Park City:

New and Selected Stories

by Ann Beattie

Vintage, $14 paper

Park City holds so many classic Beattie stories that new readers will be immediate converts. The trick is to compare the stages of her writing. The earlier stories are flawlessly reckless. The new stories handle the same Beattie themes — narcissism and the inability to love — but they show their seams, jostling the characters and sporting some weak dialogue: “I’m sulky and I don’t respect myself for being manipulated …” The overall effect of these eight new stories is masterful, however. Compared to the over-anthologized “Janus,” Beattie puts her characters, rather than symbols, in control again. Still, why the new stories are in a collected works instead of an all-new collection is a mystery. Old fans won’t need most of what is gathered here, and since most of these pieces are 10 years older than the new ones, there are gaps. But everyone who loves short stories should read Ann Beattie.

This article appears in October 8 • 1999.

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