Sarah Manguso's VERY COLD PEOPLE received a wealth positive press surrounding its publication this week. In a rave review for The New York Times, Alexandra Jacobs writes: “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…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.” Michele Filgate reviewed the novel for The Washington Post, writing: “Manguso’s attention to the chilliness and reservation of certain New Englanders crackles like a room-temperature beverage poured over ice…[She] portrays the fears surrounding girlhood with a blistering clarity.” Lastly, Rebecca Steinitz’s review for the Boston Globe praises Manguso as “an exquisitely astute writer…admirable [for] her refusal to bow to predictable plot tropes.” Hogarth published the novel on February 8, 2022.
Sarah Manguso's VERY COLD PEOPLE received a wealth positive press surrounding its publication this week. In a rave review for The New York Times, Alexandra Jacobs writes: “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…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.” Michele Filgate reviewed the novel for The Washington Post, writing: “Manguso’s attention to the chilliness and reservation of certain New Englanders crackles like a room-temperature beverage poured over ice…[She] portrays the fears surrounding girlhood with a blistering clarity.” Lastly, Rebecca Steinitz’s review for the Boston Globe praises Manguso as “an exquisitely astute writer…admirable [for] her refusal to bow to predictable plot tropes.” Hogarth published the novel on February 8, 2022.
