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So explains Annie Fishman Waldmas, who in middle age enjoys a fulfilling New York existence as a documentary filmmaker, wife, and mother of two. Life is good. And even if the whole Fishman clan -- Annie's siblings, her divorced parents -- shares a marked skittishness about family intimacy, they still remain connected, if only in the marginal way that's become the signature of modern living. Setting Fires is the gripping story of what happens when a pair of phone calls forever shatter Annie's contentment. The first brings news that Annie's country house in Connecticut has been destroyed by fire. Not just fire, but arson -- in an area where two other Jewish-owned buildings recently burned down. Bringing far worse news is the second call, notifying Annie that her father -- the family patriarch dedicated to overcoming a life of shame -- may be dying.In an era of introspective fiction, Kate Wenner's eagerness to explore societal issues, such as anti-Semitism, makes Setting Fires a startling, andsingular, debut.… (more)
User reviews
Thankfully, the main story has enough life to keep bobbing to the surface and making waves. Hate and love, sin and redemption, after all, are eternal and powerful forces, and Wenner depicts their pull and push amid the mundanedetails of daily life. Waldmas investigates alleged anti-Semitism in the hills of New England, but first she has to find the baby-sitter. She and hubby want to collect on their fire insurance and rebuild their dream house, but first they have to carp at one another over the chores.
- Beliefnet, Aug. 2000
As you all know from my recent post, Setting Fires by Kate Wenner, I started reading it a few days ago. The book was an easy read and hard to put down. From the first sentence of the chapter to the last page, it was a journey that somewhat similar to mine or so to speak.
The book is about the life of Annie Waldmas and how she coped with the death of her family, experiences an anti semitic, and the reconnection with broken family ties. The tale talks about live and the mistakes people made through it, the gain and lost of love, how a person sees life inspite of death and how one should move on inspite the loss.
It's basically a daughter-father story that touched me entirely. As some of you might now, I don't have a good relationship with my father and reading the novel made me think some things. Does the though of eath really change everything. When one person is faced with the reality ofpassin on to the next life, do you really see life differently?
Reading the book made me cry. I'm a cry baby but this is the first time I cried reading a book, a first I must say! I've read a lot of nice lines throughout the book and even highlighted them which is not my thing.