Burned: A Memoir

by Louise Nayer

The history of the Nayers was divided by one violent, accidental moment. In the time it took her to light a match in the cellar of their rented vacation home, Dorothy and her husband Hank were engulfed in a flash fire.

She barely survived, her face scarred beyond recognition, her body required to endure thirty-seven operations. He was scarcely better off, convinced that survival had been the cruelest of outcomes.

Yet the greatest injustice of all was the estrangement of their young daughters, who didn’t see their parents for nine months after the accident. Their reconnection to people who no longer seemed familiar was painful and slow.

Four decades later, their daughter Louise recounts this difficult transformation with a poetic candor that evokes the relentless determination of her mother and the silent desperation of her father. Burned is the story of how life can be restored through the sheer force of will.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Born in NYC and now living in San Francisco my book Burned: A Memoir, about a family tragedy and triumph, was recently published by Atlas and Co. and featured as one of Ten Upcoming Titles in O Magazine. I've discussed the book on NPR in Cape Cod and was featured in The Cape Cod Times. The book was recently bought by Audio Books.
I've also written two books of poetry, received six California Arts Council grants and co- wrote, with Virginia Lang, a non-fiction book(Rodale) How to Bury a Goldfish. I've taught writing classes for over 30 years. I'm a full-time Professor of English at City College of San Francisco. Presently, I'm working on a novel and welcome emails from readers and other authors.

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A loving family of four: handsome, successful doctor (Hank) who was also the doctor for the NYFD; beautiful and smart wife (Dorothy), a nurse; two daughters - Louise (the author), 4, and Annie, 6.

A vacation cottage on Cape Cod.
A faulty gas valve.
A flash fire that engulfed the parents.

After almost a year of living with loving relatives - and not understanding how their parents could still be alive and yet not visit or call - Louise and Annie finally return to far different parents than they remembered.

Burned beyond recognition - and with 4 more years of grafting surgeries to go - Dorothy must call up every ounce of strength and courage she can muster to keep her family going, return to her career - and to face the world. Hank, although burned a lot less severely, spirals into deep depression.

Louise writes with courage and honesty about her and her family's struggles and about the psychic scars she still bears today. I couldn't put this book down - read it in one day.

[Bridget Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A harrowing but ultimately hopeful account of a family tragedy and its aftermath. Nayer is a poet as well as memoirist, and that fact is evident throughout the telling of her story. That this clear-eyed account of a disfiguring fire that might have destroyed her parents - and by extension Nayer and her sister- is a compelling read while never looking away from the reality of pain (physical and emotional) is a testament both to Nayer's prodigious ability as a writer and to her deep humanity.

[Thorn MotherIssues · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strange use of voice and tone, but the story itself was interesting. I thought there would be more psychological depth.

[Molly]

Written by a friend of my family. About her parents getting tragically burned (survived) and how she and her sister were separated from them for years after).

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was pretty amazing. A good description of psychology as well. I couldn't tear myself away from it- unfortunately it was like staring at a car wreck, imagining this family 's pain.

[Rory · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a hard time getting into memoirs of the upper middle class. If you're RICH, like, tycoonesque, I can dig it. If you're just the child of a well-to-do doctor in the 50s, I'm not so into it. This is about Nayer's parents, who were severely burned in a flash fire while vacationing on Cape Cod. It mostly covered Nayer's emotional distress as a small child (she was four when the accident occurred) and it mostly felt...like the author had already written about the topic a lot. Does that make sense? Like, SHE felt she needed to publish a whole memoir about this life-changing event but the writing style and scope were tired and overly self-serving.

[Beth Mathews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was deeply moved and touched by Louise Nayer's beautifully written, gripping memoir of growing up with her sister after their parents were severely burned in a house fire. With a poet's compassion Nayer tells how the tragic accident pulled their family apart, describes her mother's grit through a slow recovery, and the strength of her love in overcoming disfigurement and shouldering her husband's broken spirit to bring the family back together. Burned is a celebration of human recovery from trauma told with honesty and grace.

[Marina Pantoliano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me just say, thank god it’s over. It’s truly inspiring, but there’s something about the way memoirs are written that grinds my gears. I love descriptive writing, but something that could be summed up in 2 sentences usually takes 3 pages just so the author can make sure you know every painstaking detail. Also, you know everything that happens just by reading the blurb. There are no other surprises, so it’s pretty boring, which is why it took me so long to read. I admire the family’s strength though and overall am glad that I read it.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Burned A Memoir" written by Louise Nayer

A touching story of a young family who seemed to have it all. Until a deadly fire changed everything.
Definitely a book to read.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book after signing up for a memoir workshop with Louise Nayer to get a better idea of what kind of writer she is, and I'm so glad I did. This book was beautifully written. The story at times is absolutely cringe-worthy, but I still wanted more. I was heartbroken by the loss but completely empowered by Dorothy's resilience. The poetic nature of the writer's voice creates a sort of enticing beauty out of something so undeniably tragic. I felt like I was really a part of each scene, feeling everything from the texture of the dog's fur at the farmhouse to the painful, judging glares from the people on the city streets. I highly recommend.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it inspiring that Louise Nayer had the courage to share some of her life's most tragic events in this memoir. The ordeal of being away from her parents for so long after their accident obviously changed the entire course of her life. I assume (or at least hope) that she found writing this book to be cathartic -- perhaps as another step toward recovery.

However, I can't say that I found the writing style to be very engaging. I honestly put this book aside for several months when I was only about half way through. I found it hard to believe that she could remember so many events from her childhood with such great detail (and with no attribution to anyone describing it to her again later). I think she took artistic liberties to express what she's sure she would have seen, felt, or heard, but I don't believe this is truly how she remembers things. Nonetheless, it is a unique and touching story, so I'm glad I decided to finish it.

[Liralen · Rating 4 out of 5]

For whatever reason, before I got my hands on a copy of this book, I was under the impression that the author was a bit older when her parents had their accident -- a child, but one old enough to have a grasp of what was going on. But given how young she was, and how little kids were told at the time -- wow, that must have been difficult for all involved.

The author's mother, though, sounds like an absolute pillar of strength. Where Hank (her father) falters and struggles to maintain equilibrium -- he's clearly very seriously depressed after the accident -- Dorothy (the mother) seems to take stock, take a moment for herself, and then...she gets on with living, because she doesn't see another choice. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for any of them, and I think the author's youth at the time probably made it harder in some ways to reconstruct that year, but what really stands out is her mother's determination throughout.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir is not about a dysfunctional abusive family(like so many I've read) but rather a loving supportive famiy torn apart by the parents' horrific burns caused by an accident and the months of required convalescence. The author interviewed her parents and sister about the time the family was forever changed. The mother, despite her disfiguring burns, reclaims her children and gets her husband out of his depressive state to start their lives over again. Author goes into detail about the medical treatment the parents endured and how they slowly came together again. Very inspiring without being maudlin or overly sentimental.

[Susan Eisenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louise Nayer has written a memoir that is both inspiring and riveting.

When her family was torn apart by a cataclysmic accident, the author and her sister were sent to live with relatives while their parents endured excruciating treatment for their injuries. Ms. Nayer unflinchingly describes her youthful confusion and displacement and her parents' bravery. It's a story of daily heroics and the triumph of will over expectation.

I devoured this book in two sittings and recommend it heartily. The prose is incandescent, and I admire Ms. Nayer's ability to describe a heart-breaking period of her life with clarity and insight.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love this book. Although it illustrated a trmendous triumph of spirit and I truly enjoyed the descriptiveness, I felt as though I was driving past a car accident. Nayer was just a preschooler on summer vacation with her parents when they suffered horrible 3rd degree burns in a flash fire. I appreciated the point of view. Nayer has a way of constantly building mild suspense in her writing which served her well kn the first half of the book but by the end it became frustrating that the suspense lead virtually no where. An interesting read.

[Stewart Florsheim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burned is an excellent, moving memoir. Louise's mother tried to light the water heater pilot of a house they rented in Cape Cod when Louise and her sister were very small, and the explosion changed the fabric of the family forever. The memoir recounts the drama, and the lasting impact it had on the family in a beautiful, understated way.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I truly believe a book is only as good as its
Plot and the author writing it. Case in point was this memoir. I got it for cheap at borders. Premise: a woman as a child has both her parents get burned in a flash fire. Plot sounds
Sad. But this book felt like it was written by a child instead of an adult
The tone of the book is too light
And simple for the topic at hand

[Kenneth Weene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take a fine poet and add a powerful personal story and you have memoir writing at its best. The tragedy, the horrible burning of her parents, especially her mother. The aftermath, the realization that the entire family suffered from being burned. While the story tends to go on, the language is so well done that it is worth reading even after one says "enough already."

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a well-written book about a family tragedy - written from the daughter's perspective, and how the tragedy itself and the reaction to it (family, friends, etc.), as well as suddenly being separated from her parents for several months, impacted her and her sister. Very well done and informative about the 'recovery' process her parents went through. A story of survival.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put down this memoir about a family traumatized when the parents are burned in a flash fire. It is a story of tragedy and survival, of perseverance and triumph. It is also the story of how an entire family can be victimized by some tragic events. A riveting, deeply moving story.

[Bonnie]

I'm ambivalent about this book. The true story had the potential to make a very good read but I felt at times that it was written in a juvenile fashion. I suppose one would expect that when the narrator is a young girl but I really would have liked to have heard from the adult's point of view.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was okay. It just left me feeling like something was missing. I finished the book and thought to myself "AND?" I question how Nayer was able to speak of the past in such detail, being how young she was at the time the events occurred.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book that made me cry not only in sadness but for the characters ability to reinvent themselves. I worked with Louise and she is every bit the incredible person you would expect after reading this book

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a horrible thing to have happen to a family! I like the way she wrote this book. Although it is a memoir she wrote it from all perspectives and included all kinds of details she would not have know if she hadn't done a lot of research and digging before writing.

[Ethel Rohan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A memoir of harrowing tragedy and astonishing triumph, BURNED reaffirmed my belief that secrets and silence, however well-intentioned, are overwhelmingly destructive. It also reaffirmed my faith in the human spirit.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was HARD to read. Beautifully written, but the subject matter is very disturbing. Glad I made it through though because the story really flows and captures you.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was moving, horrifying, and inspiring. It's really a story of Nayer's whole family, not just her. It is really well written and very engaging.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

so much better than the nie nie whinings.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely written memoir! I couldn't put it down.

[Lisamarie]

My Trauma and the Arts Professor wrote this about her life.