Liam
Administrator
Allegedly, The Great Fire (2003) took Hazzard twenty years to write. But if you approach the book expecting another War and Peace, you will be severely disappointed, despite the fact that war and peace certainly are two of the three main themes (the third one being love).
The story takes place in the immediate aftermath of WWII (the "great fire" of the title, though the other fire, the fire of eros, is also omnipresent) and unfolds, for the most part, between colonial Hong Kong anxiously following the developments in mainland China and occupied Japan (post-war, which also means, post-Bomb).
Although the novel does have a single protagonist (so to speak), the Woolf-like approach of the narrator alternates between many different points of view.
Aldred Leith (nationality: British) is the novel's main character as well as its moral compass. Stationed in Japan, he falls in love with the daughter of his Australian superior (the girl is not yet seventeen), and the rest of the novel traces the evolution of that relationship.
Meanwhile, his friend Peter Exley is taking down testimonies of the survivors of Japanese atrocities in Hong Kong. The narrative will shift between these two men, and these two locales, until nearly the end, before the story bifurcates, going west (to England) and the extreme south (New Zealand).
Other than the two friends, there is a rich cast of "supporting" characters (in all four countries, as well as, briefly, Italy, Kenya and Australia), each of whom is utterly unforgettable. Hazzard's eye for detail is unmatched; her descriptions precise and profound at the same time. She brings a lifetime's worth of emotional experience and wisdom to breathe her characters (no matter how "minor") into life, and to wrest their stories from the great conflagration of the war that almost swallows them up.
I had never read anything by Hazzard before and consequently did not know what to expect from this author or her individual style. In the beginning, I must say I had my reservations. The narrative overflows with broken, run-on sentences; psychological asides; etc. The whole thing is suffused with a kind of breathless, nervous energy that we also see in Woolf and, to a lesser extent, Elizabeth Bowen (in fact, I was reminded of the latter's The Heat of the Day while reading The Great Fire).
This broken breathlessness, as I came to see it, takes some getting used to (so please don't give up after two or three chapters). At some point you will realize that the style, idiosyncratic as it is, is perfectly in keeping with the story and the two fuse together almost perfectly in the end: to such an extent, I thought, that you simply could not have told this story any other way.
Although the book is certainly about love (in all its manifestations), I would hesitate to call it, as some reviewers have, a romance. There is plenty of pain and death in its pages. Survival is not guaranteed, and Hazzard keeps you guessing until literally THE LAST CHAPTER as to the resolution of the main narrative thread which, when finally completed, is tied up perfectly.
Although this main narrative thread (involving Aldred Leith and the seventeen year old Helen) is enjoyable, my favorite moments were the small, quieter ones, shared between ordinary people both before and after the war. Hazzard's psychological insight is on full display here: she understands her men and her women completely; her observational powers are unmatched by any other late 20th century novelist writing in English (in my humble opinion).
Finally, there is the great pleasure of language itself: Hazzard's style is polished and precise without ever getting cloyingly poetic.
The Great Fire has been my greatest literary discovery of 2020. Initially I expected I would either re-sell or donate my copy after I was done with it but no, I am keeping it.
I am very certain that I will be returning to this wonderful book, many times over, in the years to come.
The story takes place in the immediate aftermath of WWII (the "great fire" of the title, though the other fire, the fire of eros, is also omnipresent) and unfolds, for the most part, between colonial Hong Kong anxiously following the developments in mainland China and occupied Japan (post-war, which also means, post-Bomb).
Although the novel does have a single protagonist (so to speak), the Woolf-like approach of the narrator alternates between many different points of view.
Aldred Leith (nationality: British) is the novel's main character as well as its moral compass. Stationed in Japan, he falls in love with the daughter of his Australian superior (the girl is not yet seventeen), and the rest of the novel traces the evolution of that relationship.
Meanwhile, his friend Peter Exley is taking down testimonies of the survivors of Japanese atrocities in Hong Kong. The narrative will shift between these two men, and these two locales, until nearly the end, before the story bifurcates, going west (to England) and the extreme south (New Zealand).
Other than the two friends, there is a rich cast of "supporting" characters (in all four countries, as well as, briefly, Italy, Kenya and Australia), each of whom is utterly unforgettable. Hazzard's eye for detail is unmatched; her descriptions precise and profound at the same time. She brings a lifetime's worth of emotional experience and wisdom to breathe her characters (no matter how "minor") into life, and to wrest their stories from the great conflagration of the war that almost swallows them up.
I had never read anything by Hazzard before and consequently did not know what to expect from this author or her individual style. In the beginning, I must say I had my reservations. The narrative overflows with broken, run-on sentences; psychological asides; etc. The whole thing is suffused with a kind of breathless, nervous energy that we also see in Woolf and, to a lesser extent, Elizabeth Bowen (in fact, I was reminded of the latter's The Heat of the Day while reading The Great Fire).
This broken breathlessness, as I came to see it, takes some getting used to (so please don't give up after two or three chapters). At some point you will realize that the style, idiosyncratic as it is, is perfectly in keeping with the story and the two fuse together almost perfectly in the end: to such an extent, I thought, that you simply could not have told this story any other way.
Although the book is certainly about love (in all its manifestations), I would hesitate to call it, as some reviewers have, a romance. There is plenty of pain and death in its pages. Survival is not guaranteed, and Hazzard keeps you guessing until literally THE LAST CHAPTER as to the resolution of the main narrative thread which, when finally completed, is tied up perfectly.
Although this main narrative thread (involving Aldred Leith and the seventeen year old Helen) is enjoyable, my favorite moments were the small, quieter ones, shared between ordinary people both before and after the war. Hazzard's psychological insight is on full display here: she understands her men and her women completely; her observational powers are unmatched by any other late 20th century novelist writing in English (in my humble opinion).
Finally, there is the great pleasure of language itself: Hazzard's style is polished and precise without ever getting cloyingly poetic.
The Great Fire has been my greatest literary discovery of 2020. Initially I expected I would either re-sell or donate my copy after I was done with it but no, I am keeping it.
I am very certain that I will be returning to this wonderful book, many times over, in the years to come.
