Short stories by Ann Beattie
Ann Beattie has been included in four O. Henry Award Collections, in John Updike’s The Best American Short Stories of the Century, and in Jennifer Egan’s The Best American Short Stories 2014. In 2000, she received the PEN/Malamud Award for achievement in the short story. In 2005, she received the Rea Award for the Short Story. She was the Edgar Allan Poe Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia. She is a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She and her husband, Lincoln Perry, live in Maine and Key West, Florida.
Listing 8 stories.
Multiple extramarital affairs come to a head years later, but the narrator circumvents them at the last moment.
En route home from a dinner party with her husband, a woman reflects on the death of their young daughter and the omnipresence of tragedy in their lives.
A real estate agent obsesses over a bowl gifted by her secret lover. Over time, she becomes more infatuated with the bowl and less infatuated with her lover, yet she still must decide if she should end her marriage to be with him.
An older man, while on vacation with his sister, visits the family of his late colleague, a well-known writer. A biography has recently been published about this late colleague, and the man struggles to reconnect with the grieving family, obviously on edge because of the book's personal and revealing content, during his visit.
A rich know-it-all visits Los Angeles after his marriage falls apart, where he has a spiritual encounter with wildlife. He is left with a greater understanding of himself, but needs yet another push to finally change his attitude.
A woman narrates the experience of sending her young daughter off every weekend to stay with her ex-husband and his boyfriend- until things change.
When a writer and her old writing professor reconvene in a Mexican restaurant one final time before the professor's death, they experience a night of unwanted encounters and unnecessary criticism that leaves the writer with a bitter taste in her mouth.
An artist selling his work in LA is suddenly called back to Connecticut because of the accidental death of his relative, which brings together the entire ensemble of their eccentric family.