Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

Tenemental

Adventures of a Reluctant Landlady

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

A heartfelt coming-of-age memoir about taking the unbeaten path, owning a home, and holding it all—including yourself—together.

Detouring from the traditional timeline of marriage-kids-house, twenty-six-year-old Vikki Warner skips straight to homeownership. She buys a downtrodden three-story house in Providence, Rhode Island, and suddenly finds herself responsible for a rotating cast of colorful tenants. Adulthood comes with unforeseen challenges: backed-up sewage, gentrification, global economic downturn. A candid portrait of how sharing space profoundly reshapes our lives, and forces us to grow into ourselves.

“Forget the marriage plot; 26-year-old Warner is after a plot of land…. [An] ebullient memoir.”—O, The Oprah Magazine

“Refreshingly original reading.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A thoughtful meditation on communal living and urban identity…. Quirky and fun.”—The Providence Monthly

“Wry, smart, personal, and pretty damn punk rock.”—Kate Schatz, author of Rad Women Worldwide

“Cheers to Vikki Warner, whose tenacious and inspiring coming-of-age story gives voice to a new generation of independent women and grown-ass boss ladies.”—Margot Kahn, coeditor of This is the Place

“Full of color, life, and that special type of real, earned wisdom that only comes with taking risks and trusting completely in your own young self.”—Kate Bolick, author of Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own

“An ode to the messiness of life, Tenemental is the incredibly raw, touching, and laugh-out-loud story of a woman figuring out how to get by in the world.”—Emma Ramadan, co-owner of Riffraff Bookstore

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      March 15, 2018
      An acquisitions editor and freelance writer tells the story of how she became the owner and landlady of a century-old New England tenement home.In 2004, Warner bought a three-story house she called PennHenge in the gritty Federal Hill area of Providence, Rhode Island. She was in her mid-20s and feeling the "twinge of wanting in" to a real estate market she feared would one day be closed to her. Big, awkward, and decaying, from the street PennHenge looked like "a freakishly large tooth in a grinning mouth." Yet Warner made the commitment to buy it anyway, convinced that she would be embarking on a "practical endeavor" that would double as her version "of a badass path less traveled." Soon after moving in, she became painfully aware that PennHenge would need many repairs and upgrades that she could not afford. Determined to make her new living arrangement work, Warner rented out two of the three floors to a rotating cast of lively oddball characters who, like the author herself, were young and "straining to leave adolescence." Her independence and feminist impulses pushed her to take responsibility for the house and tenant "messes large and small." But after years of feeling overwhelmed, she learned to "cede control in order to preserve my mental state." As Warner accepted her limitations and the cheerful chaos that defined her reality, she also realized that no matter how imperfect her home, she genuinely loved it as it was. Things in PennHenge may have been dirty, broken, or misaligned, but the author was still happy for what she had created in a world obsessed by illusions of perfect--and ultimately unsustainable--lifestyles. The book is not only a story of a young woman's often hilarious (mis)adventures in homeownership; it is also a thoughtful meditation on how living spaces both reflect and shape the individuals who inhabit them.Refreshingly original reading.

      COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      May 15, 2018
      When Warner was 26, she decided to leave renting life behind and use the small nest egg she had earned to purchase a dilapidated three-apartment house in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. Though she never expressly sought to dismantle antiquated spinster landlady stereotypes, providing quality housing with a large dose of caring for her tenants quickly became her main priority. The homeowning life is never quite what Warner expects it to be, with new financially draining problems appearing as quickly as her revolving door of eccentric renters rotates. In this hilarious and down-to-earth memoir, Warner provides a rare glimpse of life as an emotionally present landlady. She admits to fears of fire and crushing debt, and recounts the frustration of dealing with condescending maintenance men. Warner places her story firmly in its social time line, a wild ride through the Great Recession and into the anti-environmentally conscious era of Trump. Heartfelt and fascinating, this is perfect for readers curious about the person on the other side of their rent checks.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Loading