"Walks with Men"

In contrast with the hefty "The Lacuna" (507 pages), which I posted about yesterday, "Walks with Men" (Scribner, 2010), by Ann Beattie, is a little slip of a novel (1-2 pages and measuring just 5" by 7"). I have read Beattie's stories and novels for years, including the many stories she has published in The New Yorker; in fact she, along with John Updike and a few others, seems the quintessential New Yorker short story author. This new book is, like much of her work, understated, with her usual low-key style, but packs a punch. Recent Harvard graduate Jane moves to New York in 1980 and becomes involved with Neil, who as a writer 20 years older seems to Jane the epitome of worldliness, sophistication, and knowledge of "how to live." (Don't we all, when young, long for someone to instruct us in how to live well?) His advice, which he pronounces with great authority, ranges from the very specific ("Wear only raincoats made in England") to the very general ("Time changes everything"). Jane has her own tentative and erratic career, but her life is organized around Neil and his authoritative pronouncements. Their relationship is bumpy, with betrayals and reconciliations and a surprise ending, near but not at the actual end of the novel. Jane learns to put her life with Neil in perspective, and the novel ends with another surprising and counter-intuitive scene, quiet, a little sad, but lovely. This novel will speak to many who look back on their early adulthood, seeing with the clearer perspective of age the people who attracted and influenced them, and the sometimes inexplicable decisions they (OK, we!) made.