i kept looking forward to reading from this book. when i started reading this book i felt like i could know more about stories than i ever have. i felt really good while reading this book. i think that because i felt like this that i tried to read really slowly, in order to drag that feeling out.i feel more positively towards the work i accomplished while reading this book than i do the work i accomplished while not reading this book. some of the later stories i didnt like as much as the earlier ones. i think this is normal to think, because 1. there are a greater number of stories written by ann beattie to compare to, as i read more, 2. i read the earlier stories first so they are more associated, i think, with the feelings that i had while beginning to read stories written by ann beattie, and 3. i think some of the stories at the end have "higher stakes" and i think that, generally, i prefer stories the opposite of that, avoiding bigger and heavier concepts.at one point while i was reading this book someone told me something to the effect of "if you want to get better at writing, then you're going to have to hate yourself a lot more". Is it me? No. I like short stories. Maybe it is the idea of compiling ALL stories into one volume. Annoyances get compounded, and things that don't work for me as a reader get magnified. Ann Beattie has won award with her stories. But they drive me crazy. Her characters are so damn passive. They live unfulfilling, slightly puzzling lives but never DO anything about them. They aren't even that interesting. No. Interesting happens to the people around them, who are leaving them to live those lives. I would too! These felt flat to me. I skimmed the last 100 pages, but by then I was pretty sure I wouldn't come to anything new or different. It had already taken an agonizingly long time just reading one each night. It was overdue at the library, and I didn't want to bother renewing it.
What do You think about Nouvelles Du New Yorker (2010)?
Excellent writing. Enjoy her stories very much.
—Jax
