Book Review: Chilly Scenes of Winter

(Bought at the Little Red Book Shack in Hudson, NY for 50 cents): I've read many of Ann Beattie's story collections and novels, but never this one, her first big hit which put her on the literary map back in 1976. It was later filmed as Head Over Heels (the studio didn't like her original title). There isn't much of a plot. Unhappy twentysomething Charles pines for married Laura while tending to his mentally-ill mother Clara, and coping with hostile feelings towards his stepfather Pete. His sister Susan is still in college and engaged to a med student Charles doesn't like and his best friend Sam has just lost his job and moves in. The novel follows Charles through a cold winter as he stumbles his way through life, trying to find love and meaning in a boring government job and a frustrating romantic life.

I couldn't help liking Charles, even though he's a whiny complainer. Beattie gives him so many human flaws and foibles, it's hard not to sympathize with him. The book was proclaimed as a 1970s answer to Catcher in the Rye. Charles is not as disaffected and rebellious as Holden Caulfield, but he is a realistic example of the youth of the decade after the 1960s seeking their identity in a society that provides few role models. He is damaged because his father died when he was young and his mother has lost her grip on sanity. He becomes a needy desperate loner with few friends (except for Sam) and longs for the unattainable Laura. I enjoyed this work by Beattie more than her others. The quirkiness doesn't feel as forced as in many of her short stories.  

Book Review: The Burning House

I know I had read this collection of Ann Beattie stories a long time ago, but I found a copy in the basement of our co-op building, began it again, then put it down for a couple of years and recently picked it up again after reading a later Beattie collection. Except for striking details, I did not remember the stories. The only one I could recall was The Cinderella Waltz about a woman whose husband leaves her for another man. Rereading that one, I found themes deeper than just the novelty of a gay angle. The husband is now thinking of moving to San Francisco for a new job. In an interesting detail, the wife recalls the husband not being satisfied with any of the Christmas gifts, and being disappointed with a six-slice toaster when he wanted a eight-slice model. This seemingly insignificant piece of information shows us the husband always wants more, whether it's a present or a relationship. You have to look hard at what Beattie includes and why she includes it.

Reading these stories again now that I'm older and lived through situations similar to those of the characters gives me a better understanding of Beattie's craft. She offers pieces of a person's life, like flashes, and imparts why they do what they do. I liked Greenwich Time with the divorced husband killing time in Manhattan until he forces himself to drive to Connecticut and ask his remarried ex-wife for custody of their little boy.

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.

Book Review: Walks with Men

(Borrowed from the NYPL, 40th St.) I took out Ann Beattie's long short story or short novella when I got bored with Peter Bogdanovich's endless interviews with legendary directors. Slightly over 100 small pages, I read it in a few hours. The story concerns writer Jane and her relationships with men--a boyfriend, a husband and her father. The much older husband is a somewhat shadowy figure we don't get to know very well. Also, he treats Jane badly, not telling her he's married when they first get together. She treats him like a mentor, recording some ridiculous life advice he dispenses, like always wear raincoats made in England and when you have wine call it a "drink" or something like that. I guess this is meant to be funny. There are the usual Ann Beattie details which give life to the characters. The father's housemate--are they gay???--is obsessed with I Love Lucy. A neighbor who is gay plays with an Etch-a-Sketch. Beattie does capture the atmosphere of NYC in the 1980s and a young woman dealing with heartbreak and complicated relationships.