My Beautiful City - Austin

by David Heymann

In My Beautiful City Austin David Heymann crafts seven masterful tales of a young architect who fails again and again to dissuade his clients from their bad decisions. So the houses he designs aid and abet the ongoing erasure of Austin's ambrosial charm. These sharp, humorous stories explore consequences of Austin's rediscovered allure. Fueled by the dubious intentions of its inhabitants, this is a town growing madly while ignoring the pain of a thousand small cuts.

Genres: Fiction, Architecture

172 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2014

Reviews

[Hillary · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories were a special treat for me, because two things I particularly like are Austin and architecture, for separate reasons. In this collection of stories, I got to experience them both.

David Heymann builds words and paragraphs as beautifully as I imagine his architecture is-- just as intuitive and interesting. I was thoroughly immersed in the Austin way of life, and enjoyed his perspectives and observations that led me to do even more side research, looking up statues and house patterns and locations mentioned in the book. The stories are all separate adventures, but all flow together to create one consciousness of the author, making each story like a chapter of his life. All together, we see a portrait of he himself start to form, in all of his concerns, worries, shocks, laughs and good times, and dealing with people who had a sense of what they were doing-- as well as people who were doing what they wanted, sense be damned.

It was really great to read, and I truly enjoyed it!
I recommend it to anyone who likes Austin, or architecture, or funny true life stories about strange people wanting strange things.

I got this book for free from Good Reads first reads.

[Aaron Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

A loosely-connected collection of short stories that perfectly conveys the fun, relaxed, not-overly-driven spirit of the idealized Austin that seems lodged permanently in our memories of our twenties. Though Heymann swears that the characters in the novel are not drawn directly from his own life, it's obvious that the rich detail here, down to specific species of trees in clients' yards, comes from having spent a good amount of time marinating in the town (like the protagonist, he's been a "practicing" architect in Austin since the mid-80s). My favorite story was "Keeping Austin Weird", where the main character solves an oak-poisoning incident on the site of one of his clients' properties with the help of an arborist whose personal life is straight out of a letter to Penthouse; it mixed thoughtful architectural discussion with barbecue ("There are a series of barbecue joints positioned like Stations of the Cross in a ring of towns around Austin"), serendipitous encounters, and a satisfyingly salacious yarn. But each of the other six stories are also a pleasure to read, and properly appreciative of the way that people balance their inner and outer lives. There's not a higher moral here, just thoughtful appreciations of how pleasant it is to while away the hours in a city with seemingly limitless opportunities to let time float peaceably downstream.

[Grace Usleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I don’t care at all about architecture, but this novel made me enthralled with landscape, the hill country, and the beautiful place I call home. Being away at college and getting to come back to Austin and read this (locally sourced and signed at my beloved BookPeople downtown) made me realize how truly special of a place Austin is. I kind of feel like I need to take it everywhere with me now, like a paperback security blanket. To me, reading this was a reminder that Home is still here, Austin will always exist — but not because of its place on the map. It’s the rolling hills and the strange culture and the rich, beautiful sunsets that crawl beneath the rising oaks and cedars. Austin is what every other city isn’t and cannot ever be. It’s a summer day that never ends, and it is a reminder that that every day is a new horizon.

I loved this book.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiction
David Heymann
My Beautiful City Austin
Houston: John M. Hardy Publishing
Hardcover, 978-0-9903714-0-3
176 pages, $24.00
November 2014


The seven linked stories in architect and University of Texas professor David Heymann's collection of short fiction are a testimonial to his passion for Austin and, hopefully, function as a warning. We flock to gorgeous, temperate Austin and that laid back hippie-techie-arty-nerdy-hipster-music-dude-everything-is-cool-or-soon-will-be vibe. But we refuse to respect what we love and destroy the qualities we claim to value. Suburban sprawl, disregard of ethical architecture and environmental considerations, and what Heymann calls “steroidal houses, huge and tall and…pretentious…starter mansions…” are endangering our beautiful city.

Heymann’s protagonist is also an architect named David. He is funny, earnest, and frequently befuddled by his clients. In “Intern Owners” he is flummoxed when his clients choose a neighborhood and house plan that are starkly different from their personalities and values. In “The Honey Trap” his older, retired clients want to build the personal equivalent of Six Flags as a lure for their grandchildren. “A Life in Ruins” finds David on a house tour suffering cognitive dissonance occasioned by a Shaker style master bedroom in a “vaguely Italianate stucco and stone pile.” “Patterns of Passive Aggression” contrasts Barton Springs—“the psychic heart of Austin”—and Lake Travis.

The author can turn a phrase: “Facts, politics, money: the [Barton] Springs are gradually being strangled, as one landscape takes over another, like starlings, or hydrilla, or antibiotic-resistant strep…” Regarding a certain familiar collection of restaurants: “There are a series of barbeque joints positioned like Stations of the Cross in a ring of towns around Austin.” A subdivision with a mixture of overgrown houses from widely divergent eras and styles looks like “someone had given a group of supersized drag queens the keys to the wardrobe of a historical society.”

And his descriptive skills are pastoral without being effusive. “The rolling reddish ground everywhere was covered in a ridiculousness of bluebonnets, to the edge of the horizon....A bit farther on we came upon a cowboy, fully duded out and saddled up, coming toward us through scrub cedar and cactus, riding herd on a flock of tiny Angora sheep, the legs of which disappeared into the purple blue.”

Heymann’s book is about the role architecture can and should play in our quality of life. He would rather we built innovative structures that incorporate the character of, and partner with, the land on which we choose to live. My Beautiful City Austin is a love song. It remains to be seen whether that song is a rallying seduction or a bittersweet elegy.

First published in Lone Star Literary Life.

[Dino Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed a lung out. I had flashed backs of Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" and the hero Capt Yossarian trying to make sense of the Second World War.

There were trying moments of heart ache stolen from rollicking audacious humor.

[Andy Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of fictional short stories connected by having the same narrator, an Austin architect. The author is also an Austin architect though he writes that none of the stories were inspired by any of his clients. I don't believe the complete denial, the stories rung so true, but I understand the denial as a common thread is the tension between an architect's sense of beauty and desire to fit a home with its natural setting and the gauche taste of the clients.
But the stories are not about architecture, that is simply a conduit that gives the setting for the stories. On the other hand, Austin itself is definitely central to all of the stories and the author's love for Austin and his writing about it is what books this such a good book

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Yosemite Sam, exposed breasts, that dreamy telescoping creek: heroes all."

"Architecture is a conduit to the real."

"When I got to the site, Duane was taking a break, standing on the running board of the open cab of his severely beaten pickup, his shirt off, with a small square portable electric fan, rigged to the cigarette lighter on the dash, stuffed into the waistband of his pants, his twine belt dangling to his knees."

"For me, a lot of Austin is bound up in the possibilities that vision affords."

[Cate Barrett]

A delightful, quick read—“David Heymann is interested in what people want from nature,” reads the author blurb, and I guess it’s fitting that the book feels more about the landscape of Austin than the architecture. Maybe those two things aren’t separate entities to Heymann. The land, trees, lakes and rivers get a lot of description in this book.

Warm fuzzies for Austin. I also enjoyed how it has a sort of timeless element to the story, not grounded in any decade. That concept of “Austin used to be better,” is relatable, but maybe it was always that way.

[Soren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book because my library recommended it, but I didn't enjoy it that much. It was nice to read a book about my hometown, but there was just a lot of geographic and architectural details and no plot.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting grouping of fictional stories from the perspective of ran local architect. Made me nostalgic for old Austin and nice to spend a little time ruminating on our city and the places and people that inhabit it. #24in48Readathon

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work of fiction stands out - in many places it reads like a page from real life in Austin. Its undertone is tragic as it describes how the architect compromises his sense of design, sense of ethics even, to accommodate careless clients. We can hope that this is not always true, but it has a bittersweet ring of truth to it that makes the short stories compelling nonetheless.

[Timmytoothless · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice episodic view into the life of a young architect with an old soul in Austin, TX

[Boz Reacher]

hey...i know where that is