Chilly Scenes of Winter by Ann Beattie
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
**SEE UPDATE OF ORIGINAL POST BELOW**
I’m re-reading this for the first time since college, when it was one of the books we studied in Craig Watson’s “Contemporary American Novel” course at Monmouth College. I know I liked it back then but I barely remember it.
In the process of moving from Illinois to Iowa over the past several days, I’ve been going through many a dilemma about keeping/donating/throwing things away. Finally, I have decided that if I’m going to keep *anything*, it has to be for a specific reason that I can state aloud.
A major change for me, Keeper of Everything I Read: from now on, books must fall into the category of “Because I Know I’m Going to Read it Again” or ecause “Because I Know for Certain It’s One of My Favorites and Inspires Me” in order to qualify as a keeper. Hence the re-read on this one: I had trouble putting it in the donate pile. So now I need to be able to see if I can justify keeping it, or face continuing to have too much crap when it’s time for the next Major Schlep to a new place.
This is really hard for me. But I’m trying to tell myself that, when it feels painful to give books away, there are always libraries (for the foreseeable future, anyway…).
However, I still refuse to get a Kindle. It will probably be quite awhile before I bend on this belief: BOOKS MUST BE SMELL-ABLE.
**11/28/11 UPDATE**
Wow. I just can’t do it. And by “it” I mean “actually re-read it,” not “give it away.”
I had thought it would be kind of a fun (and maybe fascinating) experiment to re-read this book (about young people in their early 20s) as someone who has now actually lived through her 20s (when, originally, I read it as a young college student).
But instead it’s just depressing me.
I know this book has literary merit. (And for the very way Beattie depicts the bleak scenarios with verisimilitude, etc.) But…it’s kinda bringing me down. So, out with you, Chilly Scenes. I’ve lived enough life now that I can paint /have experienced enough of them on my own!
(Have you read this book [or any others of Beattie's you'd recommend]? Leave your thoughts in the Comments below.)
Tags: 1970s, American, clutter, college, decluttering, English, fiction, home, literature, moving, reading, Rural People Read Too
