Follies: New Stories -- Ann Beattie

This collection was odd.  I really, really liked some of the stories -- in a kind of insubstantial, melancholy way.  I don't mean that the stories were insubstantial -- my feelings were.  I'd try to grab them and figure out what they were and they'd just flit away.  It was very strange.  But the general, overarching feeling was of melancholy.

Other stories I just didn't like.

Unfortunately, the one I disliked the most was the first (and longest) one.  I never connected with anyone in "Flechette Follies".  I actually think that was deliberate -- it makes sense in the context of the story -- which says a lot for Beattie's writing, but it still didn't make me like the story.  It's hard for me to really like something if I can't form any sort of attachment.

As for the ones I enjoyed:

"Find and Replace": 

True story: my father died in a hospice on Christmas Day, while a clown dressed in big black boots and a beard was down the hall doing his clown-as-Santa act for the amusement of a man my father had befriended, who was dying of ALS.  I wasn't there; I was in Paris to report on how traveling art was being uncrated--a job I got through my cousin Jasper, who works for a New York City ad agency more enchanted with consultants than Julia Child is with chickens.  For years, Jasper's sending work my way has allowed me to keep going while I write the Great American I Won't Say Its Name.

I'm superstitious.  For example, I thought that even though my father was doing well, the minute I left the country he would die.  Which he did.

"The Garden Game":  A seven-page story about childhood memory and growing up and loss. 

"The Rabbit Hole as Likely Explanation":  Alzheimer's is rough.  This story stayed with me.

I liked the mentions of movies and music in the stories -- maybe it's just my love of pop-culture, but those details always make characters seem more real to me.

So.  Overall, it was an uneven collection for me, but I'd like to read more.  Suggestions?