Friday, 6 Jun 2025
America Age
  • Trending
  • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Real Estate
    • Money
    • Crypto & NFTs
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Fashion / Beauty
    • Art & Books
    • Culture
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
Font ResizerAa
America AgeAmerica Age
Search
  • Trending
  • World
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Real Estate
    • Money
    • Crypto & NFTs
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Fashion / Beauty
    • Art & Books
    • Culture
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
© 2024 America Age. All Rights Reserved.
America Age > Blog > Art & Books > ‘Very Cold People’ Makes Something Beautiful Out of a Painful Childhood
Art & Books

‘Very Cold People’ Makes Something Beautiful Out of a Painful Childhood

Enspirers | Editorial Board
Share
‘Very Cold People’ Makes Something Beautiful Out of a Painful Childhood
SHARE

VERY COLD PEOPLE
By Sarah Manguso
191 pages. Hogarth. $26.

Anatomy may be destiny, as Freud said, but geography is also a major factor. The characters in Sarah Manguso’s first novel, “Very Cold People,” seem quite literally shaped, like ice sculptures, by their habitation of a grim town in Massachusetts. Though fictional, this town reflects certain aspects of New England — like the plaques on older houses and patrician dropped “r”s — with absolute, flinty accuracy.

The town’s name, Waitsfield, suggests a place whose residents are dying for something to happen, or are just dying to leave. (No offense to the real-life Waitsfield, Vt., which looks charming.) “Impatient little thing!” thinks the protagonist, Ruthie, regarding a baby’s grave in the old local cemetery. Her girlhood takes place in the 1980s, but its constraints and cruelties have a 17th-century vibe.

In Waitsfield, snow is common, a constant inconvenience; it “accumulated like dust” and “fell in clumps” and piled into driveways. Ruthie is coming of age and, we hope and trust, planning her escape, over the course of a spare 191 pages that would be even fewer if her story weren’t narrated in short paragraphs separated by white space, like verses. Best known as a memoirist and essayist, Manguso also writes poetry, and this is apparent in her fiction. Though dealing with life’s ugly, messy truths, her writing is compact and beautiful.

Ruthie is an only child, Jewish and Italian in a milieu where to be anything other than a Cabot, Lowell or some other Mayflower-y name is to be considered lesser, “off white.” In nursery school she has what is now known as selective mutism. “I was simply a person who had nothing to share, nothing worth sharing,” she remembers, pitying her “big pink teacher” for not understanding.

Her family does not live in abject poverty (her father is an accountant), but there is, palpably, not enough money for comfort. At their house, whose paint “had faded to the color of dirty snow,” baths can only be filled to the height of one’s hand. Creditors phone constantly, calls that Ruthie has to screen. Everyone thrifts and regifts; gazing at pictures in catalogs and magazines often stand in for having the real thing. Food is processed or bruisedly past its prime, and iced tea and lemonade and milk are all made from powder, as if the sullied snow had edged all the way into the kitchen.

All this might be bearable for Ruthie, but her parents are wicked; not in the Massachusetts slang sense but like Roald Dahl villains: alternately absent or all too present in the claustrophobia of their modest circumstances. Headboards bang; scalps smell; private parts flash and flop. In “Very Cold People,” someone always seems to be bursting embarrassingly into the bathroom. There will be blood. Also phlegm, vomit and other bodily effusions. Even the relative refuge of the school auditorium during a play rehearsal evokes “the inside of a slaughtered animal, all oxblood paint and maroon velveteen.”

Ruthie’s mother in particular — a depressive housewife who croaks and creaks from the bed she sometimes won’t leave — is a piece of work, class-conscious to the point of tacking other families’ WASP-y wedding announcements onto the refrigerator, obsessed with sex and marriage. “You look like a bride,” she tells Ruthie in wonderment, wrapping her in eyelet sheets after an operation. She is also narcissistic and withholding, refusing to repeat the occasional affectionate gesture, like a stroke of the hair or playful spray with a garden hose; oblivious even to the color of her daughter’s eyes, mocking how she looks in braces. “She wanted me to know I was ugly,” a resigned Ruthie concludes. “She was helping me get ready for the world.”

Manguso is terribly poignant on little Ruthie’s faith in a maternal love that isn’t really there, and her dawning comprehension of what might have made it impossible. But in damning increments, she also shows how feminine identity in America can be built up with material objects — dolls, Girl Scout insignia, barrettes, makeup, glittering confetti (another snow-echo) — and then torn down by violation, sexual and otherwise. A gym teacher’s inappropriate touch; a shoe salesman’s remark; a friend’s creepy dad; frottage on the commuter rail. All these things happen, in an era when such events were often considered not reportable offenses but just a part of growing up — character-building, even.

“You can learn to eat violence,” Ruthie philosophizes about her encounters with a classroom bully. But inevitably it will be disgorged in self-harm cloaked as self-soothing: hair pulling, nail peeling, unswallowed meals wadded into napkins. When the migraines arrive, with their blinding halos, it’s almost a relief.

So masterly is Manguso at making beauty of boring old daily pain that when more dramatic plot turns arrive — suicides, teen pregnancies — they almost seem superfluous, visitations from an after-school special. The book is strong enough as a compendium of the insults of a deprived childhood: a thousand cuts exquisitely observed and survived. The effect is cumulative, and this novel bordering on a novella punches above its weight.

TAGGED:The Washington Mail
Share This Article
Twitter Email Copy Link Print
Previous Article Sullivan warns China could face costs if it supports a Russian invasion of Ukraine Sullivan warns China could face costs if it supports a Russian invasion of Ukraine
Next Article Box Office: ‘Jackass Forever’ Catapults to No. 1 as ‘Moonfall’ Craters Box Office: ‘Jackass Forever’ Catapults to No. 1 as ‘Moonfall’ Craters

Your Trusted Source for Accurate and Timely Updates!

Our commitment to accuracy, impartiality, and delivering breaking news as it happens has earned us the trust of a vast audience. Stay ahead with real-time updates on the latest events, trends.
FacebookLike
TwitterFollow
InstagramFollow
LinkedInFollow
MediumFollow
QuoraFollow
- Advertisement -
Ad image

Popular Posts

Macron says Putin told him he would not escalate Ukraine crisis

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said Russian President Vladimir Putin has assured him that…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

Somalia Villa Rays attack: Siege ends leaving eight civilians dead

Ambulances have been taking the injured to hospital after the deadly attackSomali forces have ended…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

Hollywood Celebs Present Up in Type for Broadway’s New ‘Othello’ Manufacturing

'Othello' on Broadway J Lo, Bidens & Different Celebs Attend Play Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

Belgium’s parliament passes Iran treaty that may lead to release of convicted terrorist

The Belgian parliament ratified a treaty with Iran that sets the stage for a prisoner…

By Enspirers | Editorial Board

You Might Also Like

Pure Motifs Entwine the Monumental Figures of Robert Pruitt’s Divine Portraits
Art & Books

Pure Motifs Entwine the Monumental Figures of Robert Pruitt’s Divine Portraits

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
Reskate’s Youthful Murals Remodel into Glowing Symbols of Peace
Art & Books

Reskate’s Youthful Murals Remodel into Glowing Symbols of Peace

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
Coloration Remedy: Discover the Colossal Store’s New Summer season Assortment
Art & Books

Coloration Remedy: Discover the Colossal Store’s New Summer season Assortment

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
‘Maintenance Artist’ Highlights Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Radical, Caring Strategy to Public Artwork
Art & Books

‘Maintenance Artist’ Highlights Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Radical, Caring Strategy to Public Artwork

By Enspirers | Editorial Board
America Age
Facebook Twitter Youtube

About US


America Age: Your instant connection to breaking stories and live updates. Stay informed with our real-time coverage across politics, tech, entertainment, and more. Your reliable source for 24/7 news.

Company
  • About Us
  • Newsroom Policies & Standards
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Careers
  • Media & Community Relations
  • WP Creative Group
  • Accessibility Statement
Contact Us
  • Contact Us
  • Contact Customer Care
  • Advertise
  • Licensing & Syndication
  • Request a Correction
  • Contact the Newsroom
  • Send a News Tip
  • Report a Vulnerability
Terms of Use
  • Digital Products Terms of Sale
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Settings
  • Submissions & Discussion Policy
  • RSS Terms of Service
  • Ad Choices
© 2024 America Age. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?