Where You’ll Find Me and Other Stories by Ann Beattie is a collection of short stories full of suspense and nostalgia. The short stories are contained in about three to four pages each. They are very tightly woven into this system of extremely short and overwhelmingly epic tales that explore the most mundane activities that people love to do like going out for dinner, drinks, winter days, summer nights, walking, running, and watching. The book also tackles complex human relationships like family, marital, parenting, friendship, and the emotions involved. Most stories are set in New York City and the characters don’t shy away from letting the reader know which city it is. The author greatly stresses her love and appreciation to the city, it’s people, and culture through different characters in different stories.
The characters are faced with challenges such as infidelity, death, and lies. Most of them seek a sense of escape from their troubles. In the opening story, In the White Night, a married couple comes home after a seemingly overwhelming day. They exchange a few thoughts about a party they attended earlier that day before sleeping on the couch. The couple meticulously avoids talking about the thing that’s really on both their minds, their dead daughter. The author impresses with one of the most effective conclusions of the decade. In conclusion, she writes that their daughter might be outside in her after-life-form. As she moved past them, she would briefly look at her parents, as a final ode to them. In Skeletons, three housemates lose contact with one another. Years later, one of them has a vision of the two. He seeks them out. Cards are about two women, out for lunch, who get hit on by some men. Their conversation ends up becoming cocky and controversial.
Where You’ll Find Me, the title story is a story about fateful encounters, affairs, and second chances. Janus stands out among all the stories as it is told, almost entirely in exposition. Andrea, a real estate agent is obsessed with a bowl she keeps showing at her different open houses. The author drops in the idea of being two-faced in the essence of being a cheater to her clients and husband. The characters in this collection are not complex or challenged enough. They basically consist of upper-middle-class individuals, living or leaving a great city after having so many epic moments in it. The collection is amazing and worth the reader's attention. Beattie’s words are surprisingly quotable and easy to remember. In our current times, you shouldn’t be surprised to see some of her words stuck to a post or a meme online.
