A FIRE SO WILD

Brief scenes, spanning the perspectives of diverse characters representing Berkeley’s socioeconomic strata, sound an alarm about the threats posed by climate change.

Having covered climate and social justice issues for HuffPost, first-time novelist Ruiz-Grossman is well equipped to depict the devastation wrought by the wildfires that recently threatened heavily settled areas of California. Here, a conflagration suddenly leaps into a bougie neighborhood in the Berkeley Hills. Directly in the line of fire is a soiree organized as a combo birthday party/fundraiser by Abigail, a committed if tone-deaf affordable housing advocate. She’s hoping to convince a developer to include low-income housing in a building nearing completion. In attendance are Abigail’s partner, Taylor, a one-time tech whiz who cashed out to become a stay-at-home mom, and their son, Xavier, now a high school senior. Recognizing that her role has become redundant, Taylor is edging into a what’s-it-all-about phase. As the marriage falters, Xavier falls for a classmate, Mar, a climate activist whose passion for ecology is matched by her ardor for social justice. Tossed into the mix is a mutually devoted homeless couple: Willow, a wan, dispirited 34-year-old survivor of childhood sexual trauma, and her dogged protector, Sunny, a sometime construction worker who wears a locket with her photo on a chain around his neck. The characters are introduced via brief glimpses framed within their individual points of view, but it’s a safe bet that—as in a formulaic disaster movie—their paths will eventually cross. Apart from one genuinely dramatic scene—caught unaware mid-tryst, the teens have no choice but to hurl themselves out a second-story window—the interactions unfurl ploddingly. The character sketches are thin, amounting to a collection of traits. The depiction of the mutually devoted van-dwelling couple, in particular, is sentimental to the point of insulting.

Though the novel is timely, even environmentalists may find its tone overly didactic.