Thursday, August 29, 2013

Ann Beattie: "The Burning House" and "The Four-Night Fight"

Why do all the characters in "The Burning House" seem so callous?  This word occurred to me when I read the section in which Tucker gossips about his NYC scene, namecalling and making fun of the men in his social circles.  He mentions the opera singer, Maria Callas.  Ann Beattie's strength is in her selection of details that suggest so much more than they say.  The avocado pit.  The crock of mustard.  The goat mask.  The Wyeth painting called Christina's World.  The "beautiful old birdcage--solid brass."  By the time we start to put together what is happening in the story--that Amy suspects that her husband is in the middle of a marital infidelity, but that she is not innocent--she is involved in an affair, too--we reach a new section, a break from the evening scene, in which Amy explains how she met her lover.  And, at this point of the narrative, Beattie slings a zinger.  She invokes the old narrative form of the "fairy tale" with the retired English professor saying, "I believe all that wicked old fairy-tale crap: your heart will break, your house will burn."

Callous characters, I thought at that point of my reading, but at that point, the story hadn't broken my heart.  Not yet.  Into the once-magical bedroom ("twenty small glass prisms") of the disillusioned couple comes their son, a six years old, Mark.  He's regressed to sucking his thumb.  And Amy narrates how J.D. lost his own wife and son.  Then she tells a story about Tucker's obsessions and anxieties, and she reveals that Freddy is gay.  She says, "All those moments, and all they meant was that I was fooled into thinking I knew these people because I knew the small things, the personal things."

Is Beattie taunting us?  Tempting us to believe that we are going to "know" something about people and then saying that we have been fooled?  The ending of the story combines bleakness with surprise.  Tragic magic.  It tries to convince me that men are so different from women.  But does the story really mean it?  Maybe this is just Frank, getting back at his wife.


11 comments:

  1. Both of Beattie’s stories deal with dysfunctional relationships and the denial that many people have about themselves and their significant others. More broadly, she deals with the idea that maybe we don’t know our friends and family as well as we think we do or anyone at all.
    In “The Burning House”, Amy’s house is the one burning since everyone is keeping secrets from each other or hiding their true selves from each other. Amy is hiding her affair from Frank with J.D. being an accomplice by saying nothing and knowing everything about the affair; Frank is implied to have his own affair. Turner likes to create this grand image of himself and neither Amy or Frank is willing to tell the one story that shows him as human. Amy feels like she’s growing apart from people she’s known for years, a sentiment Frank also feels when he says he feels like he’s, “looking down from space”. This is his way of talking around her rather than talking to her. In short, he house is burning down and now wants to acknowledge it.
    “The Four-Night Fight” is another story about ignoring glaring problems and going on like nothing is wrong. But in this case, Angelina is willing to make excuses for Henry’s outrageous behavior. She is sincerely angry the first few nights when Henry is yelling about how life is meaningless, but Angelina is willing to forgive him when he isn’t really sorry until the very end, something I think was planned out or simply a manipulation. Angelina says at the end, “Couples fight every now and then”. But do couples really fight for four days over extremely petty things like they do? And in such passive-aggressive ways as well? I don’t think so. Like the previous story, the two of them are quite willing to talk around each other but not to each other. I think Angelina and Henry are like what Amy and Frank would be if they actually confronted each other about serious issues.

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  2. I think the real thrill in "The Burning House" is how subtly everything is obviously going wrong in the characters lives and their terrible desire to cover it up even though everyone knows. Frank knows about Johnny, Amy knows about Frank's girl, everyone knows about Tucker's weakness' and JD's grief, and Freddy's anxieties. But no one talks about them. Every character here is obviously so shaped and molded by the author that they are new and fresh while being based on odd cliches that we all tend to adhere to in order to force the chaos out of our lives. I especially love the little details that show the things behind the mask, the cut and the avocado pit and the weather in Key West which lend as weird quality the story which makes it almost dream-like. The narrator seems stuck in her self-constructed universe that everyone plays a part in, and Beattie is very good at depicting the subtle wrongness of a stilted conversation which is so typical of everyday life. The contrast of function is interesting as well. Frank is successful, Amy is a good mother and going back to school, JD travels the world, Tucker knows countless people where he finds his stories, and Freddy is insightful and full of promise. And yet, the dysfunction of their own lives and of their relationships to one another is just as obvious in Beattie's writing, and something which I really admire in this work.

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  3. After reading “The Burning House” I was left feeling that the characters portrayed, while certainly callous at times, were more so lost within their own worlds; completely focused on their art deals, their lovers, their joints…that I felt instead of getting a “window into the soul” we merely saw a snapshot. We saw what they, or rather Beattie want us to see. All this being said, I agree with Amy, do we ever truly know one another or do we simply get the bits and pieces: one’s favorite song, a friend’s affinity for peculiar mugs or dislike of jam, losing a parent at a young age. Do we truly know someone through these intimate details? If we continually grow and change ourselves, how can we expect others to “know” the real us? Do they see a clear picture or a blurry snap shot?

    “The Four-Night Fight” was an enjoyable read as well. I was thoroughly amused by the antics between husband and wife. The content seemed extremely plausible, except for perhaps the tattoo, and I enjoyed the narrator’s commentary throughout, “Did he think she’d gone to college to scoop the insides of melons into a garbage disposal?” As with “The Burning House” I thought the contrast between man and woman was an interesting focus with examples given. For Henry, planting tulips in the middle of the night and getting a tattoo as acts of defiance vs. Angelina letting the toast burn in spite and then feeling moved to forgive Henry once she suspected he was hurt. I was happy to read that all was well by the close but I do wish Henry’s mother could have been introduced into the story! Did anyone else find some humor in the male vs. female affinities or did you find them to be exaggerated and cliché?

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  4. What I love about "The Burning House" is Ann Beattie's ability to portray life as it normally is- dysfunctional and not picture perfect. From what we learn from the main characters is that non one is perfect and despite efforts to conceal these imperfections, small snippets of the truth are still exposed. The masks worn by each of the characters slowly crack or melt away- exposing their weaknesses inside that house. I find the title of the story to fit perfectly with the theme "Nothing is what it seems." On the outside, it's picture perfect. But the thing about pictures is that everyone must smile towards the camera, even if on the inside they are breaking.

    In her other story, "The Four-Night Fight", I see a similar pattern between the husband and wife and the characters in "The Burning House". Each had their differences and little quirks but except this time the two are more open about them. In fact, they are so open to the fact that each fight they have comes unexpectedly out the blue. Literally, they go from being happy to upset in minutes. There are no mask to cover their emotions. What I loved the most about this story was Henry's tattoo. By getting "Sorry" permanently inked on his skin, he is sincerely showing how much he cares for Angelina. I really thought it was sweet and touching!

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  5. When reading the works of Ann Beattie, I loved more than anything was the way she had written her characters. Her characters could share a sort of silent dialogue with just their actions. In "The Four-Night Fight," my favorite of the two, you can easily see the emotions of the husband and wife come to the surface of the page as they acted in efforts to be independent and rebel from one another. However, once they feel as if they had hurt one another's feelings, they, more so Angelina, can see how she had caused Henry pain. Most of this goes without dialogue. You can read the emotions for yourself, and that takes solid writing and a great understanding of the character that you have written throughout your pages. I also enjoyed the portrayal of the characters in "The Burning House." Ann was able to convey the characters that she has written for us as best as she could, giving us insights to each of the characters' backgrounds, fleshing them out. However, because this is a short story, one can never know everything about this character. Even if the story were to have become increased to a novel, not everything can be known about the character you are reading. This allows the reader to see similar things in real life. No matter how close you are to somebody, you never really know everything about them. They might have even left the most important parts of their life a secret to you. You could never really know, but you can always, at least, flesh out the details and always learn more.

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  6. As Madison has mentioned, what really stuck out to me in both "The Burning House" and "The Four-Night Fight" was Beattie's apparent examination of the art of communication and the quite serious consequences that can follow communication that is poorly executed. As cliche as this is, open, direct communication is the key to many successful relationships. Although of course Beattie is highlighting this through romantic ties, this applies to other relationships as well, such as those that we share with family members and close friends. While "The Burning House" takes on a far more ominous tone, both pieces draw to light the detriment of half-hearted communication. The level of closeness that any two people can share is often times determined by the breadth of their communication skills. As Madison points out, Beattie seems to have written these stories to leave us guessing as far as what we do and do not know about each given situation by story's end. This mirrors our ability to truly know someone in life, since that is determined by how much they are willing to share. Sometimes, poor communicants find themselves on a slippery slope, and once relationships begin to crumble from the inside, the outside is sure to follow suit.

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  7. Initially I found both of the stories Beattie wrote frustrating, particularly the short story, “The Burning House.” The first time I read the story I wasn’t expecting it to be as character driven, but once I started reading the text with intension of feeling the characters the story became instantly more attractive. Laura really explains it when she says that Beattie has the ability to portray the complexity of real life characters. So Beattie created believable “callous” characters in “The Burning House,” but she really breaks my heart with Henry. “The Four Night Fight” has so much beauty in the details. The Clorox taking over the flavor of the cookies, the Clorox used for killing ants, and then the development of the “queen/king ant” description, these combine to deliver a crisp sad story. The development of Henry’s sobered regret and shame for not buying his wife’s name for the tattoo solidifies his character. I thought it was really fascinating the way Beattie used Angelina’s dream as an agent to further the plot.

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  8. Ann Beattie’s work invites us into the inner workings of some estranged relationships. Yet, I love how she is able to separate plot from emotion, skewing the typical cause-effect reactions. In “The Burning House,” Amy and her husband Frank are acting through an unfaithful and tumultuous marriage. What would appear on paper as a serious and troubling issue is passed off to the reader as passive and unemotional. At times even incorporating humor, as during Amy’s secretive phone conversation with Johnny, during which the exchange of dialogue is so scattered and absurd. Families are not all they appear, as are emotions not always as one would deem most logical. It is ironic that in the short story “The Burning House,” where the reader takes a first person perspective of Amy, would feel less emotionally connection than in the third person perspective of “The Four-Night Fight.” The second piece, “The Four-Night Fight,” illustrates out how a total lack of communication isolates Angelina. The reader is introduced to her issues early on. The fight feeds off of her husband’s outlandish temper but also her lack of communication. Angelina suppresses her honesty about her feelings to such a fight where as Amy suppresses her emotional connection to the issues playing out. Commonly noted tools to a good relationship include conversation is intentionally faltered in these characters.

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  9. In 'The Burning House' I enjoyed Beattie's wordplay. The title was so appropriate for the story seeing that the house was "burning" from all the smoking going on, as well as the flirtations between Amy and her husband's friends especially her brother in law. She uses a similar type of play with words when Frank talks about the hurricane that was hitting Florida where she wished she could be instead of with her husband, and how that relationship is now ruined as well. I like how Bre put it when she posted that: "Frank is successful, Amy is a good mother and going back to school, JD travels the world, Tucker knows countless people where he finds his stories, and Freddy is insightful and full of promise. And yet, the dysfunction of their own lives and of their relationships to one another is just as obvious in Beattie's writing, and something which I really admire in this work." All though the situation became messed up, the characters were all good people and that even though their relationships are so screwed up, they're staying with it; unlike the mother Marilyn who keeps calling unable to make a decision and stick with it.

    In the second one 'The Four-Night Fight' where as the title suggests there is a fight that lasts for four nights. Angelina's husband didn't give her the attention she deserved, and pretty much ended up avoiding dealing with her; which made me think about how as humans we need good communication not only to function in society but to live! I can't remember the exact dates but a really long time ago a king decided to conduct an experiment with new mothers, to have them not talk to their babies or hold them for anything more than changing and feeding them to see what language they'd end up speaking. Unfortunately the babies died because they weren't given enough care. And in a way Angelina's lack of communication from her husband led to a part of her dying, causing her to snap and try to get some shred of feeling of her husband even his temper; because, if forced to choose I'm sure she would have rather had him angry with her than nothing with her at all.

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  10. The Burning House portrays dysfunctional relationships and the uncertainty that the main character experiences after deciding to leave her husband. Little information is given about how the main character met her husband or the origins of the relationship, but we know they have a son, and that the relationship has soured. At the end of the chapter when she is talking to her husband in bed, she says to him, "I used to be what you wanted me to be," conveying a mix of feelings. As a whole, this reflects a situation where two people have settled together, but upon doing so they have discovered that they feel stuck. The main character is having an affair with another man, and in doing so she is swept into moral turmoil. She recounts that one night she broke down crying with her friend J.D., unsure of what to do. This situation reflects moments where devotion limits the company that can be kept in terms of loving relationships. I believe this is where many marriages get stuck. Not in the limiting of partners, but in the moments where two people are together and they fail to appreciate each other anymore. It is where flaws become less endearing and more attune to that of the insanity of repetition where people begin to resent each other. Here the main character is laying in bed with her husband and she asks him if he is going to stay or go, to this he answers that he is already gone. Although she waited to ask her husband about all of this, her affair and his answer evidence that their lives have already diverged. Anne Beattie does an excellent job of capturing this moment where two people are finally letting go of what they have learned to hold onto so tightly.

    The Four Night Fight is a story with a self explanatory title, so I'm just going to leave it at that. This story is a combination of humor, compassion, and hatred. In it, Anne Beattie explores every aspect of a fight, from the gross hypocrisy and inconsiderateness that stirs every human-being to anger, to the compassion that is felt once enough anger has been let out. What this story does most effectively is give a sense of the genuine fulfillment that comes from being angry and releasing everything that has been withheld and quieted. One example would be when the main character realizes that she has just thrown the phonebook at her husband. Something like that is unusual and not exactly attune to logic, however it is a great example of expression of self. Another example is when her husband licks the antelope juice off of the phone book that has been laying on the ground, turning around to look at her crazily. Here some humor is seen, because seeing civilized people so tribally insane is comical. I like this story because it shows the facade of civilized behavior torn down. The Four Night Fight is very similar to The Burning house in that it explores dysfunction within relationships. However, in this story instead of separating, these two blow out the pressure by fighting in order to relieve the stress within the relationship. Who knows if that's an answer to their problems, but it's better than the passive aggressiveness seen in the couple in The Burning house.


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  11. Something that I enjoyed about "The Burning House" and "The Four Night Fight" was how genuine and true the characters seem (maybe genuine isn't the word). There wasn't really a point in this story that I thought "this couldn't happen" or "people wouldn't actually do/say/believe these things." Instead, they felt like people I have known (maybe I just know a lot of people in bad relationships). The stories themselves weren't particularly interesting to me, though. Yes, I liked them. They were relatively simple, and had a subject matter that generally interests me, but they still felt kind of like stories I had read before. I just wasn't blown away by them. I did, however, like the contrast of the two stories together, and how Ann Beattie played with conversation/communication and the consequences of them. In both we have a bad situation, a bad relationship, and in both of them we don't really get that "happy ending" which I liked. However, it was the attitude of the people involved that I found interesting. How, depending on the personality of a character, their reaction to something bad changed. "The Four Night Fight" the woman was focused on staying with her husband no matter what, even though there were obvious issues in their relationship. In "The Burning House" we see a couple who is more passive aggressive (as many before me have noted) and are not planning on staying together, really, and have found interest in other people. For me, this story was more a way of seeing how nearly the same situation can go two ways, and how to develop a character based on their reactions under stress or anger. I hope this makes some sort of sense. In short, didn't like the stories, but were interesting to see similar situations with somewhat similar endings (unhappiness) but very different characters.

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