Nouvelles Du New Yorker

When Ann Beattie began publishing short stories in _The New Yorker_ in the

mid-seventies, she emerged with a voice so original, and so uncannily precise

and prescient in its assessment of her characters’ drift and narcissism, that

she was instantly celebrated as a voice of her generation. Her name became an

adjective: _Beattiesque_. Subtle, wry, and unnerving, she is a master observer

of the unraveling of the American family, and also of the myriad small

occurrences and affinities that unite us. Her characters, over nearly four

decades, have moved from lives of fickle desire to the burdens and inhibitions

of adulthood and on to failed aspirations, sloppy divorces, and sometimes

enlightenment, even grace.

Each Beattie story, says Margaret Atwood, is "like a fresh bulletin from the

front: we snatch it up, eager to know what’s happening out there on the edge

of that shifting and dubious no-man’s-land known as interpersonal relations."

With an unparalleled gift for dialogue and laser wit, she delivers flash

reports on the cultural landscape of her time. _Ann Beattie: The New Yorker

Stories_ is the perfect initiation for readers new to this iconic American

writer and a glorious return for those who have known and loved her work for

decades.