Fires (Paperback)

~ Nick Antosca (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Fires is a novel full of creeping menace and near-apocalyptic lunacy . . . the book is a blast to read. --Victor LaValle, author of The Ecstatic

Fires is a striking work reminiscent of James Salter (A Sport and a Pastime) in its combination of a cool unforgiving eye and a hot intensity of feeling and sensual immediacy. --John Crowley, author of Little, Big

Fires is fantastic. It s often dark, often startlingly beautiful, and it s crammed with a smoky, foreboding atmosphere that kept pulling me along, thrilled and a little scared, toward the end. --Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and the forthcoming We Disappear

Product Description

Deer running through a ghost neighborhood. A boy trapped in a basement for eight years. Three young people locked in a violent sex triangle. Come inside. Already caught between the ambition and alienation of life at an Ivy League school, Jon Danfield must come face to face with a revelation about his small-town past. His journey will take him away from the halls of privilege and into the heart of the monstrous forest fire threatening his childhood home. On deserted suburban streets lined with perfect houses, Danfield must confront an American dream corroded by unspeakable acts of cruelty.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 195 pages
• Publisher: Impetus Press; 1st edition (December 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977669327
• ISBN-13: 978-0977669325
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #948,876 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars See what's behind the mask, February 17, 2007

By	Ian G. Dorward - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Nick Antosca has created a compelling, oftentimes brilliant look at humanity--its suffering, its cruelty, its love, and its healing. The other reviews point out that this is a "good debut," but that's dismissive; it's just plain good, and sometimes frighteningly so. That this is a first novel just inspires awe at a new writer's prowess.

The novel is short, yes, but it lingers long after it's been read and set aside. That kabuki mask on the cover keeps staring at you, reminding you of where you've been and what it meant.

Structurally, Fires unfolds like a boxing match against a seasoned pro who initially toys with you, throwing light jabs here and there to tease and play, but who gradually starts battering the bones with increasingly brutal and merciless blows until he finally has you against the ropes, and you're just hoping that some shred of humanity remains behind those lead-smelted fists. The images, the metaphors, and all the elements of the novel's language become increasingly feverish and passionate towards the end, as if exacting some revenge you never expected or thought you warranted--not at all unlike what happens in the actual plot.

And the plot, you will see, contains a startling relevance to recent events in the news, as if the author possessed amazing prescience to unleash his work on the public at exactly the right time. Questions that this country has been puzzling over for weeks are addressed with cogency in Fires.

This is the first, I hope, of many novels by this exciting new author. I'm eagerly awaiting the rest.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, February 28, 2007

By	Jesse Pizarro (New York City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read Fires in one sitting, as I imagine most people do. Easily engrossing, and certainly fast-paced, Nick Antosca manages not only to tell a fascinating story, but to write an excellent novel as well. With prose above all vivid, nuanced characters and appropriate (if standard) episodic plotting, Fires is well-worth reading, and thinking about too. The first time through I was simply gorging myself on the story, yet rest assured - the prose is still savory the second time through, and there are little joys to discover ("Girls who play games should be shipped off to an island with a volcano."). Let no one accuse Antosca of inauthenticity: half the book takes place at Yale, from which Antosca graduated in '05; the other half in a Maryland suburb similar to where Antosca grew up. The novel just begins, the reader thrust into Yale senior John Danfield's world. Through Danfield's eyes we see both Yale and New Haven from the sideline of both. Danfield lingers on the fringes, barely a student in the literal sense. John meets Ruth, damaged goods with an edge, and the two begin a schizophrenic courtship, by turns tender and violent, sometimes both. In the darkness that envelops the rest of the novel, only the monstrous fire that threatens the Eastern seaboard casts any light, and its glow is ominous. John moves in its shadow. As to the question of whether he emerges into the light, that's up to you to find out (and then perhaps to decide). Whole-heartedly recommended to anyone who likes...reading.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous debut novel, July 11, 2007

By	Scott J. Forman - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Nick Antosca has a precociously forceful voice, a magnetic narrative sense, and a sharp eye for telling detail ("A little boy's cap lies flat in the sand, as if he's down there too"). This is a spark plug of a book; a thoroughly enjoyable novel from a talented young writer.