Heating and Cooling Review: Like Drinks at the Bar with a Good Friend

By Alexa Smith, 2018-19 Fiction Editor

I performed a speedy pre-scan of Beth Ann Fennelly’s 52 micro-memoirs, Heating and Cooling.  I stopped at page 63.  The word Beyoncé caught my eye at the top right-hand side of the page.  I knew this book and I would be great friends. I was curious to see where America’s national treasure would show up in Fennelly’s life.  

I was surprised to find Beyoncé tucked between the lines of Fennelly’s memoir, “The Neighbor, The Chickens, and The Flames.”  It’s a short, fascinating read about a rogue chicken, stolen eggs, a chicken coop caught on fire, and the brief mention of a monopoly match.

I devoured Fennelly’s memoirs.  I read the book over again.  I enjoyed myself.  Why not?  It was like having drinks at the bar with a good friend—you know, the fun one.  The one who always has a story to tell.  You sit behind the bar in a tall chair, one hand cupping the thick wet glass of a cold pint, legs crossed, facing her, phone in purse, never touched during time spent together.  It isn’t needed because this is Beth Ann.

She takes you to a game of pool in a biker bar, to Barcelona, to a living room where she discusses false teeth with her father-in-law, to her nail salon, her bed post, her marriage, her children—yes, even marriage and children, which can be so incredibly boring in Facebook posts, become entertainment when Fennelly shares them.

You snort, almost spitting out your beer when she tells you about the dead cat in plastic wrap next to the vodka in her friend’s freezer. 

It’s not always fun and games.  Sometimes you get serious, as close friends do.  She recalls the strained confession of the words “I love you” to her father.  Those words were hard to say.  You lean in close, touch her arm, you’ve been there too.

 But then she shakes the heaviness of the moment off with an eye-roll of a story about the “commodification of art,” and some other small grievance about an obnoxious “rival poet” she remembers from grad school. Other writers can be so annoying. 

I drank all of Heating and Cooling in.  Over-served—52 rounds.  I stumbled home—giddy, warm, smiling.  Happy to have had the honor of a riot of a time with Beth Ann.

 And now, it’s your turn.