Tag: Ann Beattie

“You put all the [decoy] mallards out there, but if you’re going hunting you need something like this egret, for a confidence decoy.”

A review of “The New Yorker Stories” in 100 words by Catherine Stover

How did she do that? Readers often ask this after reading an Ann Beattie story. Just when it seems as though not much is happening, boom! The story explodes. For example, in the final long paragraph … Read More

“I’ve never heard anything like that. The last line comes out of nowhere.”

beattie2This line from a conversation between a seventy-seven year-old poet and an IRS agent about a poem by James Wright in the short story “Yancey” is vintage Ann Beattie: it’s an astute comment in an unusual situation by characters who come to each other from unanticipated angles, and who … Read More