Most Anticipated by Esquire, Los Angeles Times, Bustle, Rumpus, Write or Die, and Alta Online
“This debut memoir is a daughter’s reckoning: a quest to understand her mystery of a mother, an exploration of mysticism and untreated mental illness, and an indictment of the systems that failed their family…St. Pierre and I grew up in the same remote corner of the west, but you don’t need to know it in order to appreciate the descriptions that add lush texture to this searching, empathetic narrative.” —Esquire, "Best Memoirs of 2024"
“A kaleidoscopic, illuminating reflection on mental health, poverty, gender, and spirituality.” —Bustle, “Spring’s Most Anticipated Books”
“St. Pierre crafts a vivid, richly textured, harrowing memoir of her bond, both steadfast and delicate, with her mother…St. Pierre emerges with a treatise for thinking about not only mental illness and family trauma, but also the ability of belief to alternately empower, embattle, and release. An exhilarating, heart-rending familial portrait.” —Kirkus, *starred review*
“Essayist St. Pierre debuts with a haunting account of her complicated relationship with her mother…This is a beautifully written and often breathtaking examination of a difficult parent-child bond.” —Publishers Weekly
“Love is a Burning Thing is a spectacular, fearless memoir, written with real muscle and voice, guided by an electric eye for truth and compassion. I loved this book.” —Michelle Tea, author of Knocking Myself Up
“Nina St. Pierre's effulgent prose is as fiery as the title itself: unrelenting, strong, and vast. You will be shocked at learning that this is St. Pierre's debut as she wields such a command on language and narrative with extreme sensitivity towards mental illness, social inequities, and of course, the bond she had with her late mother that you'd believe she were a veteran in the world of arts and letters.” —Morgan Jerkins, New York Times bestselling author
"This book is like molten lava rushing down a slope, burning away everything in its path: dangerous and wild and unstoppable, and awe-strikingly beautiful. Love is a Burning Thing is a testament to the life-defining and sometimes life-shattering mother-daughter bond; a free dive into the depths of mysticism and mental illness, and the slippery, disorienting spaces where they overlap; an indictment of systems that leave the most vulnerable to fend for themselves; and a record of a self-determined, wise, embodied creative life rising from ashes—literally." —Lilly Dancyger, author of Negative Space and the First Love
“Nina St. Pierre’s high-wire act of a memoir brilliantly balances pain, wit, and levity in its two trajectories of searching — the mother’s for enlightenment, for meaning, for salvation, and the narrator’s for answers, empathy, and compassion. St. Pierre tells this story with a warmth and intimacy that makes you want to follow her wherever she goes. Love is a Burning Thing will sear your heart in two and leave you smoldering.” —Zaina Arafat, author of You Exist Too Much
"Love Is a Burning Thing is an unflinching portrayal of a mother's untreated mental illness, its wide-reaching impact, and a daughter's drive to make sense of it all. Luminous, haunting, as painful as a burn and as beautiful as the flame that caused it, Nina St. Pierre's love-fueled story broke my heart and opened my eyes. One of the best memoirs I've ever read." —Gabrielle Korn, author of Yours for the Taking
"I was caught up in this memoir from the very beginning and struggled to put it down, not only for the wrenching story it tells about family history, mental illness, American counterculture, and one woman's calling, but because of the time we get to spend in a beautiful and sparsely populated part of California that is almost never represented on the page, on screen, or in the popular imagination. This is a profoundly California book, giving us as illuminating a portrait of the rural north state as it does of Nina's family and her mother's life—full of love, mystery, and heartbreak. I was blown away by St. Pierre's beautiful rendering of this complex family story." —Lydia Kiesling, author of Mobility
★ 2024-01-20
An essayist and culture writer examines the connections among systemic oppression, suffering, and spiritual development.
A decade before St. Pierre was born, her mother set herself on fire in a suicide attempt. She emerged alive, and during her recovery, a nurse taught her about Transcendental Meditation. This origin story of sorts accumulates layers of complexity and premonition as the author describes her youth, bracketed by both poverty and her mother’s desperate pursuit of faith, primarily in the shadow of California’s Mount Shasta, a significant site for New Age seekers. Without a reliable anchor, St. Pierre spent her life between homes and mythologies, nodding to the theoretical possibility of everything but unable to actually believe anything. Her mother’s “spiritual framing of actual injustice” acted as both tether and release, desensitizing the author to eccentricities that were really symptoms and driving her to bodily vices such as drinking. Trying to make sense of her past, her mother, and her place in her mother’s life in the wake of her death, St. Pierre crafts a vivid, richly textured, harrowing memoir of her bond, both steadfast and delicate, with her mother. At its most basic, this is a story about growing up with a parent who, St. Pierre came to recognize, had a mental illness. However, the author shows humility and compassion with her mother’s story, and she offers contextualizing background research that teases apart compounding, victimizing influences of patriarchy and capitalism that drive single mothers—especially those who do not conform to society’s expectations—to religion, spirituality, or even conspiracy theories to create a sense of safety. Sifting through signal moments in her past, St. Pierre emerges with a treatise for thinking about not only mental illness and family trauma, but also the ability of belief to alternately empower, embattle, and release.
An exhilarating, heart-rending familial portrait.
