The Great Fire: A Novel
by Shirley Hazzard
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 497)
Read in June, 2008
"The Transit of Venus" eventually won me over, despite occasional frustration with Shirely Hazzard's mannered and oblique style. But there were relatively few rewards for plodding through this disappointing effort. Hazzard's account of the romance between war veteran Aldred Leith and 17-year old Helen Driscoll spans a large canvas, both geographically and historically - the action unfolds from Hiroshima and Hong Kong to London and Wellington, in the immediate aftermath of World War II...more
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Although I find this book terrible on many levels, I must start by saying that Shirley Hazzard is a good writer. Actually an excellent writer. Looking back on my experience reading the book, I have to say that I often enjoyed the beautiful phrasing long enough to forget what a terrible book this actually is. (as a side note concerning Ms. Hazzards language, if any Australians or New Zealanders happen to read this review, please let me know if you actually use the word "Antipodean" t...more
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Read in May, 2008
This is a book that I'd been wanting to read for a while-- I mean, it won the Booker, didn't it? And the cover is really appealing, practically screaming it's an important-yet-challenging book, just the kind of thing that flatters as it seduces. And for the most part, it does all of that.
I found it first and foremost beautifully written-- Hazzard has this really hard to characterize but hard charging prose style here-- lots of fragments sort of shored up together, a forceful free indirect d...more
I found it first and foremost beautifully written-- Hazzard has this really hard to characterize but hard charging prose style here-- lots of fragments sort of shored up together, a forceful free indirect d...more
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Read in January, 2004
This book was a huge disappointment for me. I don't remember much about it but I cribbed from this positive amazon review--I thought it was funny because all these "good" lines the Amazon reviewer likes are not good to me:
My words are inadequate to describe this book. To paraphrase Ms. Hazzard when she lets one character describe another's beauty by saying "no one has a right to look like that," I say that no one has a right to write like this. Her prose is graceful, con...more
My words are inadequate to describe this book. To paraphrase Ms. Hazzard when she lets one character describe another's beauty by saying "no one has a right to look like that," I say that no one has a right to write like this. Her prose is graceful, con...more
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Read in September, 2007
I don't know. Several people had recommended this book, but it didn't do much for me. I found it to be a little overwrought and melodramatic. Strangely melodramatic, because it also felt like she was imitating someone like Penelope Fitzgerald, with her sparse, economical lines. Except, in this case she just kept dropping the subject clauses from her sentences. And they were still florid. Florid fragments. And besides that, the whole treatment of the post-war love story, in addition to being full...more
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Read in April, 2006
"One would always want to think of oneself as being on the side of love, ready to recognize it and wish it well --but, when confronted with it in others, one so often resented it, questioned its true nature, secretly dismissed the particular instance as folly or promiscuity. Was it merely jealousy, or a reluctance to admit so noble and enviable a sentiment in anyone but oneself?"
Eloquently written. Sometimes, it took several tries to get through a passage in this book, but only be...more
Eloquently written. Sometimes, it took several tries to get through a passage in this book, but only be...more
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Read in December, 2008
It took me some time to get into this novel, having put it down at one point a little over a year ago, but Hazzard's story about a 30-ish year old highly decorated WWII veteran arriving in occupied Japan several years after the conclusion of the war, and his falling in love with a 18 year old woman-child, is well written and touching.
Broad in its scope, the primary themes are of a relatively chaste love complicated by participants of different ages and the world emerging from, and ...more
Broad in its scope, the primary themes are of a relatively chaste love complicated by participants of different ages and the world emerging from, and ...more
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Read in August, 2006
Total sleeper as far as I'm concerned, but a great book. No one I ever talk to has read it. My mother was given it as a gift and passed it along to me. I almost put it down in the first 30 pages, but am thrilled I kept reading. It's the story of a brother and sister in post WWII Japan who are European and are befriended by an American who is stationed there immediately after the war. The setting is desolate and hopeless and guiltridden, the parents impossibly awful. The soldier is torn about his...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to YVonne by:
meganh
It was not what I expected at all. The title doesn't really fit the story, I know I can be dim, but the title is just a backdrop to why the characters are in Japan.
Two people fall in love and have to deal with the aftermath of WII and the ocupation of Japan. Our hero is a British war hero and it is his story we follow for the most part. There are other side stories and they are just as interesting as the main story. As stated by meganh, it gives a sense of a lack of direction.
I was surprise...more
Two people fall in love and have to deal with the aftermath of WII and the ocupation of Japan. Our hero is a British war hero and it is his story we follow for the most part. There are other side stories and they are just as interesting as the main story. As stated by meganh, it gives a sense of a lack of direction.
I was surprise...more
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Read in February, 2007
Okay, I picked it up thinking it would be about the great Chicago fire. It was about the aftermath of WWII. I don’t like to read the book flaps. And I needed something to listen to in the car because Mom’s in Mexico for a month. (I usually call her during my commute 2-3 times a week.)
My gosh, there are a lot of characters in this book. The two main characters wander around the globe, trying to get back together. Not one I would really recommend. They meet on the outskirts of Hiroshima an...more
My gosh, there are a lot of characters in this book. The two main characters wander around the globe, trying to get back together. Not one I would really recommend. They meet on the outskirts of Hiroshima an...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Jennifer by:
Classic Listrecommends it for: People who love words, not stories
Not really that thrilled with this book. I read it because I had once found it on some "must read classics" list, but I also once read that Shirley Hazzard is a writer who thinks a little too much of her talent to write (I believe it was Stephen King) and that is what I get out of this book. Loosen up and tell a story - the long beautiful phrases mentioned by a previous review-writer are exactly what the book seems to be about. Oh, and there's some people doing some stuff, but very slo...more
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I recall reading this several years ago and really enjoying it. At least I wasn't alone.
"Shirley Hazzard has written an hypnotic novel that unfolds like a dream: Japan, Southeast Asia, the end of one war and the beginning of another, the colonial order gone, and at the center of it all, a love story." Joan Didion
"I wish there were a set of words like 'brilliant' and 'dazzling' that we saved for only the rarest occasions, so that when I tell you The Great Fire is brilliant...more
"Shirley Hazzard has written an hypnotic novel that unfolds like a dream: Japan, Southeast Asia, the end of one war and the beginning of another, the colonial order gone, and at the center of it all, a love story." Joan Didion
"I wish there were a set of words like 'brilliant' and 'dazzling' that we saved for only the rarest occasions, so that when I tell you The Great Fire is brilliant...more
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3 comments
Read in February, 2008
This is another one people either seem to love or hate. Not an easy read, but if you've got the time to get lost in a labyrinth of language, you might enjoy this love story set (mostly) in Japan after WWII. There were evenings, reading this, when I liked the way the author made me slow down and wring meaning from each sentence. Don't get me wrong; it's not a slow, leisurely read, but a slow, intense one. I liked the last part of the book, especially the sections in New Zealand, best.
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Read in January, 2008
I read this book in 2004 and gave it a terrible, damning review. After reading Hazzard's wonderful "The Transit of Venus," I thought I should give this one a second try, and I'm glad I did! My accusations of slightness still hold; however, this time I was able to appreciate Hazzard's attempt to show how slight and transient beauty and happiness are in the aftermath of war, faced with the ugliness not of defeat, but of victory. This would be a high three or low four.
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It's weird: I found myself resisting this as I read, while also being annoyed at myself for being so conventional as to have a problem with the age difference between the lovers. But I found myself really being blown away by the amazing sweep of the whole thing, and I thought, damn: this is the kind of smart, epic, historical love story I wish I could pull off some day. And it's really stayed with me, which says a lot, yes?
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Read in July, 2006
I love this book (even though book club didn't!). There's a fuzziness to the story and the story-telling that makes it a challenge, and her use of language is very sophisticated and requires careful reading, but this book kept surprising me page after page. I found it a gripping portrait of people trying to understand and live life in the aftermath of WWII.
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Hazzard's previous novel, The Transit of Venus remains among my favorites. I was hesitant and excited to read this latest one; I found I was not disappointed. Hazzard takes her time writing the story and telling the story. Each word is deliberate, like each step Leith takes as he crosses East Asia. The story is dense, classic literature at its best.
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Read in December, 2007
I liked the book a lot. I think Shirley Hazzard is one of the finest writers of our day but I read it shortly after reading The Transit of Venus and I didn't think that it was as good. Its still amazing and wonderful the way the story unfolds and the characters develop and you fear what might happen to them but I put it in 2nd place behind Transit.
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Read in June, 2007
recommends it for:
Comtepary literarary fans
At first I re-read severals graphs, pages, and at the end I think it's a powerful book. Hazzard describes the time right after world war II, characters with large pasts, and in transitions or next steps for their futures. And it's a lot of waiting. Be patient with this one, it starts growing on you after 50 odd pages, not right off the bat
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Wow. I read about 40 pages of this book and sent it back to the library. She used so many words I wasn't familiar with, and I was reading in snippets, so the story wasn't grabbing me. I think this is a good book, though, and I hope to pick it up again when I have more time to savor the complex writing and thoughtful narration.
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