In the White Night (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ann Beattie
- First Published: 1984
- Type of Plot: Domestic realism
- Time of Work: A winter night, evidently in the 1980's
- Setting: A suburb or town
- Principal Characters: Carol, Vernon, Matt and Gaye Brinkley, Sharon, Becky Brinkley
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Suffering, Parents and children, Loneliness, Isolation
The Story
Ann Beattie's story narrates the events of scarcely more than half an hour, the time that it takes Carol and Vernon to leave a party at the home of their friends Matt and Gaye Brinkley, drive home through the snow, and lie down to sleep. The story takes on greater spaciousness, however, because of its focus on the consciousness of Carol, whose thoughts range through time and among a number of persons and events. She thinks first of the party and of a childish game that Matt Brinkley had played (significantly, the game is called “Don’t think about . . .”), and by...
[The entire page is 1456 words long]
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