In the last days of summer, 1962, Bobby Burns first saw McNulty, the Fire-Eater. He could wriggle free of binding chains, or stick a skewer through one cheek and out the other, so it stretched the span of his mouth. Or McNulty could breath fire, so that you couldn’t tell where the man ended and the fire began. McNulty’s past is dark and full of violence, but Bobby cannot stop thinking about him. As he begins his first days at a new school, as he worries about his father’s hacking cough, as he waits outside of the new boy’s house and peers through the windows, Bobby is always thinking of McNulty. Even as his family watches the Cuban Missile Crisis unfold on their television, Bobby wonder what McNulty could teach him, and what the strong man hears as the ocean crashes on their beach. The Fire-Eaters feels somewhat disjointed throughout the first half of the book. Almond introduces several different characters and issues for Bobby: class, power, war, death, religion, civil rights, and personal heritage. This makes the book a slow read, though it picks up nicely towards the end, connecting and resolving several of the issues. The moments in the book that stand out the most are those with McNulty, the fire-eater. He is a mystic character that brings those scenes to life, whereas others sometimes fall flat. The historical issues that Almond addresses are particularly relevant and allow the reader to view a world crisis beyond the perspective of Americans.