The Burning House (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ann Beattie
- First Published: 1979
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: The 1970's
- Setting: Fairfield County, Connecticut
- Principal Characters: Amy Wayne, Frank Wayne, Johnny, J. D., Tucker, Freddy Fox
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Social realism, Short fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: 1970’s, Self-discovery, Parents and children, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Sex or sexuality, Marriage, Alienation, Friendship, Women’s issues, Adultery, Drugs, Ethics, Popular culture, Masks, Gossip, Middle age, Marijuana
- Locales: Connecticut
The Story
Amy hosts a group of her husband's friends who are visiting for the weekend. She is the only woman in the house, but Frank's homosexual half brother, Freddy Fox, is her confidante and likes to help her in the kitchen. Freddy is already high on marijuana, however, and begins to flick ashes into the sauce that Amy is making. In the next room, her husband Frank, who does the books for Tucker's art gallery in Soho, listens to jazz and rock music and to Tucker's gossipy stories about artists and performers. Tucker seems to have picked up most of his stories in gay bars in...
[The entire page is 1734 words long]

