THE PROGRESS OF A FIRE

by Robert Abel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1985

From the author of Freedom Dues (1980), a slow-moving and overly symbolic second novel--dedicated ""to those who fought the war; and to those who fought to bring them home""--in which the Vietnam war is reenacted in western Massachusetts, where a couple of veterans save a Chinese-American artist from a gang of motorcycle thugs. Chong Hu Lan, 56, is a New York painter down on his luck--his marriage has broken up, his paintings are out of vogue. So, with the help of a rich patron, he moves to a small Massachusetts town named, with heavy irony, Lake Ecstasy. But instead of peace of mind, he finds controversy when he takes in a teen-age runaway named Ginny Cahill. Ginny's mother is the girlfriend of the vicious and bigoted Billy Parker, who is the leader of a local motorcycle gang known only as The Club. When Chong refuses to return Ginny (who has been abused by Parker), The Club immediately begins a campaign of terror against him--burning his barn and fields, vandalizing his car, finally attacking and beating him up. Into the fray comes the US Cavalry in the person of Jim Williams, a former combat veteran who is less a character than a walking advertisement for post-Vietnam stress syndrome: alcoholic, simmering with violence, fragmented with flashbacks. His flat, dour, hackneyed presence spoils the book, which up until this point held promise, mainly because of the lovely relationship between the gentle Chong and the volatile Ginny. Instead, with numbing predictability, Jim and another vet attack and defeat Parker and his boys in what is literally a fire-fight (with Jim flashing back like a pinball machine) and the war is over, once again. This last taste of combat vanquishes Jim's personal demons, and Chong is now free to make art. ""Jesus Christ!"" he says gleefully at the end--speaking to his daughter, but really to America, 1985--""I've got so much work to do."" All in all, an honorable attempt at fence-mending by a talented writer who has, unfortunately, failed to bring anything new or intense to his examination of the effects of the Vietnam war.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION