Customer Reviews

The Fires of Edgarville

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This book is an excellent read, and presents much detailed information about the experiences of Japanese residents of the Pacific North West during, and following World War II. The writer leads one through a series of exciting scenarios involving fire fighting, and caring for a relative with advanced symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The writer's medical backround and familiarity with orchard management as well as fire fighting comes through with his acuracy and detailed descriptions.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Within a few chapters I got hooked, and when I did, the novel became one of those "difficult-to-put-down" books.

Followed by his faithful dog, aptly named Trouble, the main character, Hank Davenport, finds himself burdened with the care of his senile and enigmatic mother - a woman with a secret. Danner carefully connects scenes from the woman's youth in a Japanese-phobic Oregon in WWII with the current events taking place in the novel and it is not until he has unraveled his own past in an exciting conclusion that Davenport achieves peace.

There is a lot more than just plot in "Fires of Edgarville". There is a blurring of lines between delusion and reality, fantasy and fact. One finds a bit of "magical realism" with the amazing image of the deceased buck springing to life and leaping into the woods with its antlers alight.

Another quality of this book is that the narrative pays careful attention to the physical environment. It is written by a person who loves nature, and descriptions of the valley, the wind, the snow, and the mountain views are inspired.

Craig Danner deserves credit for writing a great book. It is an impressive work of fiction I hope will be enjoyed by many.

A Mormon girl in small town Oregon confronts prejudice against Japanese Americans during World War II.

The Fires of Edgarville by Craig Joseph Danner is a poetic and absorbing tale of two outcasts, looking for themselves: Myrna, raised Mormon, a courageous survivor of brutal prejudice during World War II who is now lost in Alzheimer's, and her half-Japanese son, Hank, a doctor accused of a terrible crime, struggling to unravel the convoluted mystery of his ethnicity.

Hank and Myrna have returned with Hank's wife to Myrna's family home in small town Oregon, where the pear orchard has rotted, the house is collapsing, and no one but a few old-timers remember that this was once the town of Edgarville. Hank has lost his profession as a pediatric cardiologist, his license snatched away when he is accused of hastening a child's death. With grit and tenacity, Hank sets about rebuilding his life as a volunteer fireman, repairing the homestead, and exploring the minefield of his mother's past.

Myrna proves to be a very difficult woman to live with, dropping into sinkholes in her memory, triggered into explosions by the smells, faces, and landscapes of her violent childhood. Through her eyes the reader grows up again in a repressive Mormon home, falls in love with a Japanese man, and is hideously deserted by her family on the eve of World War II. We see Myrna, a young teenager, going alone into the world, weaving elaborate lies to protect her son, and throwing her body between a hostile America and her tender little boy.

Through Hank's eyes Myrna lives a non sequitur; swearing at her scrambled eggs, laughing into silences, and slapping Hank for things he never did. Between answering calls of the fire siren, Hank fights to keep the confused Myrna safe, outmaneuvering her tendencies to wander and to play with matches, digging deep for every last scrap of compassion he can feel in an effort to not abandon her. It takes the patience of a saint to care for a loved one whose mind is deteriorating, and in the end Hank proves to be only human. But it is his love for his mother, however difficult the circumstance, that leads Hank home to the truth: about himself, his heritage, and his mother's breathtaking courage.

I highly recommend The Fires of Edgarville for the poetry of Mr. Danner's language, the sensuousness of feels, smells, and sights, and the humanity of the tale.

The Fires of Edgarville is a great story with a broad scope, from a chapter of American history to the intricacies of family dynamics. The plot kept me guessing until the end. It makes the shameful history of the Japanese-American internment in World War II personal and vivid. But what kept me reading most were the characters. I've never read a book with as believable a portrait of a person with dementia. My mother has it, and the portrayal of Myrna rang true, and was also lyrically lovely. Danner gets many kudos for creating Myrna as a totally compelling character. Hank, the main character, is someone you feel for and root for. How he unwinds the mystery of his past, as well as the recent trouble he's suffered, all of which is plausibly created, keeps the pages turning. Minor characters like George are great fun too. I also enjoyed the firefighting context of the book, which Danner creates with thorough realism. It's an original and varied novel which I recommend without reservation.

After the first chapter or two I was completely enthralled by The Fires of Edgarville. The author's ability to intricately weave past and present, reality and imagined reality, and sense of place into a strong narrative made it a difficult book to put down. I particularly appreciated the construct of using Hank's aging, Alzheimer afflicted mother to evoke the non-linearity of time and events in a way that both tied this family's story together and developed her as a distinct character. The story contains history, geography, mystery, family lore, adventure, and societal tragedy all in one volume and does it in a way that provokes deep thought long after the book has been read. A very fine novel.