The Burning House: Short Stories

Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: Ann Beattie's The Burning House is one of the definitive collections of short fiction available today. Beattie's sparse, witty prose defines the minimalist trend of the seventies and eighties, and her characterizations are dead on. This collection inspires, charms, devastates, and all-around entertains--and it's not a long collection. Do yourself a favor: buy The Burning House and read it.

Rating:
Summary: Relationships laid bare
Review: Beattie manages to capture the moments when intimate relationships are at a threshhold, either falling apart or suggesting some new promise. Some of these stories (Park City) are vivid swirls of detail and psychological perception; others (In the White Night) are quiet meditations on the quality and strength of relationships that do, somehow, last. Her characters try to move forward; the emotional complexities of their situations are rendered in a way that makes them utterly real. The stories in this collection are moving, dazzling in their perceptions and organic structure, and above all, honest. She is one of the greatest short story writers of the past two decades, and Park City couples great new fiction with the best of her old work. Like Raymond Carver's Where I'm Calling From, the range and quality here is a feat reserved for masters.

Rating:
Summary: to amazon
Review: Oops! Please do not use the review that I (Brandon [e-mail]) wrote of Burning House. It is not the book I thought I was writing about... details are wrong. Sorry

Rating:
Summary: to amazon
Review: Oops! Please do not use the review that I (Brandon [e-mail]) wrote of Burning House. It is not the book I thought I was writing about... details are wrong. Sorry

Rating:
Summary: Beattie's best book
Review: This is the best book Beattie has written (that I have read, anyway.) The stories in this collection are not all brilliant, but the title story blew me away (read the speech given in the final pages. Wow!)and there are six or seven at that same level. I'm talking about totally original fiction, here, not merely "good" stories; no one else writes stories like Beattie when she is at her best. And at her best, her fiction was as distinguished as anyone's in the early 80s. Read this collection and her novel FALLING IN PLACE.