Who by Fire

by Mary L. Tabor

Who by Fire breaks new literary ground: A complex tale of love, betrayal, and the search for self. A male narrator tells the story he does not actually know but discovers through memory, through piecing the puzzles of his marriage, through his wife's goodness and her betrayal. He confronts paradox with music, science and conflagration he witnessed in his native Iowa. Underlying his search is the quest for heroism and for his own father. Who by Fire has earned its place among books that matter.

276 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2012

About the author

Mary L. Tabor is the author of Who by Fire: A Novel with a book club:: http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/8.... Join and discover authors in person. I am also the author of (Re)Making Love: A Memoir, available on Amazon http://amzn.to/nqg0yo. My book The Woman Who Never Cooked won Mid-List Press’s First Series Award. If you want one-on-one help, I offer, for a modest fee, via Zoom, an Eight-"session"-course (each session includes 11 parts and one-on-one attention) with slides and more experiments than in the free chapters. Go here and scroll down for free lessons. For private, via Zoom, email me at mltabor @ me. com . I taught variations of this course at George Washington University, in the undergraduate and graduate MFA/Ph.D. creative writing program at the University of Missouri and at the Smithsonian's Campus-on-the-Mall. My first book of fiction was published after a 16-year career in corporate America, a senior executive, director of public affairs writing for the oil industry’s trade association, landing me in both Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who of American Women. I was a high school English teacher who bridged the gap to the business world, rising on the corporate ladder while also raising two children. I then made a transition from the business world to the creative world, leaving her corporate job to earn an MFA degree in Creative Writing. My experience spans the worlds of journalism, business, education and fiction writing. I was a visiting writer at University of Missouri in Columbia, taught creative writing (fiction and memoir) at George Washington University, the Smithsonian’s Campus-on-the-Mall, and worked with the DC library to reach less-privileged populations on how to begin writing about family, personal history and writing a story—the stuff of life. I am a CIC Visiting Fellow (aka Woodrow Wilson Fellow). I've been interviewed on XM Satellite Radio and Pacifica Radio to discuss Joyce, Shakespeare and others and her lifelong career-journey.
The interview that follows was done by Jason Howell Take a look ...
For reviews and more visit: http://www.maryltabor.com and http://www.midlist.org and
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/8...

Reviews

[Jaki Scarcello · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am staying at the moment in a small Spanish vinca in the
countryside of Ibiza.
The days are cool and the evenings are cold. We sit by the fire and
read and it is here that I have traveled the journey of Lena and
Robert, Issac and Evan. 
 
My own life journey has had its dark sections of road and I know that my actions  have caused some pain along the way. But  aged wisdom has also brought understanding and to answer Robert's question, yes, the interminable journey of longing, which leads to forgiveness, can continue on  to discovery. Your characters are on the path beside so many of us, swallowing the bitter pills of awareness and self knowledge that must be taken first to prepare the way for acceptance.

Thank you Mary, your writing has once again transported me into a
thought full world from which I emerge "confused" but curiously
jumpled, fast becoming one of my favorite states.
What gift you and your words are to all.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

At a glance Robert witnesses a tiny gesture between Lena as she lay dying, and her coworker Isaac. Betrayal is revealed and Robert tries to put the pieces of the puzzle together.��

Mary Tabor creates a multidimensional cerebral piece of literary work. Who by Fire ��is a story of betrayal, loss, regrets, love and forgiveness. The story brings to light the fragility of love and relationships. How drifting apart can cause a fissure beyond repair. When denial is your blanket for your worst fears. When one partner tosses out a life preserver and the other bats it away.��

The plot is sophisticated, intelligent, sensual ��and unique in that art, music, food are incorporated in a subtle and beautiful manner in both character and plot development

The characters are intricate, the emotions raw and real. You feel utterly helpless as you witness this marriage shatter, wanting to help but not knowing how. As Robert tries to make sense of the betrayal, blaming himself for failing to pick up signals, and Lena's demise you only hope he finds reconciliation as easily as he forgave his wife and her affronts. ��

Tabor's writing is sophisticated, cerebral and ��all to realistic in the portrayal of the beauty and cruel nuances of love. The trials and tribulations of relationships - family, friendship, ��and marriage are demonstrated masterfully. Who by Fire a literary love story based on love, ��betrayal leading to forgiveness.��

[Kerfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert has been betrayed by his wife. Not only in the physical sense, but she has always withheld the core of her being from their marriage and their life together. She rests lightly in the world.

He wants to find and forgive both Lena and himself. And so he takes his memories, what he "knows", fills in the blanks, and constructs a story.

Unanchored since the death of her parents, and, in secret, the abortion that left her barren, Lena believes she is both guilty and unforgivable. She lives and speaks in non sequiturs. She does not provide enough clues for anyone to easily follow her.

Through Robert's eyes, we see the tenuous connections that tether Lena. She lives so much in her thoughts that her speech, when it appears, surprises even herself. The wordless networks that hold her essence in place resist communication. She lives inside, under, behind, against, between, beyond. How can she fit thse continously transforming patterns into a concrete and linear world?

Or, as Robert sees it, how could she hold and honor the fires of her heart and mind without giving in and and letting them consume and destroy her? And why was he not brave or foolish enough to jump with her into the smoke and flame and rescue them both?

[Anne Ruff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of a love triangle, or a love quadrangle, in the way that To the Lighthouse is the story of a dinner party. While the story line in Who By Fire brings us through a full spectrum of emotions that most readers will recognize from disparate parts of our own lives, the telling of the story, the structure of the narrator and his memories, unfolds in a completely unusual non-linear way. For me, the book functions like a painting in process. We see the artist/author focus on different portions of the canvas, seeing certain details, themes, colors take shape, until, at the end, the full composition becomes clear. Along the way Mary L. Tabor's prose rewards the reader with rich allusions to music, art, color, and literature, cerebral counterpoints to the powerful sensuality of the characters. This delicate and nuanced rendering of the challenge of love in marriage and in later life offers a refreshing alternative to the saccharine diet of love and romance novels usually available.

[Isabelle B.L · Rating 5 out of 5]

In betrayal there are no sides one can take. I couldn't help but care for each one of the characters. Mary has written a beautiful book that enabled me to feel empathy for all of them. Guilt, forgiveness, life and death are all dealt with such skill and craftsmanship. Moreover, her references to music, food and literature add a necessary and fascinating backdrop.

[Kimberly Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Tabor’s Who by Fire is a masterfully woven meditation on love, betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. Tabor’s prose is luminous, precise, and deeply evocative, drawing the reader into the labyrinth of a marriage fractured by infidelity. Told through the introspective lens of a male narrator grappling with his wife’s affair, the novel unfolds like a puzzle—each moment revealing a new layer of longing, regret, denial, and the unbearable weight of truth.

This is not just a story about a man’s reckoning with betrayal; it’s about the reluctance to face what we most fear in ourselves, our own failings, and the intricate dance between knowing and unknowing. Tabor’s signature lyrical style guides the reader through the narrator’s struggle with a tenderness that is both urgent and poetic. Her ability to braid art, music, and science into the emotional core of the novel elevates it beyond a mere narrative of loss—it becomes a meditation on what it means to truly see, and be seen.

Reading Who by Fire is like stepping into a chiaroscuro of love and uncertainty, where the shadows are just as vital as the light. Tabor’s work is, as always, an experience—one that lingers, unsettles, and ultimately transforms.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does one begin to understand a lover's infidelity? The questions, the self-doubt, the searching. The imagining. How does one capture that loss in a novel?

Who by Fire is not an easy read. It's a complex work, with strands of past and present, real and imagined interwoven and layered into a rich tapestry of emotion. Like the characters it depicts, like the lives of its readers. The novel searches for an understanding of love, loss and death with images that cycle through classical music, ancient scripture, quantum physics, art, cooking, gardening; the narration moves seamlessly through varying points of view, yet always from the mind of Robert, the man watching his love, Lena, drift away from him.

Masterfully written, truthful and moving, Who by Fire will enlighten and captivate. Take your time with it, the novel deserves your time.

[Alicia Britton · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Who by Fire” is a story of a man who seeks to know his wife, Lena. Why can’t he please her? Why is his love not enough? And why is it Isaac’s affection she craves? “He wasn’t worthy and she was no fool…”

Robert, the betrayed husband and the narrator of this story, searches for answers in one of the most prominent political and cultural centers of the world, the Washington, D.C. area. He tells his wife’s story in her language–in symbols, psalms, word puzzles, and non-sequiturs. Robert finds himself lost in the artwork and music that for many years has decorated the background of their complicated lives while he probes into Lena’s affair with Isaac, a man who has a wife of his own. Isaac and Evan lead a picturesque existence on a farm, complete with a greenhouse and a lavish garden, with herbs and a diverse array of flowers, like peonies, which represent the fruit of their loins. And yet it is Lena he desires, though he beds other women as well. Karen is simple and fun, Evan is the ideal wife, a security in a world full of risk, but Lena is the want he can never have. Lena is bound to Robert by marriage and she is emotionally just out of reach even for Isaac because of the secret she keeps close to her chest.

Lena is perpetually the color blue for her sadness and guilt. At the very least, she hopes for true love with the only man she ever desired–Isaac. What she gets instead is a nail in her hand with no future to build upon. In stark contrast to Evan’s fruitful garden, she is left with a decaying autumn leaf and a “barren” womb. As Lena slips further away from everyone, Robert is left to make sense of it all, to put out the fires that misplaced passion started, and to find order and control over a situation that is beyond his grasp.

This book dissects marriage into its many parts. Each of the pieces, once analyzed carefully, might end up being distorted or flawed, yet they somehow form two halves that join into one functional unit, man and wife. But nothing is ever as perfect as the illusion we hope to portray. And I believe any adult reader, married or not, will be able to relate to this truth. We all make mistakes, and though it’s easy to assign blame, every human action has a motive and a consequence, and “Who by Fire” explores infidelity and betrayal, the before and after and all the lush and seductively tragic details in between.

[Colm Herron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read novels where the hero dies at the end – ingenious novels with breathtaking final twists. But now I have just finished reading one in which the hero dies at the beginning. Who By Fire, told by a betrayed husband, is a wonderful, tragic love story narrated by a man called Robert whose wife Lena – the hero and adulteress – dies before he has had a chance to truly love her.

The story he tells involves her goodness, her adultery and her guilt, the latter two of which happened because Robert had not learned how to love. Yes, he was responsive to her in many superficial, word-tussling, clever-banter ways but in his deep heart’s core he was impervious to her feelings. And it is only when Robert is writing the story, filling in the intimate heartbreaking blanks even of Lena’s lovemaking with the other man, trying to piece together where he, rather than Lena, went wrong that he begins to understand what love is really about, that it is about changing oneself rather than trying to change the lover in one’s life.

This book left me changed, maybe as much as the writing of it left Robert changed. And the more of it I read, the more I thought of possibly the wisest words any holy person has written. Those are the words of Saint Francis:

Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive ....

[Michael Jarvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An evocative and poetic exploration of marriage, loss, and guilt—

Who by Fire is a story of adultery told in meticulous fragments which look back to chronicle an affair conducted by the narrator’s wife, the disintegrating relationship leading to it, the physical demise of the woman, the affair, life itself. She is the focal point and the object of her husband’s affection and concern as he struggles through jealousy and sadness to deconstruct and understand their story, as well as that of the other couple involved, with life-affirming metaphorical forays into music, food and science.

All in all an original telling, realistic and emotionally detailed, with the narrator’s fascination with fire serving as another metaphor. A cerebral and finely layered story, meant to relate the rich interior experience of love and failure and the difficulty of knowing another, necessarily subtle and dense, as real life usually is. The novel displays a fine literary depth, and while I was at first wary of the subject matter (because we bring our own limitations to whatever we read) I came to appreciate these characters and their meaningful journey toward acceptance and forgiveness. A very fine achievement by Mary Tabor.

[Jennifer Cooreman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've never read a book like Who by Fire. It's so masterfully written that the characters seem real. Not in the typical "I'll lose myself in a good book for a few hours" sense. Truly real, as in, the characters seem more human and nuanced than I feel myself at times. Tabor makes observations about the human heart, pain and how history affects our choices that are wise and cut to the bone. The story moves seamlessly between the characters' pain and its relevance to my own life - almost like I'm reading the memoir of a friend's truest, deepest confessions and can't look away, no matter how raw and real the friend goes. But the layered stories of the characters keeps us from judging them. That's the beauty of this book. That it doesn't give trite answers to bad choices. It doesn't vilify or moralize, but shows the incredible humanity and feeling behind every mistake, misstep and tragedies that draw the characters like moths to the flame (sorry, had to throw in a fire reference.) Highly recommended, an amazing read.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

To me, one of the characteristics of a great book is a set of characters who stay in my thoughts when I'm not reading the book. While I was reading this book, questions like "did he really love her?" and "what would she have done if..." would surface in my thoughts throughout the day as the storyline unfolded and I became more familiar with the 4 central characters. The beauty of Mary Tabor's writing in Who By Fire is that she doesn't spell things out certain things about her characters explicitly, which allows readers to get to know the characters on their own and form their own opinions about the kind of people they are/were, and the reasoning behind certain things the characters said or did.

This book would make an excellent selection for a book club of any size. The depth of the emotions, heartache, and yearning depicted provides ample opportunity for in depth discussions and opportunities to discover more about the book.

[Richard Kramer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This brief, elegant, passionate novel accumulates and gathers force like a poem, in which language is compressed and edited and
somehow bursts its bounds as it goes along. It made me want to write a book just like it, although
I don't have Mary Tabor's wisdom and insight and willingness to stay so intently focused. Maybe someday ... Until
then, I can heartily recommend this, maybe especially to people who haven't written a novel but who want to, because
WHO BY FIRE can show you what a novel can be.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful novel filled with secrets, lovers, and all of the complicated dealings of the heart. I thoroughly enjoyed Tabor's writing style and the way that she captured each character's role in life and love perfectly. You will walk away from reading this thinking about each of your own romantic relationships, and the impact they have had on your life.

[Deborah Schaumberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHO BY FIRE is a captivating and deeply moving novel about the intricate layers of human relationships. Author Mary Tabor takes us on a journey into the hearts and minds of her characters with beautifully written prose and poetic metaphor. It's a story of love and loss and forgiveness.

[Antonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poignant look at the complexity of longterm love. Poetic, literary, richly human.