Ann Beattie copyrights her books under the name ''Irony and Pity, Inc.,'' and although she has long trafficked in both, she can, as in these stories, still wring a lovely image or two out of most anything. ''There was a huge wind out there, like an animal loose in the trees,'' she writes at one point. And, at another: ''[A] stronger wind blew up. This was the sort of wind that preceded an alien landing.'' What Was Mine is a quiet, even collection. Nothing sings, but everything hums. B+
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