More to say : essays & appreciations / Ann Beattie ; selected and introduced by the author.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beattie, Ann, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American essays.

Art criticism.

Criticism.

Genre:

Art criticism.

Essays.

Literary criticism.

Physical Description:

xviii, 281 pages : illustration ; 19 cm

Other Title:

More to say : essays and appreciations

Place of Publication:

Boston : Godine Nonpareil, 2023.

Summary:

"As deeply rewarding as her fiction, a selection of Ann Beattie's essays, chosen and introduced by the author. From appreciations of writers, photographers, and other artists, to notes on the craft of writing itself, this is a wide-ranging, and always penetrating collection of writing never before published in book form. Ann Beattie, a master storyteller, has been delighting readers since the publication of her short stories in the 1970s and her first novel, Chilly Scenes of Winter. But as her literary acclaim grew and she was hailed 'the voice of her generation,' Ms. Beattie was also moonlighting as a nonfiction writer. As she writes in her introduction to this collection, 'Nonfiction always gave me a thrill, even if it provided only an illusion of freedom. Freedom and flexibility-for me, those are the conditions under which imagination sparks.' These gimlet-eyed essays are stories unto themselves, observations and appreciations of life and art. The reader travels with Ms. Beattie to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to learn about the legacy of the painter, Grant Wood, and his iconic painting American Gothic; to the New York City studio of photographer Joel Meyerowitz; to Key West, Florida for New Years with writer and translator, Harry Mathews; to a roadside near Boston in a broken-down car with the wheelchair-bound writer Andre Dubus. There are explorations of novels, short stories, paintings, and photographs by artists ranging from Alice Munro to Elmore Leonard, from Sally Mann to John Loengard. Whatever the subject, Ms. Beattie brings penetrating insight into literature and art that's both familiar and unfamiliar-as she writes, 'This, I think, is what artists want to do: Find a way to lure the reader or viewer into an alternate realm, to overcome the audience's resistance to being taken away from their own lives and interests and priorities.' Ann Beattie's nonfiction (originally published in Esquire, The American Scholar, Life, The New Yorker, The New York Times, among others) is a new way to enjoy one of the great writers of her generation. Readers will find much to love in this journey with a curious and fascinating mind"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ON WRITERS

A Dream of a Writer: Peter Taylor

Alice Munro's Amazingly Ordinary World

Andre Dubus's Spotlights

Introduction to We Don't Live Here Anymore Borderlines, Real and Imaginary

Elizabeth Spencer's "The Runaways" Craig Nova Casts a Line

Foreword to Brook Trout and the Writing Life First, Let's Kill the Lawyer

Review of Elmore Leonard's Mr. Paradise Tell It Slant: Nancy Hale's "Flotsam"

Fire and Fireworks: Richard Bausch's "Consolation"

David Markson's Visions and Revisions: Introduction to This Is Not a Novel & Other Novels

My Regards to Leo Lerman: Review of The Grand Surprise

Watching Screwball Comedies with Harry Mathews

John Updike's Sense of Wonder

My Life in Bingo

ON PHOTOGRAPHERS & OTHER ARTISTS

Placing Lincoln: From Lincoln Perry's Charlottesville

The Distillation of Lavender: Jayne Hinds Bidaut's Photographs

Scott McDowell's Painterly Porcelains

We Are Their Mirror, They Are Ours

Introduction to Sally Mann's At Twelve Richard Rew's Sculpture

Grant Wood Country: A Return to the Iowa of the Famed Painter

Simpatico in Southbury, Connecticut: Georgia Sheron's Photographs Introduction to Uncle John: Portraits of a True Yankee Farmer

Questioning the Quotidian: Trisha Orr's Paintings

The Sirens' Call: Joel Meyerowitz's Photographs

The Fates' Valentine: Holly Wright's Unavoidable Resonance

Animating the Unextraordinary: The Photographs of John Loengard, Sleuth Introduction to As I See It

Andrea Modica and the Stuff of Fiction

George Burk's Brush-and-Ink Drawings

An Abbreviated Adage Underlies Curt Richter's Fully Developed Portraits Introduction to Thousand Words.

Other Format:

Online version: Beattie, Ann. More to say

ISBN:

9781567927528

1567927521

OCLC:

1323328013