Scan barcode
A review by litdoes
The Accomplished Guest by Ann Beattie
4.0
I’ve been savouring the sudden prolific collections by Ann Beattie. Hot on the heels of “The State We’re In” about 2 years ago comes “The Accomplished Guest”. Though the stories (or versions of them) in this latest volume were compiled from her regular contributions to various publications, all 13 of them bind well together thematically.
There are weddings, birthdays, parties and gatherings in these stories, but almost none of them are celebratory nor joyous occasions, though neither are they maudlin. A former star student takes her ailing professor out for a desultory birthday dinner in “The Indian Uprising”, while avoiding the fact of his mortality right in front of them, but a coincidental meeting at the restaurant derails her and sharpens her sense of reality. In “Other People’s Birthdays”, a young woman visits her family home where her parents are taking care of her mentally disabled sister. The keening sense of despair that permeates the house is saved by moments of love and grace, that could turn violent in a minute, as each family member struggles to contain their conflicting feelings for one another. This for me is the most poignant piece in the collection and is suitably positioned sequence-wise as a centerpiece.
In the other stories, there are disgruntled siblings and ex-spouses who have just about had it with one another but who travel far and wide to relive the frustration and sorrows of their relationships, sometimes uninvited, widowed characters who are so used to their loneliness that there is a certain beauty and comfort in their silent lives. But what holds it all together is Beattie’s unadorned yet perfectly-tuned prose, with her resonant characterisation and shimmering dialogue, that transforms these sullied lives into works of art. The (oftentimes deadpan) humour that shines through only serves to elicit empathy for her characters and the reader’s appreciation of the sounds of surviving (if not celebrating) lives which are far from perfect.
There are weddings, birthdays, parties and gatherings in these stories, but almost none of them are celebratory nor joyous occasions, though neither are they maudlin. A former star student takes her ailing professor out for a desultory birthday dinner in “The Indian Uprising”, while avoiding the fact of his mortality right in front of them, but a coincidental meeting at the restaurant derails her and sharpens her sense of reality. In “Other People’s Birthdays”, a young woman visits her family home where her parents are taking care of her mentally disabled sister. The keening sense of despair that permeates the house is saved by moments of love and grace, that could turn violent in a minute, as each family member struggles to contain their conflicting feelings for one another. This for me is the most poignant piece in the collection and is suitably positioned sequence-wise as a centerpiece.
In the other stories, there are disgruntled siblings and ex-spouses who have just about had it with one another but who travel far and wide to relive the frustration and sorrows of their relationships, sometimes uninvited, widowed characters who are so used to their loneliness that there is a certain beauty and comfort in their silent lives. But what holds it all together is Beattie’s unadorned yet perfectly-tuned prose, with her resonant characterisation and shimmering dialogue, that transforms these sullied lives into works of art. The (oftentimes deadpan) humour that shines through only serves to elicit empathy for her characters and the reader’s appreciation of the sounds of surviving (if not celebrating) lives which are far from perfect.