Before I get into the many thoughts I thus far have, I want to share an experience that has been enhancing my reading. I typically spend 10-12 hours per week reading at the local Panera Bread. It's always been non-fiction reading, until now. In digging into The Fire Agent I realized that the many conversations that surrounded me from other booths were interfering with the experience so I inserted AirPods, and put on some Classical Japanese music and WOW, my fellow patrons melted away, silenced, and the already cinematic story went up a notch. Give it a shot!
This novel has been on our radar here for years and I resolved to really devote myself to immersing myself into David's multi-generational family tale. If you've been hanging around Dan's creation for the last quarter-century or so, you've had the pleasure of not only making DB's music the soundtrack of your middle age, you've gotten a sense for the guy, his passions, his family story, and a whole lot more. It's a weird bar here, so many conversations, some civil, some less so. So many folks from so many places stopped in for a drink, occasionally imbibing too much, even kicking up a ruckus before exiting for other, surely less intimate, virtual taverns. Accordingly, I really want to understand what's been birthed after the seven-year literary gestation period.
Along the way, and to enhance my comprehension, I've scribbled notes related to the main characters, settings, and events . After all, there are three generations of Baerwald here and it helps me to fill out the Baerwald family tree a bit, and for what's happening when and where. My fastidious ways aren't required of the average reader, I assure you.
On to my comments. David's writing puts you into many very vividly drawn scenes, and his characters leave the page and inhabit your consciousness. He's clearly a proponent of the "show, don't tell" narration and it's fantastic. Smart, smart similes, really inventive! There are so many history lessons here, and you'll find parallels to what we are living through. I'm especially thinking of how technology, for good or ill, impacted culture then and now. I have to think that contemporary issues some how informed his writing of the past. Knowing what awaits Europe, and Asia in a decade, and then in another twenty years, makes for a surreal experience as you hear the voices of technological optimism.
David has written about the education he received at the dining room table all those years ago when his father held court with academics, intelligence officers, and other dignitaries. I'd love to know how often he thought back on those lessons he learned and how he incorporated them into the story. I also recall during his early, struggling years, David read a ton of screenplays, mostly bad as I recall. Did he learn anything that assisted with the story structure? Lastly, you may remember that David's father, Hans, published the book, The Purge of Japanese Leaders Under the Occupation in 1959. Although I have a lot more to read, I wonder if that book influenced The Fire Agent in any way.
Sorry for my long-winded initial thoughts. I may well hold off until I've finished the books before I comment more. In the meantime, make sure you place your Amazon order so you too can dig into David's gift to the Baerwalds he's only read of, and the Baerwalds not yet born.
Peter T.
