The Secrets of a Fire King: Stories

I am not one who normally invests time in short stories. It is not that I dislike them, more that I find them unsatisfying. I get involved and dedicated to an idea and find it cut short. This is expected as it is the intent of the medium.

A result of this is that I either avoid them completely, or read them, and feel that my opinion is not a fair reflection of the work. So I rarely write reviews of collections like this.

This stated, Kim Edwards’ collection of shorts ‘The Secrets of a Fire King’ was excellent.

Thirteen vignettes are carried here, and for the most part, each was impressive. They are almost elusive amorphous fables, each having a lesson to learn from, but requiring interpretation. Most center around personal evolution, show more both emotional and spiritual, but none are heavy handed enough to just say “this novel is about XX”.

Folks who read this should be made aware that much of the work is darker than her other writings. Many of the tales have an undercurrent of tragic humanity that is gripping. This is no “Memory Keeper’s Daughter”.

One of the stories here stands out every time I think about it. The third story, ‘A Gleaming in the Darkness’ is my favorite. The story centers around a cleaning woman in a scientific laboratory. She is uneducated and obsessively idolizes the woman who runs the lab, Marie Curie. She wanders the lab and fiddles with jars and ampoules that glow beautifully in the darkness of the lab.

The second favorite was the title story ‘Secrets of a Fire King’. With out going into too much detail, it was fairly amazing. It details the love triangle between a man, woman, and boy who are in a traveling side show.

This collection is well worth picking up. Surprisingly, it is commonly found in stacks of discount books at Borders and other stores, so you may be able to get it very cheap. This is not a reflection of the authors work, instead Penguin Publishing’s failure to properly market this remarkable book. I do not know what they put into play during the marketing of this, but it obviously was not enough or was completely approached wrong.

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I am not one who normally invests time in short stories. It is not that I dislike them, more that I find them unsatisfying. I get involved and dedicated to an idea and find it cut short. This is expected as it is the intent of the medium.

A result of this is that I either avoid them completely, or read them, and feel that my opinion is not a fair reflection of the work. So I rarely write reviews of collections like this.

This stated, Kim Edwards’ collection of shorts ‘The Secrets of a Fire King’ was excellent.

Thirteen vignettes are carried here, and for the most part, each was impressive. They are almost elusive amorphous fables, each having a lesson to learn from, but requiring interpretation. Most center around personal evolution, show more both emotional and spiritual, but none are heavy handed enough to just say “this novel is about XX”.

Folks who read this should be made aware that much of the work is darker than her other writings. Many of the tales have an undercurrent of tragic humanity that is gripping. This is no “Memory Keeper’s Daughter”.

One of the stories here stands out every time I think about it. The third story, ‘A Gleaming in the Darkness’ is my favorite. The story centers around a cleaning woman in a scientific laboratory. She is uneducated and obsessively idolizes the woman who runs the lab, Marie Curie. She wanders the lab and fiddles with jars and ampoules that glow beautifully in the darkness of the lab.

The second favorite was the title story ‘Secrets of a Fire King’. With out going into too much detail, it was fairly amazing. It details the love triangle between a man, woman, and boy who are in a traveling side show.

This collection is well worth picking up. Surprisingly, it is commonly found in stacks of discount books at Borders and other stores, so you may be able to get it very cheap. This is not a reflection of the authors work, instead Penguin Publishing’s failure to properly market this remarkable book. I do not know what they put into play during the marketing of this, but it obviously was not enough or was completely approached wrong. show less

I didn't know what to expect when I picked up Kim Edwards collection of short stories. What I discovered is that Edwards has a broad scope of story telling that I wouldn't have expected. The 14 stores contained in this collection have a common element of writing style to them - rich, descriptive prose with sentences that flow smoothly into one another, with no ragged edges or jarring dialogue. As for the story topics, they range from modern day family squabbles that impact on social and economic issues, eco-travel future age science, historical fiction, mythical tales and circus life (to name but a few) set in locales around the globe from North America to Europe and Southeast Asia.

I didn't enjoy all of the stories with the same gusto show more but that is to be expected when such a diverse offering is presented. The anchor stories, "The Great Chain of Being" and "The Story of My Life" are two stories that continue to resonate with me along with "A Gleaming in the Darkness", a story about Madame Curie and her discovery of radium told from the point of view of a cleaning woman of the labs.

In all, I was quite impressed with this book and can happily recommend this book to others. show less

Before The Memory Keepers Daughter skyrocketed up the best-seller list, author Kim Edwards wrote another book, a collection of short stories.

We all know how much I love a good short story collection, and since I adored The Memory Keepers Daughter, I was interested in reading this one. I was even more interested when I spotted the audio at the library.

Before I start with the commentary, I gotta say something about that cover.

It kind of creeps me out, if I do say so myself. It's too ... embryotic. Too freaky. Anyway, I just had to mention that.

Maybe I keep conjuring up embryos in connection with this petri dish of stories because, with a few exceptions, they all kind of struck me as not quite ... fully formed. The adjective that I show more keep coming back to for these stories is "nondescript." I've been listening to this audio all week and while they're nice enough stories, most of them fall somewhat flat, forgotten as soon as I eject the CD.

For example, there is a betrayal aspect to the story "Spring, Mountain, Sea" that could almost be viewed as a prelude to the central plot of The Memory Keepers Daughter; in fact, the two incidents are similar enough that I was curious to know if it had inspired or influenced the novel. However, unlike the novel, the betrayal in this short story is mentioned and then all but dismissed, only to be referenced once more. It seems integral enough to the short story that it does the tale a disservice.

Perhaps it's just that the novel format is a stronger one for Ms. Edwards, and that's OK. I think as writers we're allowed - encouraged, even - to experiment. We need to, otherwise how will we ever know what works? show less

I wasn't a huge fan of The Memory Keepers Daughter, so it was with hesitation that I picked up The Secrets of a Fire King. I was pleasantly surprised. These short stories are engaging and varied. They are set in lots of different places and about very different people. This is important in a book of short stories, in my opinion, especially a slim one such as this. Even though the stories and the book itself is short, I finished it feeling that it was a book of well-rounded and very interesting writing.

I've had The Secrets of a Fire King on my wishlist pretty much ever since I read The Memory Keeper's Daughter (read my post). Now that I've read it, I'm wondering why I didn't try to get my hands on a copy sooner. I loved the varied settings of the stories, Edwards' vivid descriptions, and her sympathetic characters. In this collection, Edwards is subtle and strong. Her words are mesmerizing. And, while there were some stories that I cared less for than others, there were none that I wanted to write off (which is rare in a collection, I think).

I think my favorite stories were "Thirst" (about a mermaid who gave up the sea for love), "A Gleaming in the Darkness" (the story of Marie Curie's cleaning woman), and "Aristotle's Lantern" (how show more to describe that one?). I loved the irony of "The Invitation" and optimism evidenced in "The Great Chain of Being" and "The Story of My Life" (and how those two stories frame the collection).

While The Secrets of a Fire King has a number of recurring themes, I was particularly struck by Edwards' meditation on Marie Curie and her legacy. When radium appeared unexpectedly in a second story, I felt a surge of joy (and a greater anticipation about where that story would lead).

- morsie reads show less

This was an absolutely fantastic collection, more of a 4.5 than a 5, and maybe just a 5. It baffles me how an author can write so well about so many disparate people and places.