So, typically, the best compliment you can give a book is that you absorbed it in one insatiable, quick burst. This, however, was the opposite experience, but I mean it in every bit as complimentary a sense: I recognized, early on, that there was a level of intensity and emotional import, combined with poetic and rich imagery that all but obliged a slow, methodical, and very deliberate approach. I don’t think I’m giving anything away by noting that this book deals with trauma and pain, yet does so with extraordinary generosity; by that, I mean, little or no blame is left; this memoir does what, for me, all great art does: it recognizes that cause and effect and even how we define truth is slippery. It is not necessarily an “easy” read, but it’s a rich and rewarding one, and it’s likely to change the way you look at your own relationships–past and present. It’s a gift.
It was my pleasure to speak with Jeannine Ouellette about her memoir THE PART THAT BURNS. We addressed the process of writing this book (which is very obviously the final result of considerable deliberation, revision, and passion), how memory informs this narrative, the notion of writing as healing, motherhood, accountability, and how to live a literary life. If any of that sounds intriguing (and how could it not?), you will love our conversation, which can be viewed below.
I could not recommend this memoir with more urgency, and I encourage you to pick up your copy by supporting independent booksellers and our great partners at D.C.’s historic The Potter’s House).
Jeannine Ouellette’s essays and stories have appeared widely, including in North American Review, Narrative, Penn Review, Proximity, and more. She is a former fellow of Millay Colony for the Arts and Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and her work has been published in several anthologies including Ms. Aligned: Women Writing About Men and Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives, as well as recognized in many contests. Jeannine teaches writing through the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and the University of Minnesota. She lives with her family in Minneapolis near the banks of the Mississippi, where she is working on her first novel. Her memoir THE PART THAT BURNS has been described by Joyce Carol Oates as “simply beautiful, precisely imagined, poetically structured, compelling and vivid.”
