Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/24/2019
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location
The Center for Fiction
Categories No Categories
William Deresiewicz, writing in The Nation in 2011, characterized Ann Beattie’s work as about “People yearning to escape, then yearning to escape their escape . . . Beside the sorrow, like a rainbow edge, was a perfectly poker-faced humor.” Beattie is unmatched in her ability to convey the subtle power struggles of human communication and the manipulations of relationships. Beattie is a master of minimalist narrative and Michael Carroll’s no holds barred style could be described as maximalist but both authors have an acute understanding of life’s messy, topsy-turvy, glory.
In A Wonderful Stroke of Luck, Beattie’s characters are living in the shadow of 9/11. Beattie subtly explores the way that day of chaotic, obliterating loss wended its way into our understanding of the world, leaving even those who it did not personally touch unsettled and a little less hopeful. Though she is best known for portraying an entirely different generation, Beattie’s literary sensibility seems surprisingly well-matched to exploring this one on an emotional level.