Book Review: Onlookers: Stories by Ann Beattie

(Taken out of the NYPL, 40th Street, Manhattan) Several books ago, I wrote that I could pen a parody of John Irving: bears or lions, transgender characters, somebody spending their growing up in Europe and winding up a writer. Now, I feel like I could do a satire of an Ann Beattie short story after having reading so many of them. A female narrator is at a crossroads. She's doing some kind of typical activity, like cleaning her house or visiting an elderly relative. Every moment of her day calls to mind a friend, relative or casual acquaintance which in turn calls to mind a plethora of eccentric but incredibly specific details like a favorite song, book, or keepsake. 

Onlookers, Beattie's latest collection, fits the bill. Six long short stories or short novellas chronicle the tribulations of a group of interrelated Charlottesville, Virginia residents in 2020. They're in a state of transition and uncertainty. Each is affected by the COVID pandemic, the 2017 Unite the Right march and counterprotest, Trump's presidency, and the controversy of Confederate statues. As with most of Beattie's work, there were times when there were so many characters I couldn't keep track of who was who--particularly in the last piece "The Bubble." 

At first it was about a worker in a nursing home, engaged to two different women in quick succession. Then the focus shifts to his older female co-worker who has a husband recovering from an injury, and two difficult sons, one of whom is mixed up with the torchbearers at the racist protest. Plus there is a girl working at the home making a graphic novel ridiculing the staff and patients. Then someone has a baby in the ladies room at alternative arts center and there seems to be another demonstration around the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, but it turns out to be a movie being filmed. Really confusing.

I liked the first story "Pegasus" and the third, "Nearby," because I could more or less follow them. In "Pegasus," a young writer is living with her fiancee's father, a retired doctor, while her intended is in Japan pursuing an acting job. She establishes a loving connection with her future father-in-law and the theme of chosen families in uncertain times is clear.

"Nearby" follows a literature professor as she helps one of her students pay for new tires on his dilapidated car and then witnesses yet another protest with her husband who is also in recovery. 

Some Beattie works such as the novel, My Life Starring Dara Falcon, I found difficult to get into because I couldn't identify with any of the loopy characters. Except for the eccentric "Bubble," I felt a connection with these Charlottesville people.