Free Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life by Ann Beattie Page A

condescends to Gretta in assuming he understands the
essence
of things. He finds out that he does not. In Richard Yates’s “A Really Good Jazz Piano,” one friend is subservient to another, who
almost
gains awareness and asserts himself, though in the end both decide it is easier to remain complicitous and to play their familiar roles.) This shift in power might have been something Mr. Nixon noticed, reading Maupassant, if he wasn’t too horrified to begin with by his worst nightmare, Mathilde. He would not have identified with Loisel, who worked hard but did not want to be noticed, and was henpecked besides. In selecting Mrs. Nixon, Mr. Nixon saw her beauty but also her reticence. This was not the sort of woman who would expect a diamond necklace.
    I think Mr. Nixon appreciated her gift and wrote an enthusiastic note of thanks, but I’m not sure he ever read Maupassant.
    One last consideration: Mr. Nixon gave her a clock and a paperweight. I suppose she could have chosen to give him a barometer and a shoehorn.

Mrs. Nixon on Short Stories
    I f you want to see complications in a story, you can always see complications. Nobody ever said life was easy. One of the nice things about reading is that you can close your eyes and take a few minutes to think things over, while there’s often no way to pause during a conversation and not keep up your end of things.
    Works of art are meant to be stimulating, to offer different viewpoints, and to make you think. We wouldn’t have the great country we have if people just acted on their notions without realizing that there are many other viewpoints to consider. From country to country, assumptions vary. That’s why travel is so interesting—because you get other perspectives, and you see things done differently. You might travel somewhere and come home and find that you’re not enacting your usual routine. If you’ve been to China, for example, you might return and try having rice and fish for breakfast. If you limit yourself to reexperiencing what you’re already familiar with, you’ll never grow as a person.
    Fairy tales are a little like travel. Reading them takes you into the forest and off to the ball. In a fairy tale it’s as if you’re a child again, and you see things with a child’s eye. When you read fiction,I think sometimes the writers want you to see things through their eyes, and I suppose it’s good to go along with them and see what you find out, what they know that you don’t, but just because they cast a cold eye on something, that’s not the only way to see it. Your world doesn’t have to become less cheery because some writer tries to convince you people are out there scheming or turning their backs on their fellow man. Sometimes you have to remember the bigger picture. Those soldiers at Iwo Jima didn’t let each other down. And no men stopped Amelia Earhart from flying her plane, either. If we take pride in what we do, we’re making the world better. Not too much pride, of course, but enough pride that our children can see that we believe in something and that we’ll work hard alone, or with others, to accomplish the right goals. In some of the things I’ve read, it’s pretty clear to me that no one has any real goal. Some of those characters don’t seem to belong to any country, let alone to the family they’ve been born into. It seems to me quite a few characters have lost their way and either feel alone or make it a point to operate as if they’re the only person in the world. It’s pretty easy to sense when a crisis is coming in a fairy tale, but there’s no telling with short stories. Suddenly somebody’s just acting peculiar, and it’s a bit upsetting. The Big Bad Wolf is pretty upsetting, too, because no matter what our age, we realize that certain people will always try to trick us. That’s why you need to choose wisely and take your time getting to really know people, and making important decisions.
    All over the world, people