Chilly Scenes of Winter: A Novel

280 pp. Author's first novel, inspiration for 1979 film starring John Heard, Mary Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert, Kenneth McMillan, and Gloria Grahame. "The hero of Ann Beattie's Chilly Scenes of Winter is Charles, 27 years old, working a nine-to-five job that he can't afford to leave. His life is stale and flat. He endures a grotesquely crazy mother and an idiot stepfather. His only release is pizza and beer with his old buddy Sam. Charles exists in a dream world, fantasizing his reunion with Laura, the woman he loves and had an affair with 10 years before."