By Ann Beattie. By anybody's standards, this is a huge output, but Miss Beattie shows no signs of slackening. Not too well, going by the evidence of these 16 stories. By now, many have flagged and are substituting Valium.
Life is too easy an answer.
It seems to be more a matter, strangely enough, of liberty. Thus everything is provisional, to be re-invented tomorrow, and no one can depend on anyone else. Space cadet'' is a phrase used by one character of another, but in some ways all the protagonists, both men and women, are defined by their relationship to this label. Men think they're Spider-Man and Buck Rogers and Superman. That we're going to the stars.