The Fireman's Fair by Josephine Humphreys

Saturday, June 07, 2008

"This is a wonderful novel about a man who is sleeping through life, and then one day a hurricane hits. And the man decides that he doesn't really like the practice of law anymore, so he's going to do something about that. And the man's been fantasizing about women his entire life, and so now he's going to do something about that, too. A really remarkable book! One thing that's interesting about Humphreys work is that she focuses so strongly on one character. In this book we are privy to all of Rob's thoughts--and he has a lot of them!--but none of the other characters, and so they remain mysterious, both to us and to Rob. We're not sure why they do things. The hurricane, which one character calls an "act of God," strongly suggests that there are not only people, but forces Rob does not understand, and will never understand, let alone control. One imagines that the characters who interact with Rob in the book suspect that he is in the midst of a self-destructive part of his life--again, the hurricane metaphor--and yet we, who are privy to all his thoughts, realize that he is at his most alive, and in his center he is totally calm."
Review on Amazon written by Taylor Carmichael.
I usually try to write my own reviews but this book was hard for me to describe and this Amazon review really did it well. At first, I thought the story was not worth pursuing, but I'm glad I did. Humphreys writes so beautifully and the characters, especially Rob, are captivating. Not an especially happy book, still the ending is very up beat and affirming. My first thought was that I would mooch the book as soon as I finished it, but decided to keep it for a re-read someday. There are layers there that I need to spend more time with. And I plan to read some others by Humphreys
Rating: 4.25
Posted by Framed at 10:24 AM

3 comments:
gautami tripathy said...
You read the most interesting books. I wish I could find those books here!
6/07/2008 8:05 PM
Trish said...
I want to say I read another of her books "Rich in Love" but I could be thinking of a different author. Like you I wasn't sure how good it was going to be until I got further into it.
6/11/2008 5:25 AM
Andrea said...
This sounds intriguing, I'll have to add it to my list!