On Fire

 

 

Larry Brown’s novels are salt of the earth tales of the common man written with great sympathy and care for his subjects and remarkable realism. In writing about himself he is no less candid revealing a red-necked good ole boy who smokes, drinks and drives, and keeps his wife waiting while he goes out with the boys. He enjoys hunting and fishing and appears to have a careless accident prone streak. As a fireman he is equally dismissive of the dumb things people do and laughs at the discomfort of a facilities manager who sees him smash $1500 windows to ventilate a fire. Fireman in their gung ho desire to knock down a fire have been known to cause more damage than the fire itself.

This is a memoir for Larry Brown aficionados. It is by no means great literature. Episodic and disjointed in nature it jumps from personal details and opinions to biographical vignettes to fire tales in no organized order.