If you wanted to read The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. but haven't read it: skip it and read Beattie's novella. Seriously. It's way better written and has the whole smug-man thing down. Makes you wonder if someone stole someone else's idea... Beattie's short novel is a total page-turner and masterfully crafted. I've yet to read any of her stories and instead picked this up as I'm desperate for short novels to help me finish my "52 books in 2014" challenge. Hers is a wonderfully captivating, heartbreaking one. It leaves you wanting more, but you'll still feel satiated with the ending. It'll take you an hour to read. What are you waiting for? I found Ann Beattie's book rather interesting, and a quick read. There seems to be a lot of characters squeezed into a novella - which caused a bit of an issue keeping them all straight. I think the overall idea, romanticizing the bad boy, is an idea that is, both, popular and familiar. I think almost every woman can empathize with the idea of falling for the wrong boy, and still going after him despite knowing the fact we will be hurt in the end; however, this narrator stays with her bad boy all the way through marriage and until he disappears all together. At some point in their marriage, the narrator even refers to her husband as "svengali" meaning she is describing her husband as so manipulative that he makes her believe she needs him in order to accomplish anything in life. Yet, she then goes on the claim that he lost his control over her. I found this very interesting because, even after Neil's supposed death, the narrator takes some "ashes" and wants to symbolically release them somewhere. She was controlled and manipulated by Neil even after his "death." I found the ending pretty fitting with the overall book. It's really an example of another relationship similar to the one the narrator had with Neil. The narrator goes off to visit her stepfather, Carl, who now lives platonically with an old army buddy. Carl seems to take care of his friend, and, often times, makes snide comments about his friend to the narrator. The last line of the novella is from Carl's buddy and he states "I can hear you... I'm right here beside you." It's almost as if Carl's buddy is aware of everything that Carl does and say, but isn't as afraid to remind Carl of it the way the narrator was as she went along with everything Neil had told her during his time in her life.
Do You like book Promenades Avec Les Hommes (2010)?
Ann Beattie is growing on me. I don't like her characters, but I admire their wit and complexity.
—julliavk1986
This is a novella, the writing was quite good though I felt the ending fell short.
—Prixxy
This book was awful. It's the worst out of any book I've ever read.
—lorpe
