Other Fires

Lenore H Gay – Other Fires – Reviewed 9/25/20 – Read 8/29-9/2/20

He sees me, but tells me that I am fake, or is he faking?

Joss & Phil are from different backgrounds, but things just seem to click! Now years later and two children, things are falling apart. I know that he is cheating, but why? What happened? I am trying, but is he? So many questions, too many to answer tonight!

I hear Terpe, my oldest, yelling Fire! Fire! I answer, Ok, I am up! I tell Terpe to get the baby and take her outside, where is your father? Terpe tells me that he is still upstairs. I run upstairs and find Phil asleep on the pullout bed. Phil, for God’s sake there is a fire, don’t you hear the alarms? Ok, Ok, I am coming. We start back down the stairs and I hear something crack and two boards hit him, causing him to fall to the floor with a scream. He is on fire when he hits the bottom of the stairs. I tell Terpe to get outside and start back to help Phil. On the way, I grab a throw rug so I can roll him to put out the fire. Terpe stops on the way out, and she calls 911, telling them we need help.

Terpe runs outside and puts the baby down on a blanket that she had wrapped her in, and runs back inside to help her mom. Dad is big, weighing around 200 lbs., mom will not be able to get him outside by herself. Together they manage to get him out of the house just as the fire trucks arrive. They load dad into the ambulance, mom gets in with him, yelling at me to go to the neighbors, and get help from the O’Tooles.

And now the story begins…

What did I like? This was a very emotional and complicated story. I was enticed from the beginning. Unfortunately, this happens in more families than we want to admit too. When a couple falls in love, they are footloose and fancy-free. Then kids come along, the first one is fun and unique, but then the second one arrives and all the fun is gone. The difficulties added to this story is amazing, without giving away the plot, I could see where it would have completely disrupted the family life, as compared to the beginning. Then when you add in the psychological aspect for Phil, you have a recipe for disaster.

Of course, and thankfully, this is not the norm. When you have a couple that has that loving nurture to them, it would be impossible for it to happen in their case. For the sake of children, we all hope that that nurture is in all families!

What will you like? As I said previously, this is a very complicated storyline that is incredible. The different emotional problems that the marriage spells out will have you hooked from the very first page. As the storyline goes, and you start seeing the other problems, your heart will break for everyone involved. I was completely unaware of the medical condition of Capgras Misidentification Syndrome, but after reading this book it shows you how something like this could happen. Makes you wonder if this has happened more times than it as been diagnosed?? Wonderfully written with lots of descriptions and details. You can tell Lenore knows her subject. This is an excellent read that will enfold you all the way through, it certainly has a very unexpected ending that shocked me. Never did I see that coming!!! This book will be available on 10/20/20, be sure to mark your calendar!

When a tragic house fire occurs, the lives of 3 individuals, Terpe, Joss and Adam, intersect. Young Terpe awakens in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke. She is able to get her baby sister out safely, but her father, Phil, suffers a head injury before she and her mother, Joss, can pull him to safety. While Phil is in hospital, Adam,an electrician, enters their lives, when he comes to fix damage from the fire. He seems to be a loser, with his own ghosts.
Terpe, Joss and Adam all suffer some sort of psychological problems, stemming from their childhood. This is a story of their growth as individuals and coming to terms with their past.
The father suffers from Capgras misindentication syndrome, where a person sees a person, that they know, but can't relate to them and think they are a "fake" person, who is pretending to be the "real" person. I found this interesting, because it is similar to some people, with a certain type of dementia. My grandmother had atrophy of the brain, after a fall backwards down a flight of stairs, and would say to us, "Who are you?"
This is a powerful story, which will make you think, how different events, some uncontrollable and some not, affect a person.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3609519084

Other Fires is a character-driven story. Each character has their chapters. This format gives the reader that character's perspective. Instead of reading a book, the characters tell the story. Each character is well defined.

Terpe is a third-grade girl. The older of two children in this family. The other child is a baby girl. Terpe and her mother Joss are the main characters. This book tells their story through the eyes of a kid and the eyes of a woman. Joss grows through introspective thinking while Terpe sees life as more black and white. Right and wrong.

Phil is the father/husband. At the beginning of Other Fires, this family of four’s house goes up in flames in the middle of the night. Phil sustains severe head and brain injuries landing him in the hospital and rehab for the duration of the story. When Phil is ready to see people, he swears Joss is not his wife. She’s an imposter. He remembers everyone else. This medical condition following an injury to the brain does exist. The choices Phil has made since Joss and he had the second baby girl very questionable, to say the least.

Other Fires is about how this family gets through this crisis. Adam is an electrician hired to work on the burned up part of the house. Adam is quite a character himself. He’s a bachelor living alone.

The thing about this book is how well the characters are written. You meet them for the first time when their first chapter appears. It’s natural to form an opinion as each character develops. All the characters are very complex.

Each character comes to life on their own and as seen through the other characters. Terpe tells about her friends. Joss, her mom, has a surprisingly different take on these friends. Adam, on his own, comes off as slow. Surprisingly, he is a different person when he meets Joss. It seems every chapter has something surprising in it.

I found this book stunning. The saying don't judge a book by its cover is the only way to describe this book. A love story. A tragedy. Very unpredictable and suspenseful.