Fire Sermon
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
This "startlingly original" novel from the author of I Want to Show You More offers "a profound, and profoundly strange, meditation on desire" (Claire Dederer, The Atlantic).
Jamie Quatro's remarkable debut story collection, I Want to Show You More, announcing her as "a writer of great originality" (New York Times Book Review). Now, with her first novel, Quatro delivers a portrait of female desire and the complexities of a marriage.
Married twenty years to Thomas and living in Nashville with their two children, Maggie is drawn ineluctably into a passionate affair while still fiercely committed to her husband and family. What begins as a platonic exchange between writer Maggie and poet James, gradually transforms into an emotional and erotically-charged bond that challenges Maggie's sense of loyalty and morality, drawing her into the depths of desire.
Using an array of narrative techniques and written in spare, elegant prose, Jamie Quatro gives us a compelling account of one woman's emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual yearnings—unveiling the impulses and contradictions that reside in us all. Fire Sermon, "full of vivid, mercurial prose, breathes new life into [its] subject and sets it gloriously ablaze" (Claire Luchette, O Magazine).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Quatro's resonant debut novel (following the story collection I Want to Show You More) starts with a couple, married to other people, heading to a hotel. As the text quickly informs, "the story begins where others end," with "a happily-ever-after" nod to the marriage plot that ends a typical love story before disillusionment creeps in. Then the story moves back in time to the wedding of Maggie, 21, to Thomas, 24. So good is Maggie, so in awe of God, that she feels compelled to marry the first man she sleeps with. Which works out mostly. He's a good father and a supportive husband, but she can't have an orgasm "unless she distances herself from him, in her mind, picturing another man and woman." Life limps on for years, and Maggie begins writing to James, a successful writer and fellow Christian. They talk of books, God, family; he critiques her poetry. Finally the infidelity turns physical, bringing orgasms and guilt. The story switches between life before and after James and Maggie consummate their affair. Though some readers might be put off by the preciousness of the characters (they discuss "apophatic" literature and read Moby-Dick to their young children), Maggie's quandary should she grab happiness if it causes tremendous pain and risk losing her connection to God? is affecting and memorable. Quatro's novel will appeal particularly to readers interested in a dissection of how one reconciles belief with desire.
