European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 20, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Author Ann Beattie chronicler of the Post 60smonday, january 20, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 17 by Mervyn Rothstein new York times on a cold Manhattan morning. Ann Beallie is Fillingin the Brownstone basement apartment of o i tend around the Corner irom where she used to live. A Littfe More than a year ago Seattle decided to leave new York and move to Charlottesville. A. I Gol listed of talking about real estate she says. All conversions in new Yolk Center on real estate. People Alk Aboul whether or not their buildings will be co oped or Condo of and if so what the buyer s credits will be and where to buy land and what things Cost Par Square foot and what Tho variable mortgage payments Ore. Ii is a constant Boring hysterical subject and just Felt that could not spend the rest of my life listening Lopoplo talk about real  Ben i lie has been Busy since Bow moved to Charlottesville. Where she taught at the University of Virginia in 1975. Her novel love always was published recently. She has just sold a Short Story to the new yorker and a collection of her stories will come out in the fall. A children s Book she wrote. Spectacles was just published by Workman As one of the first two in a new series of works for Young readers by Well known authors the other is by William of Buckley. And she is working on a both for Abrams about the artist Alex Katz she will do the text her reason for coming to town the 33-year-old boat Leas often been called he pre eminent chronicler of the Post 60s generation and she is sick and tired of being called that. I do not wish to be a spokesperson for my generation she says. I write about a Small group of people yes sure i mean ii in some ways to have larger implications but i can t say something As general As that 1 think everybody s the same everybody suffers the same basically it All comas Down to the same. I Don t i Hank  her characters have been variously described As shallow egocentric narcissistic selfish it has been said that they Lack compassion and avoid commitments and relationships that they know something vital is missing front their lives but the Are not certain what its they Are a Ullereng. I m interested in the Price people pay Ralef than in tha ones Tio get through perfectly Fine with what they be decided on As an artist i m inner sled in looking at the edges and Erma Bombeck y of can t get your Black Belt in painting until you Are the Veteran of a party held i your Home by your teen age  is the ultimate lest of restraint and endurance Many parents have tried it but it is some Lime before they can speak of it or put it in perspective. To begin with there is no such thing As a Small a by invitation Only. Kids parties went Public 15 years ago that Means when your child whispers in the ear of someone in tha restroom to be Al your House for Day at 8, their voice is picked up by a party network and broadcast to every country in the free world. Al 8 . Friday they will come by  Buia a few will Fly in and converge upon your House like a thousand camels with sponge  hands tha work Tike scissors going up and Down the table of food. One Molher who thought a group of quiet re seeing it they re unravelling if they re coming apart. I m interested in people who ostensibly do have some kind of secure world my charac Lassare largely employed largely live together or Are married often have children on some level they Are certainly leading conventional lives. And they re certainly not doing so Well at that. Well that s what i m interested in writing Aboul what it s like not to do so Well at  one thing she especially loves about willing she says is that the ideas come out of the subconscious already changed. It would t occur to me if i were writing about you that i could t describe you accurately but for my purposes i would want us to be on the Beach at Atlantic ally today. So Boom there we Are Al Tho Beach. And then even Ann could t predict that the seagulls would be having a fight that Day. I Don l think it s some Jigsaw Puzzle that you put together with Art. I i Hank you go out there and see that there Are no Clear pieces. And that you can do a lot with the pieces and have not necessarily just one  in much of her work Many of the characters search for and can t seem to find a sense of communally. They May travel around often from const to coast but they Don t seem to know or care where they Are is this something she senses As a characteristic of our society1? it s a particular group at people i Don l think the whole nation is out share in their wagons simply crisscrossing the  her generation she adds the kinds of people she has written about had a great Deal of mobility. A lot of people irom my generation got the idea that they Weie free agents pretty Early on. And then i think that the War in Vietnam made people make choices that were either terrible compromises to them or scared them to death or that embarrassed them. And so i think that partly As a response to the Vietnam War when that was finally Over people had to make peace with what they had gone through. Either having left lha country or protesting the War or being thrown in jail ii it went that far. In some cases i i Hank the political upheaval made people want to grab on to a life pretty fast. And i think that they did ii too Young and they did it on the defensive. And it did t often work. And then having been conditioned no. T for a lot of Freedom and no 2 Lor a lot of social pressures the War in author Ann Beltle ii Buty with her work in the 1980s, net Voth Thinai photo particular they got to a Point where they at least thought that they wanted to Start deciding for themselves and thai s when they were 25 years old or so. Fairly affluent educated if not overeducated used o movement and a lot of them hit the Road or joined groups or got divorced. This was in the 70s, As a response to the 60s. Today these people Aro quite Security conscious and they want it on All Levels they want the double bolls on the door and they want ii in terms of what they think is a viable career and they want ii with All the props of the status quo from other human beings to Eames  served nol too popular kids would consider Bobbing Lor apples and eating a few cupcakes As a treat was overwhelmed by 17 uninvited guests who turned her living room into a House of horrors she is still afraid to answer her phone and face the Wrath of other mothers who charge what kind of parties do you give another couple returned from a weekend out of town to discover their living room furniture had been re arranged there were cigarette Burns in the carpet dead Center under the dining room table a living room stack table lost a leg every time they lifted it and a prickly Pear Cactus was in the Middle of the Back Yard. They live in Connecticut something that resembled Chicken grease had been spilled on the deck there was a Case of empty Beer bottles in shelf daughter s bedroom and a month s Supply of meat had vanished irom the Reezer. Ii was t until a Tew weeks after the parly that a woman from a Community service office phoned and said they owed her for a phone Call made from i heir House to a coast guard Cutter olt the coast of Kodiak. Alaska. Their children pleaded innocence. It takes All the understanding and forgiveness a Par pm can Muster to Deal Ullh these social disasters. They Lell themselves it is All a part of the growing up process. They Lell themselves it is a learning experience that their children will Benefit by they Tell themselves they can change their name move to a new neighbourhood go on the newlywed game and snarl All Over again. Some parents even have a sense of humor about in. Like the woman whose daughter s Girlfriend called her Boyfriend on the coast guard Cutter in Kodiak. Alaska. I can laugh Al 11 now she senile re. Does that mean you la leave them in charge again while you go out of town Don t press she snapped. C to ape Sci Limm Syndicate