Customer Reviews

Stealing the Fire

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Stealing the fire is a powerful collection of stories full of human drama. Jane Ciabattari is a master at detailing life's lessons and trials. It is absorbing literary fiction at it's finest.

I happened to attend Ciabattari's reading of "Stealing the Fire" at Readers Books in Sonoma, California, when it was first published, and I was impressed enough to buy a copy of the book, a paperback. She appeared to be an author who has searched deeper into the minutae of emotions and experience to re-order the apparently ordinarily chaotic life experiences of her subjects in such a way that we find identification and resolution in her characters' responses to the extraordinary things that happen to ordinary people like ourselves. I suppose we all search for outselves in literature, but Ciabatarri's choices in singling out unfamiliar characters also work to illuminate ways of responding to life that we may have overlooked in our own lives, and I found that extremely rewarding. This is definitely a strong voice in contemporary fiction that stresses actions of the spirit in unexpected circumstances. I give it the highest rating.

This debut collection of short stories tells about real life in rich poetic prose. The characters are people I would meet, and they are in contemporary dilemmas. Their struggles with relationships, the computer age, global travel, interaction with nature, and mortality add up to a book of wisdom. This is a gem.

These short stories are literary but at a very accessible level. They tell experiences I can relate to. They let me see the West and parts of the country I don't know. I recommend them very highly! The people were real and came alive. Even stories with sad elements were somehow inspiring and made me feel better after I read them. I usually like only longer fiction (novels) but I couldn't put this book down.

Jane Ciabattari has mastered the short story. Each story in this collection is a stand-alone. She has the ability to infuse her characters with real life characteristics so they are believable to anyone. She does not depend on a formula-driven technique, but seems to actually live out the plots before she approaches her computer to write them. One of my reactions was, "How can one person understand so much?" I look forward to reading one of her stories with great relish, much as I did with Hemingway, John Updike, and James Michener.