Cooler Heads

by Julian Tepper

Julian Tepper’s fourth novel, Cooler Heads, is a story about modern love. With a triangulation of lovers and spouses, young children and careers struggling to get off the ground, in Celia and Paul we encounter two people in that pocket of life when the fight to figure out who we are and what we want burns brightest.  A meditation on the limits of what we can and cannot have, set in a city—New York—that would have us think that we can have it all, Cooler Heads is a tour de force and impossible to put down, a literary triumph.

264 pages, Hardcover

Published January 23, 2024

About the author

Julian Tepper is the author of four novels, Cooler Heads, Between the Records, Balls, and Ark. His writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Playboy, The Brooklyn Rail, Zyzzyva, The Daily Beast, The Brooklyn Rail, Tablet Magazine, and elsewhere. His essay, "Locking Down with the Family You've Just Eviscerated in a Novel" was a "Notable Essay of 2022" in Best American Essays 2022. He was born and raised on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Reviews

[Svetlana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a beautiful and heartbreaking story that somehow manages to stay uplifting. Also, amazingly for a short book, it covers a lot of time and space. There is a whole section that takes place in Poland that’s so lush it makes you want to go there––if not immediately, then perhaps in the summer. It remains beautiful even as Paul, the narrator, witnesses the beginning of the collapse of his marriage there. Would it be a spoiler if I say that Paul meets Celia while she’s married to another man, whom she then leaves for Paul, but later she meets a woman she falls in love with? I don’t think so, because the pleasures of this book lie not so much in the plot as in the skill with which the author tells the story and the rich details he employs. All the characters, including the ones who appear just in two or three scenes, are treated with great care and sensitivity, no matter their personal shortcomings, and feel amazingly real. It’s like you’re watching this story unfurl in front of your eyes. And most of it takes place in NYC, which the author clearly loves and knows well. In short, this is a gem and treat. I would recommend it to anyone interested in complicated modern relationships and wonderful prose.

[Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the relationship they most wanted, and this is the relationship they get. The intricacies of the infidelities — is that the right word? From another perspective, their patience is intricate too. As one part of the relationship strengthens, another weakens. It's hard to tell which thread they're pulling. They're surrounded by a landscape of cursed corners, and perhaps that's the haunting, the recurrence. Every time someone winks at a hot stranger at a party, I cringe and yell at the book don't open that door, and of course they open it; this is how horror works, and it's absolutely funny.

[Chip Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

You might believe, at first blush, that this novel feasts on the salacious complications of an open marriage. Luckily, it's much deeper than lust and jealousy and unforeseen complications. Tepper saves its transcendent message for the explosive -- and redemptive -- climax. Keep an eye on those cursed corners of NYC, too. They can hex humans and just maybe release them. Another brisk, original piece of fiction with universal themes from Tepper. If you enjoy this book, as I did, check out "Balls" (the book, not the body parts!). It's riveting.

[Tyler Wetherall · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a propulsive read full of heart! I finished Cooler Heads in two breathless sittings. Julian is a master of character, creating rich, complex humans whose conflicts and heartbreaks you are fully, painfully invested in. At a time when, as a culture, we're reconsidering what marriage can look like, and how to communicate our needs healthily to one another, this feels like the vital, poignant and driven exploration of marriage we need right now.

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this hearbreaking book in one sitting. I don't think there's another novel like it, one told from the perspective of a man in an open relationship with a woman who leaves him for another woman. It's beautifully written, capturing both internal thoughts and external sights and sounds. The cursed corner conceit is clever and effective.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Cooler Heads" is presented with such intimacy that you often find yourself looking around your bedroom for the characters depicted therein. Tepper is a master at capturing a moment - whether banal or seismic - in its simplest, rawest form. What a writer. What a book.

[alexggrandma · Rating 5 out of 5]

What the fuck this is awesome

Quick pace and good voice

The cursed corner thing is tight and poignant

So very lightly surreal in a way that makes the emotions & failings more potent

Will not forget celia and her tortured girlfriend and two malewives

[Michael Fields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow read this in two days. Didn’t love the characters at first but developed fast. Really interesting how there were certain things that were written really plainly like “then we had sex on the dining room table” that were absurd but also somehow tracked with the narrator’s personality

[annalise · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was such an enthralling little read i loved it. so much commentary on the human connection & relationships.

[Bradley Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Very entertaining. Will make you feel like your family is perfectly “normal.”

[Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartbreaking, tender, compelling and truly human. Beautifully written. Very special, as well, being familiar with the many architectural sites and NYC places noted in this book.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a downer. Cursed corners??? I cared about Celia and Paul but the story was quite depressing as it was probably meant to be.

[Matthew Binder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is a true joy to read. The rhythm of the story comes at you just right. No superfluous details. Tepper's characters reflect not only what is good and true but also what's most rotten about human nature. This is a book you'll breeze through in a couple short sittings.

[Angelina Hazzouri · Rating 4 out of 5]

scene where paul's cooking & waylon's in the tub & the doorbell rings went crazy

[Paula Bomer · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's very rare to read a novel that is this unputdownable. Paul, a writer and Celia, a very ambitious and talented painter originally from the South, are in love. From chapter one onward, there are obstacles- Celia is still married, for one. What ensues in a meditation on marriage, open marriages, love, ambition all set around the machinations of New York City itself and the art world its art world in particular. Every page leads to the next with- what will happen next? A son is born to the couple, named Waylon, a trip to an artist/ writing residency in Poland occurs, and all of this propels the narrative to its heartbreaking, yet funny, conclusion. Life is complicated, beautiful and painful and reading Cooler Heads shows that the most important things in life can also be meditated upon with a precision that doesn't take away from the multifacetedness of life. A wildly fun and emotional read. Literally finished it in 2 days, but stayed with me for so much longer. A gift of a novel.

[Sarah]

Found this through my local bookstore’s event / reading by the author. A realistic portrayal of the inevitable uncertainty of life and love. I struggle with reading focus lately but read it in days.

Loved the side story of “cursed” corners of NYC that cannot hold retail. Endearing and fun to start, that thread darkens by the end, as well as his love life.