Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs
Published September 25th 2018 by W. W. Norton Company (first published October 10th 2017), Paperback 113 pages
The 52 micro-memoirs in genre-defying Heating Cooling offer bright glimpses into a richly lived life, combining the compression of poetry with the truth-telling of nonfiction into one heartfelt, celebratory book. Ranging from childhood recollections to quirky cultural observations, these micro-memoirs build on one another to arrive at a portrait of Beth Ann Fennelly as a wife, mother, writer, and deeply original observer of life’s challenges and joys.
Some pieces are wistful, some wry, and many reveal the humor buried in our everyday interactions. Heating Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs shapes a life from unexpectedly illuminating moments, and awakens us to these moments as they appear in the margins of our lives.
User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
A delicious collection of teensy memories, all self-contained, cozy, and succinct. I was hoping some succinct would rub off on me, but it's not meant to be. Sigh. (See? Even the sigh is extra.)
This went way too fast. Seriously, the first time I looked down at my progress on my Kindle, I was at 58%. Slow down! The tidbits were like sugar. Once I started gulping them down, I didn't want to stop. I sort of couldn't stop; they were addicting. After I was done, I went back to find a few samples and damn if I didn't end up rereading half the book.
The author's strength lies in her ability to use few words to pack a punch. Her memoirs—sometimes poignant, sometimes funny--are at most a few pages long. There are a bunch of one-liners, too. Her recollections are poignant or funny or sad or wise or just plain interesting—they grab you. I was lukewarm about a few of them, but most I liked a lot. Most are just old memories that are off-the-beaten path. I would think, what an interesting and unusual thing to remember. And they would spark memories of things that I had hidden deep on my hard drive, hard to pull out. But with a little coaxing, I was able to dredge them up.
She talks about her mother, her marriage, her kids, her friends, her adventures when she was young. Funny interactions with strangers and a repairman. Throw in a few little memories from her Catholic days, too. I'm positive Catholics will relate (I know this because I sent one of her teensy memories to an ex-Catholic friend and she instantly wanted to know the name of the book.) One of my favorite stories involves a $50 bill, a lewd picture, and a couple of books.
Warning:
Penis talk ahead! Skip the next three paragraphs if you want. It’s low on the raunch factor, so don’t worry.
For a brief second, I must talk about a penis. I must tell you this because it bothered me. Probably my only complaint about the book. I just question Fennelly’s point in including this memory. Actually, it's not really a memory, but a fact. One I didn't need to know. Of the very few things she said about her children, she mentioned that her youngest son has a big penis. I did not want to hear this! This was TMI in a weird way, TMI once removed. Inappropriate. How does she know this? It might have been added for shock value, but this memoir doesn’t seem to go in for shock.
I immediately wondered what her son would think when reading mom’s book. And then I think I may have figured it out. I imagine Fennelly asking her son, “What do you want me to say about you in my book?” And maybe he said, “Say I have a big penis.” And they joked about it and maybe he even dared her to include it, and they will be forever laughing. I don't know, I would feel funny saying that my kid had a big penis. This would be especially weird since I only have two daughters.
After I finished the book, I went back and read the Acknowledgments. I couldn't believe this--Fennelly said that her mother told her there were a lot of penises in the book. Totally cracked me up, especially since I will never forget her comment about her kid's penis. Seriously though, I don't remember a slew of penises--I can only remember five, including her kid's. (Which may sound like a lot, come to think of it.) And since she's succinct, she didn't go on and on about them. At all!
Enough about penises. I see I mentioned the word 9 times! This is too many times! I worry I've given the wrong impression. This is not a raunchy book, really it isn't. I just wish I didn’t remember that one little sentence about her son!
Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, but always interesting, this collection of micro-memoirs made me alternately smile, laugh, commiserate, and think. A perfect read for our growing ADD population. Check it out—you won’t be sorry.
Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.
Rating: really liked it
The subtitle of this slim book is '52 micro-memoirs' and they are indeed micro. They are all less than one page and some are simply one line.
In this essay collection and musings of one woman's life, some were amusing but others ventured into TMI territory and should have been left out. It was a pleasant way to spend an hour or so for a chuckle or a nod in recognition, but now, two months after I read it, I find it unmemorable.
Rating: really liked it
Scott was making dinner, so I curled up on the sofa with the old cat. I read the first micro-memoir in HEATING AND COOLING by Beth Ann Fennelly, read it again, and then I had to ruin the cat’s life by getting up and going to the kitchen to read it aloud to Scott. This happened four more times, at which point my 20 year old son---who ONLY reads non-fiction or novels with space or dragons in them---took HEATING AND COOLING out of my hands. He devoured it cover to cover, in one sitting. In other words...pre-order. These pieces are joyful, biting, lovely, deceptively simple, emotionally cumulative and sharply observed. I keep coming back to read pieces again.
Rating: really liked it
I love essays, and I loved the idea of "micro-memoirs." A very interesting structure.
Rating: really liked it
E-galley provided by W.W. Norton & Company, Edelweiss and Author, Beth Ann Fennelly for my honest review. Heads up also to GR friend and member Katie for recommending this title.
You may be tempted to breeze through this short book of vignettes. Savor the wisdom, savor the humor, savor the read and when you're finished go back and read it again. You might be surprised at what you missed on the first go round.
Rating: really liked it
This is an amusing collection of personal stories. The pieces are so short the subtitle calls them micro-memoirs, but whatever you call them they are humorous observations about one woman’s life.
The pieces reminded me of journal entries - a writer dashing off clever notes about her day, and I enjoyed the collection. The stories are so brief they disappear quickly from memory, but I liked them in the moment.
Rating: really liked it
I’m a big memoir fan and I loved this unique take on the genre. Fennelly presents snippets of her life that give you almost enough. I appreciate the missing pieces. The style works. These thoughtfully-written essays range from a couple sentences to a few short pages. I want more!
Rating: really liked it
I cannot begin to explain the genius of this tiny 107 page book! It contains 52 “micro-memoirs”; tiny snippets of life events that had me wanting more! Some are a simple sentence or two, possibly a paragraph, none more than 3 pages. All carry delicious succinct descriptions of rich observations, poignant memories, or humorous thoughts. Beth Ann Fennelly is an incredibly talented storyteller, taking the everyday often cast off and making it memorable and often humorous.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
Rating: really liked it
A small but potent book with essays that touch on love, marriage, parenting, and writing. A good fistful of these pages just skewered my heart real nice.
Rating: really liked it
I had high expectations, but I am sad to say I was a bit let down by this book. I love poetry and I love short stories / memoirs, but I think the combination is not for me. The book is written by Beth Anne Fenneley. It beinf a collection and every poem/story being so short makes it hard to empathize. Furthermore, some poems were really farfetched, for example 'Mommy wants a glass of Chardonnay'*. But in some way it was also nice that there was variation between sad, funny, and weird stories. The poems I liked most were "Orange-Shaped Hole", "Disharmony", "Married love III", "Two Phone Conversations, and "Another Missing Chapter in the Parenting Handbook".
* 'Mommy wants a glass of Chardonnay'
If you collected all the drops of days I've spent singing "Row, row, row your boat" to children fighting sleep, you'd have an ocean deep enough to drown them many times over.
Rating: really liked it
Weird, funny, and personal. We really liked this one!
Rating: really liked it
I had not heard of Beth Ann Fennelly's
Heating and Cooling before, but stumbled across it on my online library catalogue and borrowed it immediately. I love fragmented memoirs, and this is a particularly interesting one. Through each of these 'micro-memoirs', Fennelly reveals herself little by little. The entries are amusing, and sometimes quite touching; Fennelly's approach is fresh and enjoyable. There is such depth and consideration to the writing, and I will definitely be looking out for Fennelly's books in future.
Rating: really liked it
Dang it, I thought I reviewed this already. Flippin hilarious, with actual fire and lust, and soul-chilling gusts of loss and casual cruelty. This book makes me want to abolish the star rating system, because I didn’t love it as much as Portrait of a Lady or Department of Speculation, but it’s mind blowing in its own right. Take a hike, stars and small numbers, and everyone else enjoy this book.
Rating: really liked it
OMG can this woman write!! about everything, marriage, motherhood, secret talents, vince vaughn everything with the keen eye of a poet but the sensibility of an essayist. quick, super quick reading for those times you're like, damn what am I going to read next.
Rating: really liked it
Pure poetry. So much said in so few words.
