Book Review ONLOOKERS: STORIES Ann Beattie
Thank you to the author Ann Beatty, publishers Scribner, and as always NetGalley, for an advance audio copy of ONLOOKERS.
I find sets of stories are hard to review as collections and do better when reviewed at the story level. In this case, it is easy to review the stories altogether since a common theme unites them. More like a common setting, pregnant with the obviousness of a theme. The setting is a small New England town of mixed political makeup, during an event of political unrest (theme) that mirrors some we might recognize from our own news. Most of these stories aren't political, or rather their plots aren't, their characters aren't any more than they need to be to serve the stories. But the world around them is very, very political and it bears geratly on the characters and plots of each story.
Mini reviews of the contained stories:
1. "Pegasus"
Named for the city hospital's life flight helicopter, this long short story attempts to capture the despair and enui suffered by a whole world at once in the grip of Covid. One of the things that makes Ann Beaty a great fiction writer is her mastery of the tiny details, how she manages to show us all the most important messages in her stories in images and not mere expressions. This isn't always ideal though; in dealing with Covid, this so-close-to-home subject, being drawn in this close makes the piece feel stagnant in places. It needs motion, needs air. Ann Beatty's prose is stunning, but humid.
She hung up his jacket. His jackets never wrinkled. Some, made of linen, he usually handed over to someone else at a restaurant, though he still never loosened his tie. p51
2. "In the Great Southern Tradition"
A brilliant story about being queer in a traditional yet irrational family, using a bee sting and an onsetting allergy as a balancing image. The character would literallly rather wait patiently for death to come, or not, than to live out of the closet among his own. Such poignant, heart-breaking character work here.
3. "Nearby"
This one is a little convoluted, I think, but I love that so much emphasis is placed on point of view of the different characters, speaking and nonspeaking alike. The main character notices several times where her perspective deviates from that of the person controlling the action in the scene, but she never has a voice. She feels frustrated and unfulfilled throughout the whole piece. This leads her to a rush of potential. I wanted so badly for her to make the most of this momentum!
4. "Alice Ott"
This story is the particualrly savory story-stuff amalgamation of big families, small-town life, and the paranoia-inducing conditions brought about by Covid. More than the previous three stories, this one is clearly political, with left-leaning characters clearly vocalizing their discontent. Because the character voices are well-developed, the fiction doesn't feel didactic or divisive to me, but your experience may differ.
5. "Monica, Head Home"
Besides Covid, the thing that connects the six stories in this collection is shared characters. In the opening story, "Pegasus," an old woman inherets a very vauable house from the elderly mad she cares for when he dies, and sets this small town and cast of characters on the trajectory explored in the stories in Onlookers. In this story, the primary protagonist, Monica, is the daughter of the same woman, now dead also. This piece reads like the chaos a life might feel like after the loss of one's only parent, without the stabilizing elements of a regular employer, a spouse, or even a single residence:
Looking in the rearview mirror, she almost jumped out of her seat when a masked face loomed up at the car window. She had to remind herself— the damn cell phone was ringing, in the depths of her handbag— where she was, only to realize that she was parked outside the wrong store. Taking away the Ritalin had not been a good idea. It had not.
6. "The Bubble" This story seems to connect all the stories in a subtle way. It opens with a character, George, who thinks in binary. Initially, he applies this split way of thought to gendered behavior, and goes from there. Eventually, this story circles into the subject, which previous stories have introduced, of the local statue of Louis and Clarke, and Sacagawea, and the city's efforts to remove it. This piece is probably the collection's most political story, so I didn't favor it; I don't enjoy political fiction, regardless of how closely I align with the sentiments being expressed; I find politics in fiction often come off as didactic.
Rating: 👩❤️💋👩👩❤️💋👩👩❤️💋👩👩❤️💋👩 / 5 first queer loves
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: June 28 2023, July 6 2023
Format: Audiobook, Libby
Read this if you like:
🪶 Litfic
📜 Short stories
📿 Cohesive collections
🐘🫏 Politics
👨👩👦👦 Family drama
I find sets of stories are hard to review as collections and do better when reviewed at the story level. In this case, it is easy to review the stories altogether since a common theme unites them. More like a common setting, pregnant with the obviousness of a theme. The setting is a small New England town of mixed political makeup, during an event of political unrest (theme) that mirrors some we might recognize from our own news. Most of these stories aren't political, or rather their plots aren't, their characters aren't any more than they need to be to serve the stories. But the world around them is very, very political and it bears geratly on the characters and plots of each story.
Mini reviews of the contained stories:
1. "Pegasus"
Named for the city hospital's life flight helicopter, this long short story attempts to capture the despair and enui suffered by a whole world at once in the grip of Covid. One of the things that makes Ann Beaty a great fiction writer is her mastery of the tiny details, how she manages to show us all the most important messages in her stories in images and not mere expressions. This isn't always ideal though; in dealing with Covid, this so-close-to-home subject, being drawn in this close makes the piece feel stagnant in places. It needs motion, needs air. Ann Beatty's prose is stunning, but humid.
She hung up his jacket. His jackets never wrinkled. Some, made of linen, he usually handed over to someone else at a restaurant, though he still never loosened his tie. p51
2. "In the Great Southern Tradition"
A brilliant story about being queer in a traditional yet irrational family, using a bee sting and an onsetting allergy as a balancing image. The character would literallly rather wait patiently for death to come, or not, than to live out of the closet among his own. Such poignant, heart-breaking character work here.
3. "Nearby"
This one is a little convoluted, I think, but I love that so much emphasis is placed on point of view of the different characters, speaking and nonspeaking alike. The main character notices several times where her perspective deviates from that of the person controlling the action in the scene, but she never has a voice. She feels frustrated and unfulfilled throughout the whole piece. This leads her to a rush of potential. I wanted so badly for her to make the most of this momentum!
4. "Alice Ott"
This story is the particualrly savory story-stuff amalgamation of big families, small-town life, and the paranoia-inducing conditions brought about by Covid. More than the previous three stories, this one is clearly political, with left-leaning characters clearly vocalizing their discontent. Because the character voices are well-developed, the fiction doesn't feel didactic or divisive to me, but your experience may differ.
5. "Monica, Head Home"
Besides Covid, the thing that connects the six stories in this collection is shared characters. In the opening story, "Pegasus," an old woman inherets a very vauable house from the elderly mad she cares for when he dies, and sets this small town and cast of characters on the trajectory explored in the stories in Onlookers. In this story, the primary protagonist, Monica, is the daughter of the same woman, now dead also. This piece reads like the chaos a life might feel like after the loss of one's only parent, without the stabilizing elements of a regular employer, a spouse, or even a single residence:
Looking in the rearview mirror, she almost jumped out of her seat when a masked face loomed up at the car window. She had to remind herself— the damn cell phone was ringing, in the depths of her handbag— where she was, only to realize that she was parked outside the wrong store. Taking away the Ritalin had not been a good idea. It had not.
6. "The Bubble" This story seems to connect all the stories in a subtle way. It opens with a character, George, who thinks in binary. Initially, he applies this split way of thought to gendered behavior, and goes from there. Eventually, this story circles into the subject, which previous stories have introduced, of the local statue of Louis and Clarke, and Sacagawea, and the city's efforts to remove it. This piece is probably the collection's most political story, so I didn't favor it; I don't enjoy political fiction, regardless of how closely I align with the sentiments being expressed; I find politics in fiction often come off as didactic.
Rating: 👩❤️💋👩👩❤️💋👩👩❤️💋👩👩❤️💋👩 / 5 first queer loves
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: June 28 2023, July 6 2023
Format: Audiobook, Libby
Read this if you like:
🪶 Litfic
📜 Short stories
📿 Cohesive collections
🐘🫏 Politics
👨👩👦👦 Family drama
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