HOME FIRES BURNING

by Robert Inman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 28, 1986

A dense, rich, generous-spirited first novel: the story of a little southern town torn apart by WW II. Honest, crusty Jake Tibbetts, editor of this unnamed town's weekly newspaper (like his father and grandfather before him), is a man holding a burning grudge against his only son, Henry--Henry the ne'er-do-well alcoholic who drove his car off the road one night, killed the daughter of Jake's best friend, Mayor Rosh Benefield, and then disappeared into the Army after Pearl Harbor. Yet when Henry is killed in the Battle of the Bulge, it's Jake who is unable to accept it, tearing open the coffin at graveside--and discovering that the body within is in fact not Henry's at all. His son, it turns out, is lanquishing with amnesia in a French hospital. In the meantime, Henry's wife Francine shows up--she's a complete stranger to Jake and Pastine Tibbetts, but Pastine takes her in and cares for her while she gives birth to a son, and gradually even Jake accepts her. When Henry finally returns, half-mad, a gaunt scarecrow, Jake has a stroke, but recovers and is finally able to forgive Henry and get on with his life. Like Larry Woiwode's Beyond the Bedroom Wall, this is a tapestry of a novel, describing not only Jake, but his town, his feisty wife, his grandson Lonnie (who lives much of the time inside a fantasy of himself as a Civil War soldier), and his beloved newspaper. Inman's portrayal of small-town life has an It's a Wonderful Life warmth to it, although its realism keeps it from declining into the folksily cute. An intelligent debut, with a rewarding intensity.

Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1986

Categories: FICTION