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September 19, 2011: “Starlight” by Ann Beattie
This week’s “story” is an excerpt from Ann Beattie’s new “novel,” although it isn’t clear that the book is really a novel, and this excerpt certainly isn’t a story. The portrait it gives of Richard Nixon and his family through the eyes of Pat Nixon is somewhat amusing, but to what end is completely unclear. I like Beattie’s work, but this struck me as a waste of valuable space in the pages of The New Yorker.
On the other hand, the Q&A with Ann Beattie on the website is interesting, and I recommend that.
>Why is Tricia Nixon referred to as "dolly"?
>That's what Pat Nixon called her, according to Woodward and Bernstein's THE FINAL DAYS.