Bookworm
Ann Beattie: Mrs. Nixon
With little known about Pat Nixon, Ann Beattie decided to write a novel in the form of a writer's manual, she used Mrs. Nixon as a model of how to create a character.
By Michael Silverblatt • • 28m Listen: A Novelist Imagines a Life
(Scribner)
Ann Beattie decided to write a novel in the form of a writer's manual, she used Mrs. Nixon as a model of how to create a character. The ironies mount. The result is a peculiar pathos. We talk about the unusual form of this novel and its’ special brand of compassion.
