A fairly strong showing for Ann Beattie. Readers who know Charlottesville will probably have a ball with this collection of short stories, which spotlight the town’s upscale, professional residents.
You come away from this volume of short stories thinking that sure, Maggie Shipstead does write what she knows — it’s just that she may know everything.
L. M. Brown writes with a sure hand about men and women beset with dreams and longings, who fall in and out of love with each other, and who harbor secrets that shape their lives in unpredictable ways.