A MOMENT IN TIME

In Dunne’s debut novel, a firefighter comes to terms with his distant past as he navigates a relationship.

The novel’s story is told from two different third-person perspectives. Karl Bergman is a 23-year-old man living on the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1880s, and Jim Hanley is a modern-day firefighter in Queens. Each man’s world is fundamentally changing in different ways. Karl is in love with Anna Kohler, a German immigrant with a disapproving father, and their relationship is flourishing until she falls ill. Now Karl is only able to spend time with her for a few minutes a day in her stagnant apartment, watching her as she sleeps, looking frail and in pain. In the present, Jim’s betrothed, Laura Whitacre, is moving too fast for him, and he’s confused and unsure about what he truly wants from their relationship. Jim’s chapters consist of talking about life with his firefighter companions, trying to make things work with Laura, and having peculiar visions of an earlier time, involving a different man.When Jim must finally make life-changing decisions, he leans on these flashbacks for guidance. Dunne’s character work is the highlight of this novel; Jim and Karl both feel realistic, three-dimensional, and intriguingly flawed. However, this care and attention does not extend to the book’s only major female character, Laura, or to Jim’s colleagues in the firehouse. Still, the writing is clear and concise throughout, and Dunne’s descriptive imagery is often compelling: “He liked the feel of holding a tool in his hands and using it to force a door open, demolish a window, or pull down a ceiling. Smoke, water, melted tar, charred wood, these were all part of his collective work memory.” The story itself feels a little convoluted, and its central premise—a man wrestling with his feelings about a woman who adores him—is a common one with a predictable outcome despite its offbeat trappings.

An ambitious but ultimately familiar tale of two eras.