The writing's excellent. Clear and concise, just how I like it. It was hard for me to personally relate to some of the characters, but that's not for lack of Beattie's trying. I can relate to folks who "summer" and have second apartments in the City about as well as I can relate the hard-drinking, hard-living folks in Raymond Carver's stories, which is to say not really all that much. Doesn't really stop either writers' stories from punching me in the gut, though.Some might call some of the references in Beattie's stories a bit dated. I find them nostalgic. She references Pac Man & Space Invaders (the arcade machines), Bowie playing on the radio, LBJ, and est. It's risky when a writer does that, but maybe I'm just (barely) old enough for those references to resonate with me. ( )