The Fire Line

by Trevor Ferguson

The acclaimed author of The True Life Adventures of Sparrow Drinkwater has created another mythological tale in which lives run headlong off the rails into tangled thickets of love, deception and narrow escape. The tale of Reed Kitchen, lifelong railway worker. full-time language lover and part-time visionary, The Fire Line is a dazzling, dramatic novel, a mesmerizing journey through an eccentric universe. "Trevor Ferguson has made magic in this marvellous novel". -- The Edmonton Journal "(Ferguson) is extraordinarily gifted at capturing the experience of a moment, evoking through small ordinary gestures a man's entire emotional history". -- Joan Thomas, The Globe and Mail "... a 'splendiferous' achievement. (The Fire Line) is a glorious chunk of sustained poetic language that deserves to be short-listed for several awards ..". -- The Toronto Star "The ending... is both joyous and surprising". -- The Ottawa Citizen

245 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Trevor Ferguson, aka. John Farrow is a Canadian writer who has written nine novels and four plays and has been named Canada's best novelist in both Books in Canada and the Toronto Star. Under the name John Farrow, he has written three crime novels featuring Émile Cinq-Mars; both are highly acclaimed and popular around the world. He was raised in Montreal and lives in Hudson, Quebec.

Reviews

[Riley Womack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit all over the place, at times mindless in its drudgery—sustained only by the voices of the characters themselves. (Kinda like long, lonesome hours working upon the railroad.) This novel has a strange rhythm, namely as a result of the characters' way of speaking, the literal way the dialogue is rendered on the page. When the book begins to shape its plot—well into the middle third—this really comes into its own. Though I was a bit skeptical when the inside flap compared him to McCarthy, Ferguson's flights into maximalism feel—mostly—earned.

[Camille · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honnêtement je n'ai pas aimé ce livre, j'ai du mal à arrêter une lecture en cours, donc je me suis forcée à continuer même si clairement mon rythme de lecture en a souffert. Le début était interminable est j'ai eu tellement de mal à rentrer dans l'histoire avant les 75 dernières pages. Je n'ai pas réussi à m'attacher aux personnages du tout.

[Dianne Laheurte · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been doing a re-read of all of Canadian author Trevor Ferguson's novels this winter, beginning with his nom de plume John Farrow 9 book series featuring Detective Emile Cinq-Mars during the month of January 2022.

The Fire Line is one Trevor Ferguson's novels that I had yet read, and, no surprise here, it was another page turner! At times hilarious, and other times, horrific. The Fire Line alternates between making my heart break, and exploding with joy for Reed Kitchen and his pals he meets along the line.

Up next, the last of my re-reads is The River Burns, and just like that, Feb 2022 is over.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an amazing and strange book. I live on the railway route between Prince George and Prince Rupert and have ridden the passenger train between those points (though nothing waits for the passenger train to get through these days - instead the passenger train waits, sometimes for hours, for the freight to pass by).

Ferguson has taken the seedy, nasty small resource-based town and work camp life written about by people like Patrick Lane, and injected some William Faulkner language and heroism into it. The book has the requisite gruesome scenes, the brutality and hopelessness, but its transcendent language and the mythic character of Reed Kitchen (there was a man who lived north of Prince George on the Crooked River named Rip Kitchen - an even better name)move it into another sphere altogether. The wild man and the civilized man join forces and (spoiler alert) overcome the bad guys. Whew!

I read The Timekeeper years ago now, and it has a similar intensity. Strong stuff, but worth the journey.

There's a good review of Ferguson's work at the link below.

http://www.booksincanada.com/article_...

[Wendell Hennan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shy on likeable characters with the exception of Addie Day, Reed Kitchen, the main character is an ultra conversationalist who annoys virtually everyone who comes in contact with his constant chatter. Like a true conversationalist, he also listens and makes some very good analysis of comments he hears. Reed works for the railways, and has a life long obsession with trains beginning when his father holds his pregnant mother in front of an oncoming train and discovers in the aftermath, his son what has been freed from the placentia into the world at large.