Customer Reviews

Holding Fire: A Love Story

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Having read this book and liked it, I am amazed to see the range of reviews, with no middle ground. I think that this is a book which holds the reader's interest, is often insightful about the (mostly) men it portrays, and is very respectful of its (imaginary) characters. Elissa Wald is a promising writer whose work should mature given time, and if she has the courage to resist the unfair diatribes that have been directed at her by unfair people who would denigrate the efforts of an author who has a distinct point of view and the talent to communicate it. The really tacky, tasteless and shallow people in this case are the pseudo reviewers with a mindless grudge.

I am not the author of this book and I am not a friend of the author. I'm just someone who read the book, and I liked it. It wasn't the best book I've read this year, but it was far from the worst. I'm glad I read it.

A novel with a timely topic is blemished by a turgid and disjointed writing style. None of the characters is even moderately well developed, and rather crude ethnic stereotyping abounds. The author works too hard at trying to endow a stripper with refined qualities. Rather than exploring any one relationship in depth, the author quickly jumps to another, and then yet another.

Some of the situations are interesting, but the previous reviewer is right that the author introduces too many characters and has too much going on to focus sufficiently on any character or situation. As for the raw description of the homoerotic-or whatever you want to call it- act with one firefighter, Jake Schiller,it didn't add anything, and I would rather not know about it. The Heart of the Hero, 3000 Degrees or anything by Dennis Smith (Report from Engine 82, Report from Ground Zero, Final Fire) all give a more compelling picture of firefighters.

The people writing 1-star reviews for this book are clearly not unbiased readers, they are people who have a bone to pick with the author, most likely in a misguided attempt to defend the memory of one of the real-life firemen who are said to have inspired some of the characters. There is no way an unbiased reader could look at this book, which is a very serious and moving novel, and conclude that it's in the bottom 10-15% of books ever written (which is effectively what a 1-star review means, if you assume a bell curve with most books meriting 3 stars and very few deserving 1 or 5). You might like the book more or less depending on your tastes, and you might decide it's a 3-star or 4-star book instead of a 5-star book, but it is clearly, definitely not a 1-star book. The people writing 1-star reviews appear to be angry that the book exists -- just look at the invective and fury in their reviews -- rather than judging it for its literary merit, which is considerable.

It is shameful that in America, the free country the firemen they loved died to defend, these people are waging an underhanded, sneaky campaign to try to silence an author and cause a worthy book to disappear just because they don't approve of the way certain characters are portrayed. That's not the way things are supposed to work in this country.

This novel is an incredibly complex layering of human relationships that make it impossible to limit it to one category. These characters are very real, with all of the failings and confusion and even a few of the triumphs that real-life entails. Many of us are lucky never to know what struggles truly troubled people endure every day and I think we get a good peek here - a reminder that our most painful battles are often those that take place within our own minds.
Ms. Wald's keen ability to give each character a unique voice and her finesse in weaving seamlessly between past and present illustrate a superb skill unusual in a first novel.

I bought Holding Fire expecting to read about firemen and the amazing rescues they make. Ms. Wald has given us that and so much more. These firemen are real, flesh-and-blood men who are heros but who also have everyday life problems like the rest of us. Like all New Yorkers, I had deep respect for the job a fireman does well before September 11th. Ms. Wald's book has given me incredible insight into the lives of firemen. She honors them by showing us how human they really are. I will read this book many times.