THE FIRES

THE FIRES
Alan Cheuse
Santa Fe Writers Project

The realm of the transient is where we live. It’s also the realm of innumerable desires, a place filled with all sorts of difficult ontological situations. We manage as best we can, which is the subject of the two dazzling novellas that make up The Fires. The action is triggered by departures from this world, and both stories entertain the possibility of redemption through fire (both actual and metaphorical). This is an old idea, older than money and pharmacology. And Cheuse writes so beautifully about jazz in the second novella that you will want to listen very carefully to the music he mentions. The characters, the dilemmas they face and resolve (or don't resolve) will stay with you long after you finish The Fires.