Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

Boots!

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good?

No, Zimbabird.

It's a rhetorical question, sir.

But where would we be without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

Today, I've chosen one of my favorite books of the last several years.

It's Anne Beatties, a wonderful stroke of luck, and it seemed like time, because I'm always being asked about favorites.

To choose a favorite, this is a book that was largely neglected and stayed deep in my mind until this very day.

I'm very pleased to reintroduce Anne Beattie and a wonderful stroke of luck published by Viking.

As most of my listeners will know, Anne Beattie is one of the most respected writers of short stories,

in fact, one of the most respected writers in America.

When I read one of her books of short stories, I know the level of accomplishment that will accompany it,

and I read them as often as I can.

This novel, A Wonderful Stroke of Luck, is fascinating to me because as soon as you turn the pages to the epigraph, we're given a slap in the face.

The epigraph is, remember, that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.

Now, that's the way this book works. Anything that happens gets reversed,

usually within a couple of pages, sometimes in the following section, and we're living on

tenterhooks as readers to see just what's going to happen in this book.

This book has more births and deaths than any other book of yours that I can think of.

...