05/01/2023
Beattie (A Wonderful Stroke of Luck) takes stock of “liberal bubble” Charlottesville, Va., in this smart and wry collection. In “Pegasus,” set during the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, retired doctor and Democratic Party donor Robert Boyd Anderson shelters in place with his caregiver, with whom he trades stories of old loves. “Nearby” follows an avid reader who agrees to sub for a creative writing instructor at the University of Virginia despite her lack of teaching experience. On campus, she navigates barricades set up after the violent Unite the Right rally and observes a protest over a sculpture of Sacajawea kneeling, labeled by activists as inaccurately “subservient.” “In the Great Southern Tradition,” set at a 52-acre estate outside town nicknamed Delusional Folly, portrays playwright Jonah Buxton planting tulips with his divorced aunt Monica and her lawyer brother before the property goes on the market. The elderly title character of “Monica, Headed Home,” one of the strongest entries, lives alone and muses about Charlottesville’s “privileged” social policing, such as the erasing of less-than-positive messages on a public blackboard outside city hall. Measured prose and incisive humor make these stories shine. Once again, Beattie proves herself up to the task of pinpointing America’s contradictions. (July)
06/01/2023
This latest story collection from Beattie (The Accomplished Guest), winner of a PEN/Malamud Award for achievement in the short story, revolves around familiar aspects of the unprecedentedly disorienting years of the COVID pandemic. Charlottesville, VA, and its various landmarks and environs—including recently torn-down Confederate statues—becomes a microcosm for larger exploration of shared experiences of the pandemic, complete with quarantines, economic upheaval, political and societal turmoil, and considerable personal uncertainty. Overlapping relationships slowly reveal how we are all connected to some degree, however seemingly tangential, even if we feel like disconnected onlookers. Beattie deftly weaves together the intricacies of these various components in stories that invite readers to reflect on these oh-so-recent, still reverberating events. Many of the details of those strange days/months/years are recalled: struggling to find a mask in a bag, struggling to stay safe, struggling to remember what day it is, struggling to hold onto reality, struggling to stay connected. Perhaps we can begin to assimilate and accommodate these recent, disrupted years with the help of such stories. VERDICT Full of ambivalent love, modern Southern charm, and contemporary concerns, the stories in this collection are timeless as well as sharply contemporary.—Laura Florence
2023-04-24
A half-dozen loosely interconnected stories chronicle life in Charlottesville in the grip of Covid.
Beattie taught for many years at the University of Virginia, and her familiarity with the town surrounding it shows in the references to the streets, shops, and local landmarks through which her anxious characters wander—masked or social distancing in some stories, as the collection moves from the early days of the lockdown through the turmoil over the Robert E. Lee statue in Lee Park. The decision to remove the statue and rename the park Market Street Park prompted the 2017 Unite the Right rally that ended with the death of a counterprotestor. Beattie’s protagonists are middle-class, liberal people appalled by the rally but ambivalent about “Lee’s visage [serving] as a magnet for all that was wrong with race relations, the past, the present, the future.” They are also preoccupied with personal issues. The woman living with her fiance’s father during lockdown (“Pegasus”) wonders how committed her absent lover is and worries about the father’s failing memory. He’s not the only one getting lost in familiar places; the confusion of several elderly characters serves as a metaphor for the larger bewilderment of people who once had a comfortable, secure existence and now feel adrift in an angry world. Of course, as memories unfold in “In the Great Southern Tradition,” “Alice Ott,” and “Monica, Headed Home,” we see that family relations, marriages, and friendships have always had tensions, but the furious outbursts in “Pegasus” and “Nearby” seem fueled by outside forces as well. Beattie allows her characters to speak for themselves as they grapple with old problems and the new normal. Their underlying malaise becomes explicit in the collection’s closing story, “The Bubble,” set in a nursing home housing several characters we have met previously. Charlottesville was once envied as existing in a bubble, thinks the facility’s head nurse, “but in Lee Park, that bubble had popped—as had her own protective bubble.”
Sharply focused work from a master of the short fiction form.
Her best in more than two decades... Beattie is a dry yet earthy writer, in touch with moods and manners, with an eye for passing comedy... she takes notes on her species, as if she were a naturalist observing robins. She pries at the mystery of life.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“Stories of exceptional subtlety and wit... A virtuoso of decimating dialogue and provocative predicaments, Beattie is at her sharpest and most exhilarating in this nimble and surprising exploration of place, identity, and responsibility.” —Booklist (starred)
"A vivid circling as Beattie introduces and re-introduces characters moving in a kaleidoscope of narrative." —David Ulin, The Los Angeles Times
“Full of ambivalent love, modern Southern charm, and contemporary concerns, the stories in this collection are timeless as well as sharply contemporary.” —Library Journal
“'Powerful' might be too trite a descriptor for Beattie’s new story collection, in which the pieces are fastened together by a common presence: the Confederate monuments that stamp her setting of Charlottesville, Virginia.” —Elle
“Smart and wry...measured prose and incisive humor make these stories shine. Once again, Beattie proves herself up to the task of pinpointing America’s contradictions.” —Publishers Weekly
“Sharply focused work from a master of the short fiction form.” —Kirkus
“A deft mash of lonesomeness and wit.” —Chicago Tribune
“Beattie nails the details... sophisticated, idiosyncratic and witty.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Supple, superb... Onlookers is a candid look outward and inward, reflecting masterfully on selfhood and community.” —Boston Globe
“Beattie is not holding anything back. The writing is intentional and patient; comfortable lingering in those ordinary moments that in other hands might present as flat and monochrome. Look closer: there is texture there, blended colors, a complex catching of light.” —Halimah Marcus, Electric Literature
‘Powerful’ might be too trite a descriptor for Beattie’s new story collection.”
Allyson Ryan gives a wry, intelligent narration of Beattie's latest collection. The setting of the six linked stories is Charlottesville, Virginia, as the city wrestles with the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the aftermath of the 2017 Unite the Right rally. These stories are clear and accessible, but listeners may benefit from a second listen to appreciate their complexity and interconnections. The characters include an actor's girlfriend who is sheltering in place with her boyfriend's father while the actor remains in Japan and a substitute professor at the University of Virginia, where there are campus protests over Confederate monuments. Ryan creates varied and distinct portrayals of the large cast and impressively depicts the ambiance of each setting. Insightful writing and skilled narration create a satisfying listen. M.J. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Allyson Ryan gives a wry, intelligent narration of Beattie's latest collection. The setting of the six linked stories is Charlottesville, Virginia, as the city wrestles with the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the aftermath of the 2017 Unite the Right rally. These stories are clear and accessible, but listeners may benefit from a second listen to appreciate their complexity and interconnections. The characters include an actor's girlfriend who is sheltering in place with her boyfriend's father while the actor remains in Japan and a substitute professor at the University of Virginia, where there are campus protests over Confederate monuments. Ryan creates varied and distinct portrayals of the large cast and impressively depicts the ambiance of each setting. Insightful writing and skilled narration create a satisfying listen. M.J. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
