Customer Reviews

The Book of Fires: A Novel

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was a big fan of "The Year of Wonders" which this book is being compared to. And, I must admit, it is reminiscent of that novel. A young girl finds herself pregnant and alone. Rather than face the shame and end up being forced to marry the lout who raped her, she flees to London with a handful of gold coins stolen from a dead woman. Now that is the way to start a novel.
The narrative is so descriptive that you feel immersed in the scenery of the time and place just as the narrator is.
Once in London, she escapes being a prostitute when she finds a job working with a fireworks maker. She continues to try and keep her secret but, in working together, she begins to trust. In the end, not only her secret is revealed.
If you are a fan of historical fiction, this is a wonderful novel. I think this story is much more optimistic than the reality of this era actually was for women. A naive country girl moving to London alone would most likely have ended up on the streets as a prostitute in order to survive or being kept in a workhouse. It would have been very unusual for a young woman to be hired as an apprentice to work with explosives. But this is a novel and the story line works in this context.

With her debut novel, The Book of Fires, Jane Borodale has written a meticulous period drama with a memorable heroine. In the fall of 1752, seventeen-year-old Agnes Trussel finds herself in the family way. Nearly paralyzed with fear and shame, when opportunity presents itself Agnes abandons her family home in the country and makes her way alone to London. Almost miraculously, she finds shelter and a job assisting widower John Blacklock, an artisan manufacturer of fireworks.

Somewhat uncomfortably, Agnes becomes a member of the small household. And by Blacklock's side she learns the tools of his trade. I know as much about fireworks as the average person, but Borodale's novel deeply explores the intersection of art and science involved in the endeavor, and it's a fascinating background for Agnes's story.

All the while, day by day, Agnes's secret is growing, threatening her position and her very future in this restrictive and unforgiving society. Agnes is definitely a reflection of her times. The novel's opening is a bit slow as she ponders her guilt and shame over and over. However, once the bulk of the story got going, I found myself entranced with the tale being told. The end of the novel was, perhaps, excessively well-telegraphed, but was no less satisfying for being predictable.

The fictional story of Agnes Trussel is set in 1752. She is a poor country girl who was raped and became pregnant. She runs away to London and finds a job working for a fireworks maker.

The story sounds very promising but the author mistakes knowledge of the period with story-telling. There are so many boring details that there really doesn't seem to be much of a story. It seems an opportunity for the author to sound smart explaining the minutiae of making fireworks and its dangers, the poor living conditions of the time and the naivete of the heroine. It's a hazard for writers of historical fiction; they often do a lot of research and by golly they are going to work every last detail in to the story. A good editor would have done this book wonders.

The jacket of the book puts it in league with authors Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Waters, Sheri Homan and Michael Faber. That is a stretch. Those authors write stories with "atmosphere" but develop the characters and create a story that is not bogged down with self-indulgent rhetoric. Their characters are believable.

"In my worn cotton shift I look surely like a great sow, though when I lift my shift to my chin and turn to study my bare blind swollen belly in the cracked and spotted looking glass upon the washstand, it could not be more nakedly a shocking human sight, smooth and ripe inside my skin." "The Book of Fires" Page 195

If you have an interest in fireworks history and adjective-laden sentences (referred to as "atmosphere"), you may enjoy parts of this book but don't expect a compelling story.

Agnes Trussel is a surprisingly innocent young woman for having grown up in the country with parents who produce new offspring nearly every year. She is half seduced, half raped by the village bully, and when she discovers that he has made her pregnant she considers her options and, given heart by an unexpected windfall, chooses to leave home and travel to London rather than be forced into marrying her child's father. She finds herself at the door of a maker of fireworks, begging for the job of housekeeper, but hired on as his assistant instead. And from that moment, a world of new ideas is opened to her.

If I have one quibble with the book it's that Agnes is a bit too wonderful -- she exists on the thin, sharp edge of being a Mary Sue -- a beautiful young woman who doesn't realize she's beautiful, who is smart and resourceful, and who has a mot juste for every occasion. Borodale does manage to balance these qualities with some interesting flaws, including a stunning emotional obtuseness. And yet in spite of both her flaws and her good qualities, Agnes is interesting enough as a character to carry the story. However, for me, the most interesting character of the lot is John Blacklock, who in many ways remains a mystery, even to Agnes. His emotional life becomes clearer and deeper as the story progresses, and yet we can never quite come to know him. He is, like his fireworks, a flame that burns brilliantly but all-too-quickly. And as he says of the pyrotechnics themselves, the silence they carry within them is their true beauty.

Both Agnes and John are working to bring something new into the world. This is the story of how they each go about their work, together and yet always in the end, isolated from the rest of the world and even from each other. In fact, most of the books' characters are complex and interesting, though it's not always immediately apparent. They require patience, too, as does a plot which never quite becomes a romance or mystery, or strays into any other literary genre. It can sometimes be slow, sometimes even difficult, but I found it eminently worth the time, and in fact read the book in two long sittings.

And yes, it made me cry. That doesn't happen often, and I'm not going to say why it did for fear of spoiling the reader. Let me just say that it touched a deep and resonant chord in me with its slow sadness, and ultimate reaffirmation of life.

The Book of Fires is the story of Agnes, a pregnant and unwed seventeen-year-old overwhelmed by the new life she is forced to make for herself in London after leaving her family. The author has a gift for description--mid-eighteenth century London comes to life in vivid detail. I was even fascinated by the way the author explained the details of the pyrotechnic career that Agnes falls in to. I do wish that the story didn't take so long to get going. Once it becomes clear that Agnes must leave her family and the small village they live in, I don't need another 20 pages to convince me; let's go to London! The ending made up for the slow start and kept me turning pages long into the night.

Definitely recommended to historical fiction fans.

I am thrifty with my absolutes. However, I must make an exception and celebrate this debut novel by proclaiming this as the most visually stunning, sublime prose I have encountered in any book this year. Every sentence is an ineffable bliss to read. I urge you to experience it the way I did, without too much information beforehand. Be dazzled and bedazzled by this symphony of the senses; the words transcend the story. Rockets will fire from all your synapses. Dinner may burn.

The story's premise, which takes place in 1751, is solid but does not break new ground in literature, although the element of fireworks and their meticulous craft adds a fresh and novel spark. Agnes Trussel, 17, and in dire straits for a woman of her time, runs off from her rural Sussex countryside and farmer family to escape to London. There she is employed by the brooding, enigmatic pyrotechnist, J. Blacklock, and becomes his apprentice. She is a quick study of powders, pigments, and combustibles; she learns to load pastilles, gerbes, Bengal lights, and numerous other explosive projectiles. Agnes is an anachronism, which fuels the narrative and makes her a potent protagonist. The story sizzles and bursts with a seamy cast of characters--dandies; scullery maids; creepy men with rotten teeth; prostitutes; merchants of every class; a mute; and other baroque personalities. And although the author illuminates this era vividly, it isn't satire or burlesque. It isn't a bodice-ripper. And there is not a lot of irony, either. Yet it is not melodrama, or bawdily theatrical. It is a well-plotted arc that builds to its conclusion without a lot of fireworks--just the genuine kind.

What elevated me while keeping me rooted to the pages were the flawless, contoured passages. Every sentence is like a Vermeer, or a painting from the most atmospheric of landscape artists, or a shimmering photograph. Facts and physical descriptions become high art and nuanced, dimensional photography. Nature, light, and color are brilliantly defined and lyrically expressed. Borodale is a master of metaphor, alliteration, and allusion. She is a visual virtuoso of words, and her depth of field is sharp and resplendent, perforated with poetical texture. She has striking control over scenic aperture and placement, as if she had used a Swiss lens to frame it, and a blade to sharpen it.

I am astonished that this is the author's first novel. She is an uncannily nimble, hypnotizing writer. I cannot prevent my ardent display of accolades. Anything I say is an understatement to the sculptured sensuality and bursting ebullience of this prose.

One of the previous reviewers mentioned that English
teachers will probably love this book, and I agree. It is
certainly well-written, and the author, Mrs. Borodale,
succeeds admirably in evoking a picture of mid-18th century London, and of the details of everyday life during that era. I would add that history teachers will likely appreciate it as well, and perhaps recommend it to their students, as Borodale does a fine job of referencing a number of significant historical events of the period.
But I am a science teacher, so I approached this
historical novel from a somewhat different perspective. And I am
pleased to report that "The Book of Fires" is not only
historically accurate, but scientifically correct as well.
To recap the story line, the teenage protagonist, Agnes
Trussel, leaves her home in the English countryside and
travels to London. Seeking employment, she is introduced to John Blacklock, one of the premier British pyrotechnists of his day. (Then as now, fireworks were a big business in Europe.) Blacklock takes note of Agnes's evident interest in and aptitude for science, and he decides to make her his apprentice. But Blacklock is not just Agnes's mentor in the fireworks business. He actually becomes a sort of 18th-century equivalent of Bill Nye the Science Guy, introducing her to the wonders of Newtonian physics and early modern chemistry.
It is later revealed that Blacklock is a scientist on a
mission. But unlike the earlier alchemists who endeavored to
turn lead into gold, Blacklock is no Don Quixote chasing after
an impossible dream. His goal is to dazzle his clients and audiences (and gain an edge over his competitors) by introducing the pure, vibrant colors that characterize today's fireworks into his rockets and shells. Unfortunately, the materials with which to accomplish this feat were not available to chemists in the London of 1752. Blacklock is aware that certain metals and their compounds can lend colors to flames, but the best he can do with the repertoire
of combustible materials at his disposal is to produce
flames that are merely tinted with a hint of a blue or green
coloration. He concludes, correctly, that there must be some as-yet-undiscovered substance that can make his dream possible. As he explains to Agnes, Blacklock is convinced that his metallic compounds just need a bit more encouragement (or as he puts it, "more
vigor") in order to display their intrinsic colors in their true, pure form. Borodale, skilled writer that she is, even drops a hint regarding the identity of the particular substance that Blacklock is after, in the guise of a seemingly random reference to the bleaching properties of chlorine.
Eventually, Blacklock succeeds in producing his long-sought-after secret ingredient, in the form of gleaming white crystals that "are seemingly charged with the principle of inflammability (oxygen)". Borodale even has him describe his procedure in what then passed for technical scientific language ("the acid has driven out the air from the alkali..."). But not wishing to reveal any further details of the ending, I won't say more about the novel's conclusion.
I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it for
science teachers, as well as teachers of English and
European history. Among my students, I would especially
encourage girls who have an interest in science and
engineering to check it out. I'll just deduct one star in regard to the plot line, for a few inconsistencies and lapses of logic that several other reviewers have already pointed out (in particular those relating to Agnes' unplanned pregnancy).
And, oh yes, just for the record - the first synthesis of potassium chlorate is actually attributed to the French chemist Berthellot, in 1786.

Agnes Trussel doesn't have much to look forward to. The She's been raped by a neighborhood thug and worse, she's pregnant as a result. Since the year is 1753,Agnes knows that she'll be beaten by her drunkard father and damned as a whore by the townspeople if word gets out. Her mother can't help, the poor woman is completely wasted by years of churning out one baby after another. When an aged neighbor dies and Agnes stumbles upon her small cache of gold coins, she finds the means to escape and runs off to London. I love books that bring us right into other peoples houses, show us what kind of furnishings they had, tell us about their dress and their food and their habits. The Book of Fires does this and thensome. It's a fascinating window into life in the mid-eighteenth century, from the villages around London to the city itself. London doesn't go easy on naive Agnes, who is nearly forced into prostitution and barely keeps herself out of the poorhouse before finding a trustworthy Londoner who gives her a job in his fireworks factory. London shares the spotlight with Agnes as the book's leading character. We get another amazingly detailed look at the hurly burly, the grit and the grime of the hub of the Empire. As Agnes begins her explosive apprenticeship, she becomes more and more interested in her employer, the enigmatic John Blacklock. Will Agnes' pregnancy be revealed? Will John turn her out into the streets? Can a woman succeed in the fireworks business? And what exactly is John hiding???? Saying more would spoil what turned out to be a good story on several levels. Read it for the glimpse into life in the Surrey countryside and on the teeming streets of London, read it to learn what life was like for women of the period, read it for the adventure and the romance. But do read it. It's a great book that practically begs for a comfortable chair, cup of tea, and warm blankey!

Though my reading tastes cover a wide variety of genres, I value atmosphere in my novels. "The Book of Fires" by debut novelist Jane Borodale is a work of historical fiction which I found engaging and atmospheric. Set in the mid 18th century, the story focuses on young Agnes Trussel, who at 17, finds herself pregnant as the result of rape and desperate to save her family from humiliation, she decides to flee her hometown in rural Sussex and make her way to the big city, London. She also takes the savings of a dead neighbor to finance her journey. In London, Agnes finds herself alone and confused, and manages to find employment as apprentice to a fireworks maker, John Blacklock, all the while fearing her two secrets will be revealed.

The characterization of Agnes is well-drawn, eliciting the reader's sympathy through the first person narration - here is a young, naive country girl alone and adrift in a city known for its predators and victims, and with her pregnancy, Agnes' situation becomes all the more desperate. There is a high degree of atmosphere throughout, especially in the descriptions of the city with its teeming, reeking humanity,etc. John Blacklock's character is also well-drawn, being an enigmatic figure with a secret of his own that finally results in an ending that not only is memorable in its poignancy but also quite caught me by surprise.

"The Book of Fires" is a strong first novel and the author shows her strength in drawing well-delineated characters as well as building high atmosphere. I found it interesting and engaging and look forward to reading more by this author.

Book of Fires by Jane Borodale is the best novel that I have read in recent history. One of my favorite novels of all time, written by a contemporary author is "Map of the World", by Jane Hamilton. "Book of Fires" is written with the same literary finesse. For a first novel, "Book of Fires" is extraordinary.
This novel would be ideal for a book group as it begs discussion and individual insight. This is the sort of novel that the reader wants to slowly savor, reading certain passages more than once just to drink in the images, images of life in London in the mid 1700's. Some of the market and street scenes are as colorful as a Bruegel oil painting.
There are layers of symbolism in this book which would be interesting to explore with a book group. I am sure that it is no accident that the novel opens with the ritualistic slaughter of a pig and ends with the birth of a baby. I think the writer attempts to capture a sensual, earthy side to every day life in England before the onset of the Industrial Age. Borodale pays a lot of attention to the color, fabric and smell of her main character's every day life. The novel is narrated by this main character, Agnes Trussel whom the reader gets to know intimately. Agnes is pregnant for 99% of this novel and the reader is excruciatingly aware of each physical encumbrance during the entire pregnancy which seems endless in duration!
If there is anything I would question in Agnes' story as being out of character, it would be her futile attempts to get rid of the fetus at an advanced state of gestation. However, this would be an interesting point of discussion for a book group.
The women rule in this novel. Agnes Trussel, the narrater, the housemaid named Mary Spurren, the cook named Mrs. Blight, the wife of the grocer who is Mrs. Spicer and the illusive Lettice Talbot are carefully developed female characters that the reader will not soon forget. To me, Mr Blacklock in whose home most of the narrative takes place and who happens to be a central figure in the novel is not so affectionately drawn up. Certainly his craft of pyrotechny is described in great detail but to me he remains a tragic, dark figure in the shadows of his own home.
The novel takes place mostly in London with a social backdrop of crime and punishment complete with public hangings on a regular basis. As I am presently taking a class on American Literature during this same time period, this novel offered an historical view on what was concurrently happening in Great Britain.
I highly recommend this novel and look forward to Jane Borodale's next offering!