The Burning House

By Ann Beattie

Book Overview

The now-classic, utterly unique voice of Ann Beattie is so dry it throws off sparks, her eye endowed with the emotional equivalent of X-ray vision. Her characters are young men and women discovering... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394524942
• ISBN13: 9780394524948
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Beattie's best book

This is the best book Beattie has written (that I have read, anyway.) The stories in this collection are not all brilliant, but the title story blew me away (read the speech given in the final pages. Wow!)and there are six or seven at that same level. I'm talking about totally original fiction, here, not merely "good" stories; no one else writes stories like Beattie when she is at her best. And at her best, her fiction was as distinguished as anyone's in the early 80s. Read this collection and her novel FALLING IN PLACE.

A classic

Ann Beattie's The Burning House is one of the definitive collections of short fiction available today. Beattie's sparse, witty prose defines the minimalist trend of the seventies and eighties, and her characterizations are dead on. This collection inspires, charms, devastates, and all-around entertains--and it's not a long collection. Do yourself a favor: buy The Burning House and read it.