This was one of the best books I read last year. There are a couple of intertwined themes here all set in the background of a working class family in the Durham coalfields.

The protagonist passes the 11 plus and is thus accepted into a grammar school, where he is nevertheless subjected -along with other children there - to daily cruelty, and ingrained prejudices, which during the novel, and through a friendship, he gains the power to overcome.

At the same time there is a theme with a character - McNulty - of mental illness, as well as the strains on the family under the threat of a life threatening illness - all set against the fear of approaching apocalypse in the cuban missile crisis.

There is so much in this book, it cannot be described - it has to be read. And Reading is not a chore, because David Almond is such a good writer. His prose is simple, but still manages to be vivid and engaging.

This is a book to read and ponder. Highly recommended. ( )

While I usually really like David Almond's books, this one doesn't seem to quite hit the mark. The boy in this book, Bobby, lives on a rural beach in England, where he has friends who are lower class (a coal-miner's daughter and a friend who does not go to school at 13). But Bobby has been accepted to the local Catholic school, and there are great plans for him. That is until the Cuban Missile Crisis turns everything upside down. At the same time, Bobby and his mom come across a fire-eater, McNulty, in the marketplace. It turns out that Bobby's dad served with McNulty and that McNulty is not quite right in the head. I think this book does not have a clear audience, unlike Almond's other books. While it is historical fiction, it calls the reader to understand something about mental illness, about growing up, and life in the middle class which they may not understand until they are older. Also, most of the British slang is fairly understandable, but not defined in the context nor in a glossary. ( )

This one is set in a sleepy, off the beaten path, coal town near New Castle, England. As usual, Almond writes of coming of age experiences with a cast of characters both soft and hard, gritty and kind.

As the United States and The Soviet Union prepare for potential nuclear disaster during the Cuban missile crisis, Bobby Burns witnesses McNulty, a fire breathing illusionist, carnival-like man who, as the story progresses, symbolically represents destruction and the power of fire to charm, and harm!

As the world approaches disaster, Bobby's father, who is mysteriously ill, is a survivor of WWII and knows all too well the terrors of war. Bobby and his friends and family find a way to believe in miracles that have the power to heal.

As in his book Skelling, Almond weaves a motley group of characters who, through reaching out to the unknown and different, find the power of love and redemption. ( )

In the last days of summer, 1962, Bobby Burns first saw McNulty, the Fire-Eater. He could wriggle free of binding chains, or stick a skewer through one cheek and out the other, so it stretched the span of his mouth. Or McNulty could breath fire, so that you couldn’t tell where the man ended and the fire began. McNulty’s past is dark and full of violence, but Bobby cannot stop thinking about him. As he begins his first days at a new school, as he worries about his father’s hacking cough, as he waits outside of the new boy’s house and peers through the windows, Bobby is always thinking of McNulty. Even as his family watches the Cuban Missile Crisis unfold on their television, Bobby wonder what McNulty could teach him, and what the strong man hears as the ocean crashes on their beach. The Fire-Eaters feels somewhat disjointed throughout the first half of the book. Almond introduces several different characters and issues for Bobby: class, power, war, death, religion, civil rights, and personal heritage. This makes the book a slow read, though it picks up nicely towards the end, connecting and resolving several of the issues. The moments in the book that stand out the most are those with McNulty, the fire-eater. He is a mystic character that brings those scenes to life, whereas others sometimes fall flat. The historical issues that Almond addresses are particularly relevant and allow the reader to view a world crisis beyond the perspective of Americans. ( )

A stunning book that touches on the territory of Lord of the Flies in its use of the apocalypse and exploration of the cruelty and exploitation common humanity is capable of.

The Rite of Passage we observe is that of all humanity as it totters on the brink - a multi-layered brink with elements of the political and the personal brilliantly exploited by Mr Almond to give a book not only accessible to young people but enjoyable to a more adult readership.

At the centre is the character of McNulty with his cry, "Pay!" He is the fire-eater and escapologist who illuminates, in a way worthy of Beckett, the condition of man at the end of a century of world conflict.

As a teacher of English I would recommend this to any of my students as a thought provoking text which will grip them from the first page. As a human being I am glad I read what is sure to become a classic. ( )