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'Shirley Hazzard. For me, the greatest living writer on goodness and love . . . THE GREAT FIRE so overwhelmed me that I came close to being unable to read the last three pages. If the last sentence doesn't make you gasp and weep, you are not fully conscious . . . Shirley Hazzard, the quiet, playful, lovestruck artist of love, goodness and death in the 20th century. ' Bryan Appleyard '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, author of BEL CANTO 'Shirley Hazzard has written an 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 '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 '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 savour Hazzard's sentences and set-pieces, is among the most transcendent works I've ever had the pleasure of reading.' - Anita Shreve 'a quiet and exquisitely crafted novel...the most interesting work of fiction published this year' - The Economist 'this is a book with a mature, complex voice' - Helen Rumbelow, The Times 'wonderful stuff' - Sunday Express 'a fascinating read, showing us a past that is unbearably alive, almost immanent' - Rachel Cusk, Telegraph 'unusually and convincingly layered, textured and atmospheric' - Eileen Battersby, The Irish Times 'Shirley Hazzard...is a great and original talent' - Margaret Walters, Times Literary Supplement 'a love story that surprises by its intensity' - Anita Brookner, Spectator 'a very fine novel indeed' - Alan Wall, The Guardian
Colm Toibin, Irish Times
'The writing is a lesson to us all'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Orange shortlisted and stunning.,
By Booksthatmatter "Booksthatmatter" (Brighton, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Great Fire (Paperback)
The Great Fire was one of the less-talked about of the Orange Prize shortlist, which seems a little unfair.Shirley Hazzard is one of those incredible novelists who has produced a minute body of work over a forty year period, but has to be one of the most significant writers alive. The Great Fire is an odd love story, one which handled differently could be an inappropriate love story: that of a 33 year old man for a 17 year old girl. But Hazzard manages to make it plausible, painful and beautiful and most of all understandable. In the convulsions of the immediate post war world her characters are all beached to some degree by the awfulness of it. Others have written of this kind of bitter enduring after trauma, loss, agony, but few so powerfully or precisely. I have to say I was surprised that she has pulled off a happy ending in this lyrically sad world - though not for all of her characters. Of the many things that impress about Hazzard it is her understatedness that has the greatest impact. I have always admired her work and twenty-three years is a long wait between novels, but I can only assume that those twenty-three years have been spent ensuring that not one single word is wasted or misused. It is pin-point perfect throughout. The endorsements on the book's back cover are from great writers, writers I read and admire, but they are all pale in comparison to Shirley Hazzard's massive talent. Let it inspire you to find her other books as well.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not for the want of trying,
By Mrs. K. A. Wheatley "katywheatley" (Leicester, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Great Fire (Paperback)
I had read all the fantastic reviews and plaudits this book gained. I have had people I trust recommend the book to me, and consequently I was as keen as mustard to give it a go. Unfortunately it just did not work for me. I genuinely cannot see what all the fuss is about and am baffled as to why this book took ten years to write.
It is not a bad book for all that. The story is coherent. It has engaging themes that are well defined and subtly threaded through the story. It is full of atmosphere and the characters seem real and human rather than vehicles by which to get a message across. All the ingredients are there, but for me they just didn't gel together to make a coherent, compelling whole. I found the pace too ponderous and the style too disconnected from the subject matter. It was as if I were reading the story from a great distance, or separated from it by a pane of glass. The style I think is my main issue here. It is a curious amalgam where sometimes it is very hard to fathom which character is which, and I found myself having to go through and reread certain pages just to make sure I had understood things properly. I think this is a marmite book. You're either going to absolutely love her style or hate it, and I'm afraid I don't fall into the love camp at all.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and Moving,
By
This review is from: The Great Fire (Paperback)
Shirley Hazzard is a writer's writer; often her prose is designed to appeal only to those literati that understand her references. Not so with the Great Fire. Against the backdrop of the unspeakable pain of Hiroshima, she weaves a love story full of subtle messages about morality and behaviour. The characters aren't easy to relate to your own experience, but the music of the words is stronger in this book than any of her other works. If you want an easy to read adventure story, forget it. If you're prepared to take it slowly, savouring the words, this book will repay the effort.
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