{"product_id":"the-accomplished-guest-stories-9781501111396","title":"The Accomplished Guest: Stories","description":"\u003cb\u003e* A \u003ci\u003eWashington Post \u003c\/i\u003eNotable Fiction Book of the Year \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e A magnificent collection from award-winning author Ann Beattie--\"profoundly intriguing and unsettling stories that abound in delectably witty and furious inner monologues, barbed dialogue, ludicrous predicaments, many faceted heartaches, and abrupt upswellings of affection, even love...always on point, funny, and poignant\" (\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAnn Beattie's \"seamless combination of biting wit and mordant humor, precise irony, and consummate cool\" is on full display in this astutely observed collection set along the East Coast from Maine to Key West, that explores unconventional friendships, frustrated loves, mortality, and aging. In \u003ci\u003eThe Accomplished Guest\u003c\/i\u003e, people pay visits or receive visitors, travel to see old friends, and experience the joys and tolls of hosting company (and of being hosted). In some stories, as in life, what begins as a benign social event becomes a situation played for high stakes. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Ann Beattie slips into a short story as flawlessly as Audrey Hepburn wore a Givenchy gown\" (\u003ci\u003eOprah Daily\u003c\/i\u003e), and the pieces in \u003ci\u003eThe Accomplished \u003c\/i\u003eGuest--featuring recent O. Henry, Pushcart, and \u003ci\u003eBest American Short Story\u003c\/i\u003e selections--are marked by an undercurrent of loss and an unexpected element of violence, with Beattie's signature mordant humor woven throughout. Some guests provide welcome diversions, others are uninvited interruptions, all are indelibly drawn. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Beattie \"punctures her characters' pretensions and jadedness with an economy and effortless dialogue that writers have been trying to emulate for three decades\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003ci\u003eThe Accomplished Guest \u003c\/i\u003eis fresh, funny, and overwhelmingly \"brilliant at furnishing the precise level of niggling complexity that is tragicomically real\" (\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Scribner Book Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/05\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781501111396\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.80d","brand":"Ann Beattie","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43084163317941,"sku":"9781501111396","price":13.6,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_66237a9a-2035-447e-8361-5f376bc42bf9.jpg?v=1692111814","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-accomplished-guest-stories-9781501111396","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}