{"product_id":"the-irish-goodbye-micro-memoirs-9781324117407","title":"The Irish Goodbye: Micro-Memoirs","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat can we learn from an ordinary life observed with extraordinary skill? In \u003cem\u003eThe Irish Goodbye\u003c\/em\u003e, Beth Ann Fennelly writes of the small moments that shape a life, whether moving or perplexing or troubling or gladdening, in the process dignifying the diminutive through the act of attention. Fennelly explores her roles as a friend, wife, mother, and daughter, documenting a brush with an old flame or the devastating death of her sister in crystalline, precise sentences.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe longer essays concern Fennelly's relationships--with a beloved mother-in-law, a decades-long friendship between five former college roommates, an artist who paints a series of nude portraits in Fennelly's town, for which she poses. Interspersed between these longer memoirs are sections of flash nonfiction, a form Fennelly innovated in the genre-defying \u003cem\u003eHeating \u0026amp; Cooling\u003c\/em\u003e. With dazzling verve and wit, they capture the interstitial interactions--encounters with strangers, quirky observations, unexpected flights of fancy--that make up a richly lived life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Irish Goodbye\u003c\/em\u003e offers a rare pleasure: intimacy. With emotional clarity and nimble prose, Fennelly invites readers to share her affirming worldview--one in which even our smallest interactions are rife with possibility.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e W. W. Norton \u0026amp; Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/24\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781324117407\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 144\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/01\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/15\/2025\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Beth Ann Fennelly","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52136377974965,"sku":"9781324117407","price":19.54,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_7d9c6a47-6117-4c77-99cf-34044750ea95.jpg?v=1767114246","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-irish-goodbye-micro-memoirs-9781324117407","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}