Dara Falcon is brilliant, manipulative, a pathological liar. The novel's narrator, Jean Warner, is perfect prey for her. Suddenly Jean's life, her marriage--her idea of herself--are dramatically wrenched out of their seemingly comfortable, if unexamined, balance. And in the process, one of Ann Beattie's urgent themes--the sometimes subtle and sometimes startling difference between how things look and how things are--is compellingly explored.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Contrary to expectations raised by the title of Ann Beattie's new novel, the protagonist of My Life Starring Dara Falcon is named Jean, not Dara. This is just the first of many ironies Beattie seeds throughout this, her sixth novel. We learn of Dara Falcon's death on the first page of the novel and discover by the end of the third that in life she was manipulative, self-centered, dishonest, and amoral. But it was not Dara's bad qualities that first attracted Jean Warner to her 20 years before; in those days, Jean was a 20-year-old bride immersed in her dull but respectable husband's family and with only the vaguest sense that life was passing her by. When Dara Falcon with her mysterious past, her ebullient personality, and extravagant dreams blew into town, she becomes something of an obsession for Jean.
Befriending Dara leads to some major repercussions on Jean's life; as she says of their friendship near the end of the book: "I was interested; I was in some odd way validated: I was sometimes titillated, I admired some of the things she did and was repelled by others. Ultimately, I was had, and things spun out of control as they do when you're dealing with any volatile substance..." If at first Jean does give Dara the starring role in her own life, by the end she has come into her own and gives credit where credit is due. Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. Thanks to Dara Falcon, Jean Warner has plenty of reasons to live.
From Library Journal
"There Dara sat; the star, with stars in her eyes. And I felt illumined, as if lit by ambient light." This just about sums up the effect of Dara Falcon on Jean Warner, so cheerfully caught up in the affairs of her husband's ingrown family that she sometimes seems incidental, even to herself. But then Dara comes to town?charming, flirtatious Dara, whose past remains a mystery, who is forever re-creating herself (which is to say, lying)?and, remarkably, she and Jean become friends. That is, she lays siege to Jean for purposes of her own just as she lays siege to various eligible and not-so-eligible men in her vicinity. As Jean contends with Dara, her subtly shifting feelings about the family, and the suspicious Tom Van Sant?who has returned home after many years and is soon setting up a business that threatens the family's?the reader feels a terrible vortex slowly pulling everyone downward. Dara is a fascinating character, and though she finally gets on the reader's nerves, Beattie has crafted a fine study of obsessive relationships with her usual aplomb. For all libraries.
-?Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-?Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
Ann Beattie has been included in four O. Henry Award Collections and in John Updike's Best American Short Stories of the Century. In 2000, she received the PEN/Malamud Award for achievement in the short story form. In 2005, she received the Rea Award for the Short Story. She and her husband, Lincoln Perry, live in Key West, Florida, and Charlottesville, Virginia, where she is Edgar Allan Poe Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
An insipid, tedious book,
By A Customer
This review is from: My Life, Starring Dara Falcon (Hardcover)
Why did this stellar author write this insipid book? I could not relate to any of the numerous, vapid characters whose names and importance quickly escaped my memory and left me wondering time and again: who is he? who is she? And why am I trying so hard to like this book?
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous,
By A Customer
This review is from: My Life, Starring Dara Falcon (Hardcover)
This is a great book from Ann Beattie. It touches on many themes: friendship, betrayal, the safe but static family lives of people etc. But ultimately it is the narrator as well as the reader's fascination with Dara Falcon that propels us deeper and deeper into this 'web' of events. The larger than life portrayal of Dara Falcon is believable and a terrific accomplishment for the writer. Read this book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I was amazed...,
By A Customer
This review is from: My Life, Starring Dara Falcon (Hardcover)
I am an avid reader of the works of Ann Beattie, and I couldn't wait for Dara Falcon to come out. I was incredibly happy with the book. The complexity of Beattie's characters and how intricately interwoven they are in the lives of one another never ceases to amaze me.
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