch Neils Überzeugungen, muss Jane schnell feststellen, sind Teil einer Verschleierungstaktik. Und erst jetzt beginnt ihre Éducation sentimentale ...
