| View Larger Image | Fires | Paperbackby Nick Antosca (Author)
| List Price: | $15.95 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Impetus Press | | Edition: | 1stst Edition | | Page Count: | 195 Pages | | Publication Date: | December 31, 2006 | | Sales Rank: | 895,360th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Deer running through a ghost neighborhood. A boy trapped in a basement for eight years. Three young people locked in a violent sex triangle. Come inside. Already caught between the ambition and alienation of life at an Ivy League school, Jon Danfield must come face to face with a revelation about his small-town past. His journey will take him away from the halls of privilege and into the heart of the monstrous forest fire threatening his childhood home. On deserted suburban streets lined with perfect houses, Danfield must confront an American dream corroded by unspeakable acts of cruelty. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 9 reviews)
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brilliant story by new author by Carla Danielle Shorts (Baltimore, MD)  5 Stars
June 05, 2008
If you happen to be a fan of Bret Easton Ellis or Jay Mcinerney, then you will love Nick. The book is based on a college relationship, which at first seems sweet and somewhat innocent. The story quickly turns when things are not at all what they seem. The story seems to be a strugle between the voice of a jaded present and the voice of a innocent childhood. This is a great summer read and is going at the top of my favorite books.
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a great deal here to ponder by ignacio f. (Aloha OR) 5 Stars
February 09, 2008
when i started reading this, i thought i was in bret easton ellis territory, which isn't ncessarily a bad thing. but "fires" builds and builds, and has hidden layers, and secrets not readily revealed. this is an intense, moving, gripping short novel. it leaves one with a lot to think about when one's done. a lot.
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Fabulous debut novel by Scott J. Forman 5 Stars
July 11, 2007
Nick Antosca has a precociously forceful voice, a magnetic narrative sense, and a sharp eye for telling detail ("A little boy's cap lies flat in the sand, as if he's down there too"). This is a spark plug of a book; a thoroughly enjoyable novel from a talented young writer.
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more like two and a half by Bella (Madison, WI)  3 Stars
June 02, 2007
A plot so threadbare even the Salvation Army wouldn't take it. A master weaving of innuendo, depressing sex, and an emphysema patient's worth of cigarettes, the novel is more style than substance. But what style! Worth the very small amount of emotional and temporal investment required.
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Raging fires, raging writing! by Victor Schwartzman (Winnipeg, Canada) 5 Stars
April 21, 2007
Reviewed by: Cicily Janus
Posted courtesy of the Outsider Writers Book Review
Raging fires across most of the east, terrifying circumstances which push the incidental humanness of nature to its proverbial edge of rationality. Hold on for this ride folks. Once you buckle your seat belt after the first words are read, you will not be able to withstand the sheer adrenaline rush that inexplicably grabs your imagination by the throat. That is, until you defy your desirous need for more by the end of this sexy, intelligent and unexpected thriller, relaying you into a new kind of fear.
Nick Antosca's tale of young, college love, fear of unknown past and horrid acts of Mother Nature and human nature take you into a world that one could only hope does not exist. Yet, we have all been there. At some point, some time and some place, we have all been here, in this book. Acting out the roles he so vividly portrays through his beautifully written prose.
The characters of this book draw you into their seemingly small, philosophical world of overly drunk, sexually charged and drug abused college lives. Jon, Ruth, James and a host of kids resemble everyone at the last party you went to in college. It is difficult to deny that you were there, a part of this world outside of your comfort zone. Yet in a way, the world Mr. Antosca has created for us is but candy to the mind.
Circulating like a brilliant arc, James, Jon and Ruth are bound to eachother, through bonds yet unknown to each of them. But by the end, their bonds are undeniable, insanely corrupt and threatening each of their lives. The man across the street, the one everyone knows who is not who he appears to be, the parents in utter denial, the children turned adult dealing with the pain and destruction in their lives, set into motion by a gale force wind of terror.
Mr. Antosca's prose is surprisingly fresh; a style like none I have ever read previous. Hypnotic at times, his words describe every little character, every movement of their lives giving way to a narrative energy rivaling that of a speeding bullet.
And the air is redolent with a kind of hazy, luminous misery as the sun crawls higher; and the warm, buttery sunlight grows diluted. Frail shadows return. And we linger in the shade of the color of white wine, and in her dark brown eyes there are still questions I don't want to face. And so I turn my head, slightly, and go somewhere else.
I am there. Wholly there with every word, a (please, excuse my cliché) fly on the wall of this world.
As a relatively new writer, I could only hope to be able to contain my reader in such prose. I myself was chained to the chair, handcuffed to the manuscript for every thought provoking phrase. Thank you Mr. Antosca for sharing your thrilling talents, as I now fear the night you have leant my imagination, the world you draw outside the picture window of my house and the characters to whom I hope never to meet, although I have the feeling I already know them too well...
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