- Hardcover: 1 pages
- Publisher: Virago (Nov 6 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1860498906
- ISBN-13: 978-1860498909
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 13.6 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 458 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Booklist
Despite this Australian writer's absence from the world's fiction stage--since the 1981 publication of The Transit of Venus, which earned her great acclaim, including the National Book Critics' Circle Award--her readers have continued to hold hands in devotion and anticipation. Their thrill over her new novel will be completed; the long days and nights of waiting will be forgotten. Time and place have always been exactly evoked in Hazzard's fiction, and such is the case here. The time is 1947-48, and the place is, primarily, East Asia. Obviously, then, this is a locale much altered--by the events of World War II, of course, and, as we see, physical destruction and psychological wariness and weariness lay over the land. Our hero, and indeed he fills the requirements to be called one, is Aldred Leith, who is English and part of the occupation forces in Japan; his particular military task is damage survey. He has an interesting past, including, most recently, a two-year walk across civil-war-torn China to write a book. In the present, which readers will feel they inhabit right along with Leith, by way of Hazzard's beautifully atmospheric prose, he meets the teenage daughter and younger son of a local Australian commander. And, as Helen is growing headlong into womanhood, this novel of war's aftermath becomes a story of love--or more to the point, of the restoration of the capacity for love once global and personal trauma have been shed. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Review
"The Great Fire is a brilliant, brave, and sublimely written novel that allows the literate reader 'the consolation of having touched infinity.' This wonderful book, which must be read at least twice simply to savor Hazzard's sentences and set pieces, is among the most transcendent works I've ever had the pleasure of reading."--Anita Shreve
"Shirley Hazzard is, purely and simply, one of the greatest writers working in English today. Which makes me more than grateful to have this long-hoped-for new novel."--Michael Cunningham
"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 and dazzling you would know it is the absolute truth. This is a book that is worth a twenty-year wait."--Ann Patchett
"Shirley Hazzard has written a 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
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"Shirley Hazzard is, purely and simply, one of the greatest writers working in English today. Which makes me more than grateful to have this long-hoped-for new novel."--Michael Cunningham
"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 and dazzling you would know it is the absolute truth. This is a book that is worth a twenty-year wait."--Ann Patchett
"Shirley Hazzard has written a 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
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
NOW THEY WERE STARTING. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
NOW THEY WERE STARTING. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Lyrical & Profoundly Heard
Sep 3 2004
Format:Paperback
It is rare when a writer comes along and writes a poetic novel, wherein every sentence is a lyric, full of inspiration and pulse. I am reminded of Susan Minot's EVENING, and Maeve Binchy's NIGHTS OF RAIN AND STARS, and Jennifer Paddock's A SECRET WORD. Like all these novels, these scores of the human heart, THE GREAT FIRE roars!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Devils and Angels walk a Fascinating World
July 13 2004
Format:Hardcover
After loving The Transit Of Venus in 1981 and waiting impatiently for Hazard's next novel, I am horribly disappointed by it. I enjoyed her prose, very much liked the settings, appreciated glimpsing a fascinating time....but the characters are one dimensional paper dolls. The Bad Guys, Mr and Mrs Driscoll and Slater, are tacky and cruel while the Good Guys, Helen, Ben, Aldred and Peter, are kind and graceful and should be examples to us all. They ponder The Meaning Of Life and do naught but good. Why, their very thoughts are generous and wholesome at all times! Finally, everything I liked about the book is spoiled.
The Great Fire brings to mind one of Nevil Shute's postwar novels of The Pacific and England (eg The Trustee From The Toolroom or A Town Like Alice). Both authors are interested in the personal, cultural and political changes brought on by the war. Shute's characters were also black-and-white for the most part but they surprise one on occasion, as if all this meaning-of-life pondering has changed them in some way. I doubt that Shute considered himself a literary writer--he probably considered them "fightin' words"--but I have to give this matchup to him.
Reading this book was a painful experience
July 19 2004
Format:Paperback
I really wanted to like this book--the plot framework was interesting enough. But the execution--aaargh! Hazzard's language was excruciating to read. The dialogue was so stilted and unrealistic that it made me laugh out loud sometimes. And the characters were flat and undeveloped, as other reviewers have noted--I couldn't keep Peter and Aldred straight, they were so similar. I can't imagine what the awards committee was thinking when they gave this book the National Book Award. Yeesh!
Want to see more reviews on this item?
Most recent customer reviews
Ethereal, like an impressionistic painting
Shirley Hazzard, the celebrated authoress from Australia who obviously subscribes to the dictum of less is more, took more than 20 years to follow up her famous 1981 National Book... Read more
Published on July 18 2004
An imaginative romance shackled by the narrative voice
Here's a story many readers would love: on the outskirts of Hiroshima, members of the victorious Allied forces look for love, for redemption, for recovery. Read more
Published on July 10 2004 by D. Cloyce Smith
Reading this was a painful experience
I would not recommend this book to anyone. The author's wordiness is very hard to sift through and the plot is very much lacking interest. Read more
Published on July 8 2004
A Beautiful Work
When I saw the average star rating, I was dismayed. When I read some of the reviews, further dismay. Read more
Published on Jun 30 2004 by Lara Dial
Patience, people-
I'm amazed by the polorization this book has wrought on the Amazon critical masses. In this media driven society where artists compete for attention, we have Hazzard, whose... Read more
Published on Jun 23 2004 by P. Shelton
a big disappointment
I simply can't understand why this book was a National Book Award winner. True, the writer is masterful at description, but the dialog is so stilted, so pretentious, that it mars... Read more
Published on Jun 22 2004
The Great Book
I am intrigued by your readers' reviews of The Great Fire. They either love or hate this novel. I am of the former category. Read more
Published on Jun 17 2004 by J. GRAHAM
Quite Simply a Masterpiece.
A poetic post-war novel that quite simply shows the modern day reader that masterpieces are still being written.
Published on April 30 2004
Languid Afternoons
The Great Fire is full of languid afternoons and young men beset by obscure diseases and weary from the war. Read more
Published on April 29 2004 by C M Magee
dialogue
I don't know what kind of social life Ms. Hazzard has but this book has the most stilted, ridiculous dialogue I have ever read in a novel. Read more
Published on April 23 2004
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
