Secrets and Surprises [Paperback]

Ann Beattle~Ann Beattie (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Warner (1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446313815
• ISBN-13: 978-0446313810
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,608,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent -- as usual, November 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Secrets & Surprises (Paperback)

Why doesn't anyone read these books? Every time I'm on Amazon I look up intelligent, literate books and NO ONE has written about them. Can't people read books other than those that win the literary prizes.

Anyhow...this is an excellent collection by Beattie. It was her second collection after DISTORTIONS. Although several stories use the present tense and portray emotionally dead people, none of them are the minimalist, four-paragraph type story that crop up in her next collection, THE BURNING HOUSE. All the Beattie trademarks are here: excellent dialogue, sparse but evocative detail, and surprising humor in unlikely spots. I've recently begun to reread this collection in hopes of writing an essay on Beattie's fiction, and I've discovered how finely crafted and structured these stories are. Clearly, she's more than a distinctive prose style. I look forward to PERFECT RECALL, coming out in early 2001.

4.0 out of 5 stars Beattie is always a good read, May 10, 2011

By 

Sadie "Student" (Charlottesville, Virginia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Secrets & Surprises (Paperback)

Ann Beattie is a prolific and intelligent writer. She was the darling of her generation but much of what she writes continues to be meaningful today. Read her work carefully as each word is chosen deliberately and not everything is what it seems to be. This is not really a beach read but not a difficult read either.