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Pictures of Houses with Water Damage
Michael Hemmingson has been called “Raymond Carver on acid” by literary guru Larry McCaffery and “a disciple of a quick and dirty literature” by the American Book Review . Hemmingson writes from within the everyday man's murky nightmares, offering hints and then, dazzlingly, reneging on his hints.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
170 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
2 people are currently reading
125 people want to read
About the author
Michael Hemmingson
112 books23 followersA novelist, short story writer, literary critic, cultural anthropologist, qualitative researcher, playwright, and screenwriter. He died in Tijuana, Mexico on 9 January 2014.
(source: Wikipedia)
(source: Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 26, 2019
the back of this book claims that michael hemmingson is raymond carver on acid. and my first thought was, "oh, great, so it is going to be boring AND overconfident, awesome." but these stories were actually very good. so, larry mcaffery, i agree with your assessment. very astute. my snark was premature.
because these are definitely stories about mismatched individuals, poisonous relationships, drinking, and that's all very carver, right? it has been a while, but i remember that much. however, these stories also contain ufos, legless men who just won't leave your house, and a bunch of guns. but it still reads like realism; these aren't wacky stories by any stretch of the imagination. they are frequently surprising stories, usually about men and women who either can't get a relationship going, or who do get one going in an unusual way. and overall pretty sad. lots of longing. but apathetic longing, in a way. this is beyond the garment-rending passionate howling stage of longing, these characters are largely resigned to their lonely fates of phones ringing unanswered.
i read the whole thing today, so at one gulp like that, it becomes apparent when there are echoes. character names repeat, situations mirror each other, one story references another story by name. i'm not sure what this means or adds to the collection, except to suggest a certain universality of experience, and if this had been more strongly stylized i think it would have gotten that fifth star - with a more structured, unifying backbone, this collection of excellent stories could have been a stunner.also, there was some occasionally indulgent prose: outside, light gradually crept into the night sky like a stalker on the internet with an old modem and a slow connection....
ick.
but the dialogue is great: candid and surprising and so many things suggested, not explicated, which is refreshing.
yeah. great title, great stories.
go get it.
come to my blog!
because these are definitely stories about mismatched individuals, poisonous relationships, drinking, and that's all very carver, right? it has been a while, but i remember that much. however, these stories also contain ufos, legless men who just won't leave your house, and a bunch of guns. but it still reads like realism; these aren't wacky stories by any stretch of the imagination. they are frequently surprising stories, usually about men and women who either can't get a relationship going, or who do get one going in an unusual way. and overall pretty sad. lots of longing. but apathetic longing, in a way. this is beyond the garment-rending passionate howling stage of longing, these characters are largely resigned to their lonely fates of phones ringing unanswered.
i read the whole thing today, so at one gulp like that, it becomes apparent when there are echoes. character names repeat, situations mirror each other, one story references another story by name. i'm not sure what this means or adds to the collection, except to suggest a certain universality of experience, and if this had been more strongly stylized i think it would have gotten that fifth star - with a more structured, unifying backbone, this collection of excellent stories could have been a stunner.also, there was some occasionally indulgent prose: outside, light gradually crept into the night sky like a stalker on the internet with an old modem and a slow connection....
ick.
but the dialogue is great: candid and surprising and so many things suggested, not explicated, which is refreshing.
yeah. great title, great stories.
go get it.
come to my blog!
January 7, 2025
"Something always kills dreams."
January 26, 2025
I don't know about the "Raymond Carver on acid" comment. But it reminds me somewhat of Juliet Escoria, but more over-the-top and funny.
May 15, 2017
A five-star read. A collection of shorts that take the reader on a whirlwind exploration of various relationships from voyeuristic neighbors to broken marriages to high school proms that end with UFOs, from visits from her legless ex just returned from Iraq who looks at what he should've got, from strip club rendevouses after the baby is delivered to picnics in the park. There's a darkness and a threateningness underlying each story. Each one is just skirting the edge of the chasm.
April 8, 2016
It’s just like Michael Hemmingson to be gone. Just when I wanted to thank him for his black Valentine’s Day messages.
There’s a world of hurt in his collection Pictures of Houses with Water Damage (Black Lawrence Press, 2010). It’s a numbed kind of hurt, the kind of pain felt after a breakup, whether you wanted to break up or not—or didn’t know what you wanted either way.
The numbed pain Hemmingson awakens can’t be cured with booze, with sex, with a new affair, though every one of his characters seems to try. They get an A+ for trying. But it’s the collection itself that holds the numbing properties and brings the cure.
The 21 stories show in kaleidoscopic form the life, as lives, of an individual—could be a man, a woman, both—confronting the fallout of unrepentant infidelity, unwanted pregnancy, alcohol dependence, failed marriage, more. We watch lives wrecked by emotional pain, rendered faithfully through a panorama of eyes: the cuckold, the cheatwife, the unforgotten wounded vet boyfriend, the lonely lurking neighbor, the half-grown child, the honest husband, the roommate.
These lives amid the detritus of failure are rendered in spare, revelatory prose. Take Cyclops: “The eye was lost in a freak fishing accident… A shining hook winked at him, swooped down and took his eye.” Brilliant muscle drives clean lines that use simplicity to explain the complex. In Adventure: how could his wife do that with a complete stranger? “Our marriage has dulled.” “Have there been others?” “Yes.”
I see the defining sentiment two ways. In Forbidden Scenes of Affection: “From the outside, there was nothing wrong with a man and a woman, naked, lying on a bed. But when you got the details, the scene became distorted, if not grotesque.” So many details. The woman, several weeks pregnant, lays with her lover. He’s not her only lover. After the baby comes, she becomes his lover again. The husband, the father, he is barely a person—he looks like a nice guy but he can be an asshole. “Sometimes he hits me.” Hemming son hasn't fouled his lines with pity, not even for the cuckold. He gets what he gets, and so does his cheating pregnant wife.
The defining sentiment might, as well, be simply this: “Something always kills dreams.”
Is this a gift? It’s certainly a talent. It’s a dark art. I came to the end eager to write up something nice about the author, only to learn he’s passed. Just like Michael Hemmingson to leave me thirsty for more.
There’s a world of hurt in his collection Pictures of Houses with Water Damage (Black Lawrence Press, 2010). It’s a numbed kind of hurt, the kind of pain felt after a breakup, whether you wanted to break up or not—or didn’t know what you wanted either way.
The numbed pain Hemmingson awakens can’t be cured with booze, with sex, with a new affair, though every one of his characters seems to try. They get an A+ for trying. But it’s the collection itself that holds the numbing properties and brings the cure.
The 21 stories show in kaleidoscopic form the life, as lives, of an individual—could be a man, a woman, both—confronting the fallout of unrepentant infidelity, unwanted pregnancy, alcohol dependence, failed marriage, more. We watch lives wrecked by emotional pain, rendered faithfully through a panorama of eyes: the cuckold, the cheatwife, the unforgotten wounded vet boyfriend, the lonely lurking neighbor, the half-grown child, the honest husband, the roommate.
These lives amid the detritus of failure are rendered in spare, revelatory prose. Take Cyclops: “The eye was lost in a freak fishing accident… A shining hook winked at him, swooped down and took his eye.” Brilliant muscle drives clean lines that use simplicity to explain the complex. In Adventure: how could his wife do that with a complete stranger? “Our marriage has dulled.” “Have there been others?” “Yes.”
I see the defining sentiment two ways. In Forbidden Scenes of Affection: “From the outside, there was nothing wrong with a man and a woman, naked, lying on a bed. But when you got the details, the scene became distorted, if not grotesque.” So many details. The woman, several weeks pregnant, lays with her lover. He’s not her only lover. After the baby comes, she becomes his lover again. The husband, the father, he is barely a person—he looks like a nice guy but he can be an asshole. “Sometimes he hits me.” Hemming son hasn't fouled his lines with pity, not even for the cuckold. He gets what he gets, and so does his cheating pregnant wife.
The defining sentiment might, as well, be simply this: “Something always kills dreams.”
Is this a gift? It’s certainly a talent. It’s a dark art. I came to the end eager to write up something nice about the author, only to learn he’s passed. Just like Michael Hemmingson to leave me thirsty for more.
January 8, 2011
Bruises
PICTURES OF HOUSES WITH WATER DAMAGE is not only a zinger of a title for a collection of short stories, but the packaging includes a fine book design by Steven Seighman and points to Black Lawrence Press as a leader in the contemporary publishing business, making this new book an all around fascinating entity.
Michael Hemmingson comes to this collection of stories with a sturdy background in writing: he is a novelist, short story writer, literary critic, cultural anthropologist, qualitative researcher, musician, playwright, and screenwriter and has drawn attention to his work by some very impressive critics. But all that is secondary introduction to the book of jewel-like stories he shares here. Hemmingson has a style of writing that takes some adjustment on the part of the reader at first: his use of the 'he says, she says' method of conveying conversation pulls attention away from the flow of a story - until the reader catches on to the rhythm and finds it as immediately involving a technique as the author intends.
Hemmingson writes about ordinary people struggling to cope with the daily intrusions into sanity that we all face but often don't examine. He creates characters and stories that are molded to a moment of disillusionment or of misunderstanding or miscommunication: these are islands of stress that could become particles of insanity if Hemmingson allowed them to progress that far. He spreads his words on the page in a way that informs the reader of the speed of driving through these stories the author intends, as though there is nothing about the little tales he wishes the reader to avoid, to understand, and to relate to as the story abruptly ends.
One of the most fascinating (on so very many levels) stories is 'What Happens When My Wife's Ex-Boyfriend, Back from Iraq, Pays Us a Visit': a married couple with a new baby is visited by a veteran form the war who lost both legs in a roadside bomb and pays a visit in his special van, his envy of the ex-girlfriend's current lifestyle emphasizes his copeless physical state and his drinking leads to belligerent conversation and spite and he becomes ensconced in the couples house for what seems as though it will be permanent: retribution for losing his legs and mind for the sake of protecting the freedom of a couple who seemingly doesn't care about his sacrifice is the spinner for which Hemmingson must find a solution. In other stories he deals with apartment dwelling and the lack of privacy that leads to overhearing abusive battles and conversations of superficial levels, people in need of healing form broken relationships but remain paralyzed as to how to reenter the dating field.
Other stories deal with language barriers, cultural differences, young people having intimacy at inappropriate times with untoward consequences, and even incidents between two people that include talk of alien ideation and strange physical alienation. Some of these stories may be as short as two pages in length but everyone of them carries a punch, a hurt, a bruise, and a feeling that there are a lot of other people in the world who have moments of not fitting in as we do. Hemmingson understands human behavior and pours it into his stew pot until it comes out both strange and real. These are some of the finest vignettes about the human condition available today!
Grady Harp
PICTURES OF HOUSES WITH WATER DAMAGE is not only a zinger of a title for a collection of short stories, but the packaging includes a fine book design by Steven Seighman and points to Black Lawrence Press as a leader in the contemporary publishing business, making this new book an all around fascinating entity.
Michael Hemmingson comes to this collection of stories with a sturdy background in writing: he is a novelist, short story writer, literary critic, cultural anthropologist, qualitative researcher, musician, playwright, and screenwriter and has drawn attention to his work by some very impressive critics. But all that is secondary introduction to the book of jewel-like stories he shares here. Hemmingson has a style of writing that takes some adjustment on the part of the reader at first: his use of the 'he says, she says' method of conveying conversation pulls attention away from the flow of a story - until the reader catches on to the rhythm and finds it as immediately involving a technique as the author intends.
Hemmingson writes about ordinary people struggling to cope with the daily intrusions into sanity that we all face but often don't examine. He creates characters and stories that are molded to a moment of disillusionment or of misunderstanding or miscommunication: these are islands of stress that could become particles of insanity if Hemmingson allowed them to progress that far. He spreads his words on the page in a way that informs the reader of the speed of driving through these stories the author intends, as though there is nothing about the little tales he wishes the reader to avoid, to understand, and to relate to as the story abruptly ends.
One of the most fascinating (on so very many levels) stories is 'What Happens When My Wife's Ex-Boyfriend, Back from Iraq, Pays Us a Visit': a married couple with a new baby is visited by a veteran form the war who lost both legs in a roadside bomb and pays a visit in his special van, his envy of the ex-girlfriend's current lifestyle emphasizes his copeless physical state and his drinking leads to belligerent conversation and spite and he becomes ensconced in the couples house for what seems as though it will be permanent: retribution for losing his legs and mind for the sake of protecting the freedom of a couple who seemingly doesn't care about his sacrifice is the spinner for which Hemmingson must find a solution. In other stories he deals with apartment dwelling and the lack of privacy that leads to overhearing abusive battles and conversations of superficial levels, people in need of healing form broken relationships but remain paralyzed as to how to reenter the dating field.
Other stories deal with language barriers, cultural differences, young people having intimacy at inappropriate times with untoward consequences, and even incidents between two people that include talk of alien ideation and strange physical alienation. Some of these stories may be as short as two pages in length but everyone of them carries a punch, a hurt, a bruise, and a feeling that there are a lot of other people in the world who have moments of not fitting in as we do. Hemmingson understands human behavior and pours it into his stew pot until it comes out both strange and real. These are some of the finest vignettes about the human condition available today!
Grady Harp
October 1, 2012
UPDATE: My video review of this book is live. Watch it here: http://www.wingchairbooks.com/2011/01...
I just read this book one week ago, and from the moment I finished the second story [any book can lead with one great story followed by filler], I was instantly astounded by the lack of reviews, and, more specifically, praise. Every single piece in this collection is golden.
I had not read anything else from Hemmingson, but I had been enticed by this book [solely for it's title and cover design] since the moment of its pre-release announcement. By the end of December, there were still no reviews up online, neither here at Goodreads nor at Amazon. I decided to take a chance and order it.
I'll be doing a video review of it soon, which you will be able to watch at http://www.wingchairbooks.com , but until then, these few words shall have to suffice. This book made me an instant convert. I look forward to reading the many works of Michael Hemmingson.
I just read this book one week ago, and from the moment I finished the second story [any book can lead with one great story followed by filler], I was instantly astounded by the lack of reviews, and, more specifically, praise. Every single piece in this collection is golden.
I had not read anything else from Hemmingson, but I had been enticed by this book [solely for it's title and cover design] since the moment of its pre-release announcement. By the end of December, there were still no reviews up online, neither here at Goodreads nor at Amazon. I decided to take a chance and order it.
I'll be doing a video review of it soon, which you will be able to watch at http://www.wingchairbooks.com , but until then, these few words shall have to suffice. This book made me an instant convert. I look forward to reading the many works of Michael Hemmingson.
June 3, 2016
Some of these people drink. Some are unfaithful. Some are violent. Some just do embarrassing things. Why? Why do the people in these stories act this way?
The reason is because this is a collection of stories about regret, either regretting something done or not done. These stories, with the exception of just a few, don't have happy beginnings, middles, or ends. Although the writing is spare, every word counts. It's worth reading if you're into dirty realism or minimalist writing.
It's a memorable read, a great discovery and it makes me want to find some more books by Michael Hemmingson.
March 12, 2016
These are good stories -- tightly crafted, with crisp characters and some clever wordplay -- but they feel like stories from a bygone era, like Carver hungover. They're too sharp and bitter and cynical to read all at once; they carve away at the soul.
That's not a bad thing -- this isn't criticism -- but they're definitely stories for a certain time and place. I'm looking forward to revisiting them when I'm in a different time, a better place.
That's not a bad thing -- this isn't criticism -- but they're definitely stories for a certain time and place. I'm looking forward to revisiting them when I'm in a different time, a better place.
October 5, 2020
The style is supremely readable even if the characters are often unappealing and unmemorable. While the collection is uneven, there are enough little morsels throughout to walk away from the book feeling as if you have spent your time well. Strange and wild. Daring, even. At the very least Hemmingson seems to be trying for honesty here and what else can you ask for from a writer?
December 26, 2010
A fantastic collection by one of my favorite contemporary fiction writers.
May 24, 2011
Water Damage = Infidelity and/or Drunkenness
February 4, 2014
These homes are certainly damaged.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews