Secrets & Surprises (Vintage Contemporaries) [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Ann Beattie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 1991

These fifteen stories by Ann Beattie garnered universal critical acclaim on their first publication, earning Beattie the reputation as the most celebrated new voice in American fiction. Today these stories -- "A Vintage Thunderbird;" "The Lawn Party, " " La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans," to name a few -- seem even more powerful, and are read and studied as classics of the short-story form. Spare and elegant, yet charged with feeling and with the tension of things their characters cannot say, they are masterly portraits of improvised lives.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Powerful and plausible...Beattie is a remarkable talent."--Chicago Sun-Times

"Ann Beattie's stories are the most perceptive since Salinger's. They are not just good writing, not just true to life; they have wonder in them and vision." -- Mary Lee Settle

"Superb."--Boston Globe

"Talented and sensitive...works of vivid honesty and insight."-- Washington Post



Also by Ann Beattie, available in Vintage Contemporaries: Chilly Scenes of Winter, Distortions, Falling in Place, Love Always, Picturing Will


From the Trade Paperback edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

These fifteen stories by Ann Beattie garnered universal critical acclaim on their first publication, earning Beattie the reputation as the most celebrated new voice in American fiction. Today these stories -- "A Vintage Thunderbird;" "The Lawn Party, " " La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans," to name a few -- seem even more powerful, and are read and studied as classics of the short-story form. Spare and elegant, yet charged with feeling and with the tension of things their characters cannot say, they are masterly portraits of improvised lives. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• ISBN-10: 0679731938
• ASIN: B000HWYKO8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,350,038 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

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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.