Comments on: Beattitudes

Beattitudes

reenum — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:57:42 -0800

The Nation's William Deresiewicz looks at Ann Beattie's evolution as a writer.

By: You Should See the Other Guy

You Should See the Other Guy — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:09:09 -0800

Audio interview with Beattie about her new book here.

By: PinkMoose

PinkMoose — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:24:32 -0800

Can I say that Anne Beattie's microscopic interest in a tiny segment of an elite audience might be brilliant marketing (as are the limited number of the stories) but terribly beige fiction. It is almost a parody of what one would imagine a New Yorker story should be like, but you know serious.

By: vecchio

vecchio — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:35:49 -0800

I don't know whether to love Beattie for inventing a new kind of story, as Updike says, or hate her for convincing the New Yorker that this is the only kind of story that exists. Another assessment from Slate. Also praise but more honest.

By: mippy

mippy — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:10:12 -0800

I've never heard of this writer before - what's her milieu? And yes, I'm aware that that sentence may be the most pretentious thing ever written. But I'm not familiar with the New Yorker and the exact shade of fiction they publish.

By: PinkMoose

PinkMoose — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:01:15 -0800

She writes about how white middle class heterosexual couples who live in New York pyschologically manipulate each other into pure hatred, but a hatred that is v. cold and amazingly shows little or no emotion. a kind of blanched updike with no ambition.