Holding Fire: A Love Story [Hardcover]

Elissa Wald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2001

Elissa Wald does for the culture of firefighting what Sebastian Junger did for commercial fishing and the inner-life of storms in this tough, compassionate story. A heroicyet traumatizedVietnam vet turned fireman, an aspiring writer who works as a stripper to make ends meet, and a compelling cast of characters comprise the far from perfect world portrayed in Holding Fire . With prose that is at once realistic and lyrical, Wald draws the reader into a world of courage and catastrophe in this modern tragedy about firemen and the people who love them. Junot Diaz calls Holding Fire, "A fine, passionately wrought novel... [her] vision of the world has much to teach us about the brevity of desire and the longevity of pain." Pat Conroy says, "Elissa Wald is a brave new voice in American fiction. She works all the margins of the wild side, and brings us news from those frontiers that very few writers have dared to approach."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

New York City firefighters assume center stage in this meandering, sometimes clumsy debut novel. Alicia, a writer of bad poetry who strips to pay the bills, jump-starts the action when she rediscovers Jonah Malone, the fireman who saved her life when she was five but only after Wald spends the first few chapters chronicling Alicia's torrid three-month affair with another fireman, Jake Schiller, the very model of homophobic manliness. The improbable relationship between Alicia and Jonah culminates in marriage, though wedded bliss quickly deteriorates because of several factors: the psychological wounds caused by Jonah's abusive upbringing and service in Vietnam; the jealous machinations of Wes, Jonah's wealthy gay mentor; and a tragic fire that kills three firemen and figuratively envelopes Jonah in its aftermath. Wald, whose first book, Meeting the Master, was a collection of s&m tales and poetry, tries to spice things up with plenty of sex indeed, it seems every firefighter in New York is a muscular but sensitive stud. The novel piles on the cliches ("like a light at the end of the night's tunnel") and flows unevenly, straying too often into bodice-ripper territory (including a mock rape or two), and on several occasions the firefighters grow indistinguishable from one another. Moreover, Alicia remains a half-formed character, her motivations and background a mystery that continuously vexes, because Wald employs her as a thread tying various characters together. The ease, for example, with which she falls in love with the much older, emotionally scarred Jonah is puzzling, lending the relationship a superficial sheen. Although Wald has taken on some interesting material here, the novel never really heats up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...[her] vision of the world has much to teach us about the brevity of desire and the longevity of pain." -- Junot Diaz

"Elissa Wald is a brave new voice in American fiction." -- Pat Conroy

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Context Books (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893956148
• ISBN-13: 978-1893956148
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,650,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Different perspective from a man once in the same firehouse, June 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Holding Fire: A Love Story (Hardcover)

I approach this book from a different perspective than most readers, in that I actually knew the heroic firefighter that ( as it is reported in the press)the leading character, Jonah Malone, was based on. Although the author has based some episodes on great rescues in his career, it seems that she missed the boat by giving no clue as to why this man was so beloved by firefighters and all who knew him long before his tragic death on 9/11. This warm, funny, compassionate, brilliant and humble man was a far more interesting character than the fictional (and at times rather boorish) Jonah Malone.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Novel, October 4, 2001

By 

Lynn (New York. NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Holding Fire: A Love Story (Hardcover)

After reading Holding Fire, I was dimayed to see some of the tactless reviews printed here. Elissa Wald has written a beautiful novel with terrific depth and sensitivity. Sure it contains some sex scenes, even a graphic one, and they are purposeful, human, and layered with meaning. To call them "soft porn" or to compare them with "bodice rippers" demonstates a less than acute read of Ms. Wald's fine work. If you want firemen who are deemed HEROS and have no other facets to their lives, and people who do not have or do not think about sex, do not buy this book. Time-transport yourself back to the 50's.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a lot of depth, March 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Holding Fire: A Love Story (Hardcover)

After watching the 9/11 documentary on CBS, I knew more about firefighters, what their lives are like, where they're coming from, and what motivates and moves them than I did by reading this book.

I found Wald's style choppy and hard to follow. I have no problem with non-linear narrative and flashbacks, but sometimes it's hard to tell when events are happening, which makes it hard to keep up with the story.

I didn't find a lot of the relationships convincing. Not horrible, but not convincing. Wald tries to explore a variety of types of relationships: husbands and wives, cheating husband and the other woman, lovers, "sugar daddies" (for lack of a better word), stripper and client, two people going through a tragedy together, fathers and sons, sons and father figures, rescuer and rescued, and probably some more that I'm forgetting. That's the point -- too many different relationships are explored without any real depth to any of them.

Unlike some reviewers, I didn't find this portrayal insensitive, just incomplete. The sex scenes aren't particularly graphic or gratuitous, but don't add much to the character development either.