Beattie, Ann (Vol. 8) | Beattie, Ann 1947–
Beattie, Ann 1947–
American novelist and short story writer, Beattie is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. Her stories and her novel, Chilly Scenes of Winter, are concerned primarily with the fortunes of the Woodstock generation in the spiritless seventies.
If the non sequitur were an art form, then Ann Beattie, author of [Chilly Scenes of Winter, a] novel and [Distortions, a] collection of short stories, would be its matron saint. "Matron" seems apt, whatever Beattie's age, and no matter that both books are firsts, since her style effectively girdles any youthful awkwardness, bulging hyperboles, and the passion that might redeem both.
Her taste for the non sequitur, with its lack of logical causation, lends itself to the creation of characters whose behavior is not conventionally or even recognizably motivated….
The characters in both the novel and stories are fleshed out (or, rather, painted by...
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