The Great Fire: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Philosophizing and musings
Review: Our book club in the Philippines, XX Libris, feels the novel was written dispassionately, precisely to highlight the interior conflict of characters dealing with post-war impressions. Philosophizing, musings, and subtlety. We noticed the author's fondness for description in 3s with some alliterations. Samples: in the dark, in the rain, in the mud; conquest, plunder, fornication; bleak, grandiose, run-down; buxom, bridal, smiling; shadowy, grace, nearly wordless; the wound, the prison, the waiting; rain, mud, freezing cold; screaming, moaning, delirium, carnage; tetanus, gangrene, amputation; ourselves, our happiness, our adventure; hurt, hot, unresolved; grief, grievance, disbelief; remorse, rightful regret, responsibility; brown, virile, unwithered; towheaded, wordless, watchful; civil, easy, independent; small, rickety, irrelevant; clamorous, censorious, contentious world; heat, hills and colors. We had huge variations when we rated this book: we had a "4" and two "1's." Average rating: 2.1 out of 5.

Rating:
Summary: The style can be annoying at times, but. . .
Review: I loved this book, much more so than "Transit of Venus." Set in post-war Asia, "Great Fire" focuses on the end of war, not the gory aftermath of Hiroshima, but the more subtle effects on the victors, in this case the British. Leith and his friends wander Asia looking for the end of the war and not quite finding it. For them the end is not V-J Day, a triumphant return home, a house in the suburbs. It's been too long, too wrenching. Rather, for Leith it's finding love in an unlikely place, with the teenage Helen. Yes, Helen seems one-dimensional and almost too good to be true, but Leith's tortured soul more than makes up for it--and I could easily see how two sensitive, isolated siblings could build the relationship she and her brother had.
Hazzard's style is a little obscure in places and I'll admit once or twice to just skippping something I didn't get on the second re-reading. But the plot and characterizations more than made up for it. And I liked the ending--Hazzard allows herself to satisfy us without falling into sentimentality. A good read!

Rating:
Summary: More style than substance
Review: There is no denying that the book is stylistically sophisticated, even poetic in parts. But that's really all there is to it. The book said nothing to me, did not really move me at all. It is a shallow love story about characters that never caught my imagination or my heart. Hazaard picked a setting that could have delivered so many important messages, and yet she ignores all of them. Nothing happens in this book. The story lines are disjointed and seem to have very little to do with each other. Background for characters is provided that does nothing to flesh them out or make them more human or understandable. Hazaard's prose - which I at first found extremely annoying because I do not think in sentence fragments as she obviously does - was cold and distancing. It takes more than pretty writing to be a great novel. It takes substance, and this book hasn't got it.

Rating:
Summary: Loved the prose, even when it was undecipherable
Review: The novel is the story of Aldred Leith, a mature, experienced man in his thirties, and his love affair with a 17 year old. The love affair is really a threesome, involving the girl's dying brother, and the relationship between the siblings is beautiful. There are a number of other important and interesting plot elements, but for me it is the writing that makes this book very enjoyable. What is remarkable about this is that The Great Fire abounds with passages I re-read several times without understanding, nor does Hazzard have the type of eye and wit of say an Updike. Reading The Great Fire is a little like reading one of the great essayists, who is always trying to capture subtleties of thought and feeling, and who thereby conveys a love of prose to the reader. As one reviewer put it, The Great Fire is both cerebral and ethereal. A minor point: Hazzard is annoyingly slow in conveying some details of Leith`s background in the beginning, such as exactly what he is doing in Japan.

Rating:
Summary: Prose That Is Truly Poetry
Review: Ms. Hazzard has created an incomparable masterpiece in this book. Her prose is truly poetic. It is sensitive, philosophical, and deeply incisive. The winner of the National Book Award for 2003, it is one of the finest books of the decade. There are really few authors who are able to put this level of expression in so few pages. And each page is like a window upon somebody's soul, whoever she is talking about, as well as the reader.

Set against the backdrop of post WW II occupation, Hazzard expresses so many emotions and feelings in one book, that it is truly exceptional. With a basic anti-war theme throughout, she creates a love story, a very unlikely love story, that is the central theme of the book. But within, she shows us, despair, sadness, mutilation, ennui, elation and imbecility, side by side with love, tenderness, sensitivity, human kindness and purity of heart, especially, as that purity meets the cruel, real world. The book takes a very long trip through an existential reality, yet shows how such reality can be controlled, at least partly, by our decisions and actions.

With stylistic brilliance, Hazzard creates metaphors that are truly magical, and even uses some hugely effective and informative epistilary style with mail, that is not instant, but takes weeks sometimes to travel halfway around the world. Yet in the face of all this turbulence, this destruction, this horror, what may prevail as the strongest thing, is true and pure love. While the concept is surely not new, the manner in which Ms. Hazzard expresses it surely is.

This book is suggested for any reader interested in some of the most profound and exquisite writing to be found. It has appeal to virtually every group of thinking readers. It is a book that speaks to the reader on many levels, but to all of the readers, it has a way of speaking to them personally.

Rating:
Summary: Lyrical & Profoundly Heard
Review: It is rare when a writer comes along and writes a poetic novel, wherein every sentence is a lyric, full of inspiration and pulse. I am reminded of Susan Minot's EVENING, and Maeve Binchy's NIGHTS OF RAIN AND STARS, and Jennifer Paddock's A SECRET WORD. Like all these novels, these scores of the human heart, THE GREAT FIRE roars!

Rating:
Summary: Overrated...don't get fooled by the National Book Award
Review: Considerable hype on this book particularly after it won the National Book award. Save your time and money and pass on it. Book is choppy. Story line is somewhat disjointed. Writing is superb in areas and thin and transparent in others. Strongly suggest you move to Marianne Wiggins book...Evidence of Things Unseen, which was a National Book Award finalist in the same year.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointed
Review: I am an avid reader of contemporary literary fiction, but I must admit that having read this novel I am at a loss to explain its National Book Award status or its four and five star reviews. Actually, that's not exactly accurate... the award I truly don't get but I suppose I can understand some of the very positive reviews, since there are aspects of this novel that undoubtedly would appeal to some readers. Shirley Hazzard is unquestionably a talented writer who can string together beautiful prose, especially as she puts you in the setting. But for me, that seems to be all she was interested in here. The story line goes basically nowhere, although I've read and liked novels in the past that don't necessarily have strong story lines. But those novels had engaging, real-life characters in circumstances that are easily related to. I didn't find that here at all - two of the main players (Aldred Leith and Peter Exley), aside from being almost undistinguishable from one another, were just plain boring.

But what annoyed me most of all was the dialogue. Does anyone else know anybody who speaks to one another like these characters? People just don't talk to one another like the characters in this book... especially the Driscoll children, Ben and Helen. There are so many good books to choose from out there, that I'd have to advise against spending time on this one. (Two books I would highly recommend would be Daniel Mason's "The Piano Tuner" and Tim Winton's "Dirt Music" - oh, and most anything by Jim Crace.)


Rating:
Summary: Like Bland Cucumber Sandwiches
Review: The premise of this novel was so promising- a love story between a 34 year old man and a 17 year old girl set against the back drop of the end of WWII and the bombing of Hiroshima. Unfortunately the book exhibits the detached observations of the British. The author uses pretentious language that is only available in the huge unabridged Websters. One could forgive this faux pas if the book was wonderful. Instead of a huge Italian repast we are served a light English tea with cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches. Skip this one. I only finished it because my book club chose it. However, most if not all of our members thought this was a dry pretentious novel which failed to fulfill its promise. Tho the protagonist makes a trip to see the sight of the bombing of Hiroshima, that is all we are told. There is no description of the site or the hero's feelings about it whatsoever. This is unforgivable.