ThoughtGallery.org > Ann Beattie in Conversation with Dayna Tortorici

Ann Beattie in Conversation with Dayna Tortorici

Ann Beattie, whom John Updike once credited with revolutionizing the short story form (“You figured out how to write an entirely different kind of story”) has published twenty previous books. An undisputed master of the short story, A Wonderful Stroke of Luck is her first novel since Mrs. Nixon, which played with some nonfiction elements.

In A Wonderful Stroke of Luck, Beattie allows herself a longer format to explore the connections among a group of people who attended a boarding school in the very early aughts and fell under the spell of an enigmatic, manipulative teacher. Beattie follows Ben, a student of Bailey Academy who, after the death of his father, struggles to establish or keep momentum in any area of his life. He grasps for connections—with his stepmother, with a neighbor, with a woman he shares a destructive relationship with—looking for someone who might serve as an anchor in his life.

Beattie became famous as a writer who understood the ambivalence and searching dissatisfaction of the Baby Boomer generation. 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. Beattie’s characterization of Bailey—of the feeling of safety that a beloved teacher’s certainty and authority can impart, and the way our younger selves and teenage experiences can loom large in adulthood—is both clear-eyed and moving.

Longtime readers of Beattie’s will be pleased to find in A Wonderful Stroke of Luck the same indelible, funny observations about relationships, life’s mysteries and disappointments, that make her short fiction so beloved.

Dayna Tortorici is a writer and co-editor-in-chief of the literary magazine n+1. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere.











When: Tue., Apr. 23, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Where: 192 Books
192 Tenth Ave.
212-255-4022
Price: Free
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Ann Beattie, whom John Updike once credited with revolutionizing the short story form (“You figured out how to write an entirely different kind of story”) has published twenty previous books. An undisputed master of the short story, A Wonderful Stroke of Luck is her first novel since Mrs. Nixon, which played with some nonfiction elements.

In A Wonderful Stroke of Luck, Beattie allows herself a longer format to explore the connections among a group of people who attended a boarding school in the very early aughts and fell under the spell of an enigmatic, manipulative teacher. Beattie follows Ben, a student of Bailey Academy who, after the death of his father, struggles to establish or keep momentum in any area of his life. He grasps for connections—with his stepmother, with a neighbor, with a woman he shares a destructive relationship with—looking for someone who might serve as an anchor in his life.

Beattie became famous as a writer who understood the ambivalence and searching dissatisfaction of the Baby Boomer generation. 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. Beattie’s characterization of Bailey—of the feeling of safety that a beloved teacher’s certainty and authority can impart, and the way our younger selves and teenage experiences can loom large in adulthood—is both clear-eyed and moving.

Longtime readers of Beattie’s will be pleased to find in A Wonderful Stroke of Luck the same indelible, funny observations about relationships, life’s mysteries and disappointments, that make her short fiction so beloved.

Dayna Tortorici is a writer and co-editor-in-chief of the literary magazine n+1. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere.

Buy tickets/get more info now