My Ongoing Battle With Garth Risk Hallberg's "City On Fire" (Spoilers, Started December 10th, 2015, Updated 1/9/16)

Hello,

First of all I would like to thank NetGalley.com and Knopf for letting me read a free copy of Garth Risk Hallberg's "City On Fire". As always this is a honest review.

Updated January 9th, 2016, this is through page 852 pages. Quite simply this book is too long, it's all anticlimactic for me. A good editing of at least 100 pages would have been great, especially as so many scenes are told over and over again- just from different viewpoints. I found out who shot Samantha and all I could think is really? Sorry, that's not believable or satisfying in the narrative of the book. Nicky Chaos' final two followers stop following him. My only question what took them so long? How did he get followers in the first place. Even the self-absorbed William saw through Nicky. Also what's up with this whole Post-Humanists bs?

William finally has this big confrontation with his father, only for his father to fall asleep on him. Too funny and I perfectly sympathize with the old man who fell asleep. William was a lot like this book, he never lives up to his potential. He's way too self-absorbed and entitled- there's no reason why he would feel entitled. I know he's a Hamilton-Sweeney but he did nothing to live up to his name. Even when he went on his own he was way too self-absorbed to be of much help to everyone. He should have stuck with Ex Post Facto.

For a story that only covers a few months, there are way too many characters. When Bullet shows up near the end of the book, I was like who?

I only mean to mock a bit, generally I've liked this book. But any book that comes with as much hype as this book needs to really deliver. Sadly unless the final 50 pages are absolutely amazing, it doesn't live up to it's own hype. Honestly at this point I just want it to end. My favorite characters are Mercer Goodman, although he's incredibly naive, Regan and Keith. I'm hoping they get back together. I hope Samantha survives the book- thanks Bullet. I really like Richard Groskopf- I wanted a better ending for him. It was such a waste. I'm lukewarm on Larry Pulaski, it seems he's purposefully dense. I thought Pulaski was great at first, but eventually I started liking him less and less.

I had time to read last night, but I needed a break from "City on Fire". I started reading "War Brides", a book I had always judged by it's cover. I'm only reading it now on the recommendation of a friend. I read the first 50 pages last night and am liking it, although it seems it will be too pulpy for me.

Updated January 1st, 2016, this is through page 691. At this point I just want to sit down and finish reading this book. I'm slowly working through the characters- finding out how they all connect, even when they don't know they are connected. In this section not only do we find that William is going to die early, but also that he kicked his heroin habit? Those two things may seem to be conflicting so how does that happen?

Will Pulaski, Nguyen and Goodman be able to figure out who shot Samantha? I understand that Samantha was at the nexus for so much, but why would anyone shoot her?

Just who was Samantha? Sometimes she seems incredibly naive, but sometimes she seems to be the manipulator. She's willing to trade sex for just about anything, but isn't she really looking for a real connection? Maybe she should have just stayed with Charlie all along, too bad Charlie's Mom grounded him for so long.

Plus I've added a brief main character review at the bottom of this entry.

Updated December 24th, 2015, this is through page 442. I'm nearly half finished this massive novel. I continue to enjoy it, but it is also a bit frustrating. I just barely read past where Mercer tries to stage an intervention for William to help him overcome his heroin habit. Also we see the Demon Brother meet with Nicky Chaos and what seems to be the end of their bizarre collaboration. That can't end well as they both think they are smarter than the other. Also both characters will do anything to achieve their ambitions, in their own different ways they are guided by a driving imperative.

Here are some of my questions and thoughts to this point of the book. Obviously the Hamilton-Sweeneys were helped financially by the Goulds. But in most other ways they weren't really helped by their collaboration with the Goulds. The Hamilton-Sweeneys have slowly been edged out of their own company by the Demon Brother. What had Regan done 15 years previously? Why did that irritate William so much, obviously William thought it was betrayal of some kind. How is the insider trading charges against the elder William Hamilton-Sweeney part of the Demon Brother's plan? I have no doubt that he's behind it. Is Amory framing the elder Hamilton-Sweeney? He definitely has plenty of motive. We also know that Felecia is on Team Amory, instead of team William, her husband. Both Felicia and Amory are such loathsome people.

Regan obviously loves her brother, is part of that that she feels she has to redeem herself to him? Why in the hell did Mercer think that an intervention would be a good idea? That had BAD IDEA written all over it. Although I did enjoy meeting the infamous Venus de Nylon. Mercer also loves William, but I'm not so sure that the feeling is mutual. The failed intervention led to William's "going to ground". Where could he possibly go? Was he preparing to leave already and was this the final thing that pushed him away. He came back for his clothes and TV, but why didn't he take Eartha Kitt with him?

Obviously this has something to do with said collaboration between the Demon Brother and Chaos, but why are the Post-Humanists following William? William is pretty self-involved, but he also is very smart. Did he know he was being followed? If so, did he use that to his advantage? Will Charlie survive his involvement with the Post-Humanists? Will Samantha survive at all? I thought she was going to die- or perhaps I read that somewhere- but she keeps on hanging on.

Why are both Pulaski and Richard obsessed with Samantha's case? I get for both of them it's part of their job, but their interest goes beyond a mere job. Why does Pulaski spend hours by Samantha's bed side when he has a wife that wants him home. Is he trying to lose himself in his work, or is he trying to find himself?

And why does Hallberg keep on quoting "Love to Love You Baby"- one of the least interesting Disco songs of all-time?

Updated December 14th, 2015, having read through page 257. I had this book on my Kindle, but this book is better to read in actual book form. I checked out a copy from the library. Anyway we are seeing the beginning of Charlie Weisberger and Sam Cicciaro's relationship. She bluntly tells him he is her project. Since the woman has that air of whatever it is that makes men go crazy, he's willing to be her project.

Like William below, Charlie is floating along in life. We see his formative years, the birth of his miraculous twin brothers Izzy and Abe, then shortly thereafter the loss of his father, going to an ineffective grief counselor, meeting Sam and discovering Ex Post Facto.

The book starts out with what feels like the ending of William and Mercer's relationship and in these pages I'm reading here we see the beginnings of their relationship. Although William is the spoiled progeny of Hamilton-Sweeney money, I get the sense that William benefits from the relationship more than Mercer does. He's looking for what William isn't going to give him, hopefully it won't be Aids or HIV that the promiscuous William gives him. Mercer has actually lived life instead of floating along like William. I love the fact that William is also Billy Three Sticks, formerly the leader of an influential punk band Ex Post Facto- which is Latin for "after the facts".

Speaking of key people in the history of Ex Post Facto, we meet Nicky Chaos. He quickly lives up to what feels like a nickname that he gave himself. I immediately don't like him.

I liked Regan Hamilton-Sweeney from the moment I first met her. She's going through the struggle of a divorce- but I'm not sure why she married such a bland man. Smart, beautiful and rich she probably could have had anyone she wanted. Why did she pick Keith? For Regan he seems like the "safe" choice. He was able to charm her family, was that what helped. And later why did Sam pick Keith? I just don't see what he offers to these women.

We also meet Sam's "fireworks genius" father, he's the central part of a story that the reporter Richard Groskoph is working on. I have an inkling of how Groskoph and Pulaski being poker buddies for 15 years will play out. But honestly I hope I'm wrong.

I love how Hallberg introduces us to all these characters that seem not to have much to do with each other. Slowly as I progress in the book we see how few degrees these people are actually away from each other. Is Hallberg suggesting that even the most disparate people really aren't that dissimilar? This is also a theme explored in the recent movie "Christmas Eve"- also about a group of people that don't seem to have a lot to do but those links reveal themselves as the movie goes on. Both of these forms of media take place in New York, is this degrees of separation a New York conceit?

December 10th, 2015

At this point I've read 16% through "Fire" on my Kindle. So far all I can say is this novel is sprawling in every way. A sprawling cast of characters, a sprawling story with so many moving parts and starring perhaps the most sprawling city of them all New York City. It's also a sprawling mess trying to keep track of all those things. It takes 944 pages to cover all the sprawling craziness. From New York Times here's the first paragraph of their review of this book. I post this only for the synopsis it provides, I lay no claim on the writing skill:

"Locating the best of times within the worst of times is no mean trick, especially in a historical novel where the history is recent enough that many readers remember firsthand just how bad those times were. That’s the delicate and ultimately moving balancing act that Garth Risk Hallberg pulls off in “City on Fire,” his ­Dickens-size descent into New York City circa 1976-77. Surveying a landscape that stretches from the smoldering South Bronx to the rubble-strewn vacant lots of Hell’s Kitchen to the spaced-out melee of Alphabet City, Hallberg doesn’t shortchange the era’s squalor. The thickets of graffiti are omnipresent; the detritus of drugs is underfoot; “Ford to City: Drop Dead” is on the front page. Yet humanity keeps bubbling up amid the ruins." (My thanks to the New York Times.)

Most of this book takes place from Christmas Eve 1976 through mid-1977. New York was literally on fire in many ways- both literally and metaphorically. 1977 New York featured the Son of Sam. (Fellow Dodgers fans please tread carefully over the next few lines.) It also was the summer of Reggie, the star the New York Yankees. He was a polar opposite to team captain Thurman Munson. Jackson led the Yankees to that year's World Series title, beating their arch rival Dodgers. Jackson won the World Series MVP with one of the best postseason performances ever. Due to his amazing clutch performance Jackson was nicknamed "Mr. October".

A fire in May killed 9 people and the July 13th-14th blackout led to"widespread looting and rioting." Plus there's this from wikipedia.org: "During Game 2 of the 1977 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, a fire rages out of control at an abandoned elementary school near Yankee Stadium. The images and a dramatic statement on national television by sportscaster Howard Cosell is widely seen as the symbolic nadir of a dark period in city history." (Thanks to Wikipedia, any thing in quotes comes directly from Wikipedia obviously.)

I was 10 at the time. Although I lived far away I remember a lot about that World Series- as I am now I was a huge Dodgers fan then. I still remember Bob Welch striking out Jackson, but Jackson ultimately won their mano a mano battle. Jackson's World Series was truly electrifying. I still remember Munson's plane crashing  a couple of years later, an accident that happened right before I entered junior high. While I'm not saying I know a lot about the New York experience then, I was at least aware somewhat of what was happening during the events of this book.

"City On Fire" certainly has a big canvas to work with all the things going on in New York City at the time. Just some random thoughts and questions as I continue reading this book. Did Sam know who shot her and why was she shot? What were Sam and Charlie to each other? Will Mercer and William ever find happiness? Are you kidding, I already know the answer to this question. Will Mercer ever write the great American novel? Will siblings Regan and William reconcile and do we even want them to? Will Regan ever find happiness? Will ANY of these characters ever find a semblance of happiness? What's the fate of Ex Nihilo? Will the demon brother Amory and Felicia Gould really win? Please no.

A brief review of the main characters: Regan Hamilton-Sweeney, the heart and soul of the book, is the new chief of PR and Community Affairs at her father's company. (Real life equivalent Ivanka Trump.)

Keith Lamplighter, Regan's estranged husband and father of their two children. He has made a lot of bad choices, but seems to have his heart in the right place, will he be a hero or not.

The elder William Hamilton-Sweeney, her brother, who has no interest in his father's company. William is a self-involved artist and the legendary Billy Three Sticks of Ex Post Facto band. He's gay and living with younger man Mercer Goodman.

Mercer Goodman is a teacher at a school where Regan's kids go to school. He loves William, but seems to be clueless what William is all about (mostly himself). Mercer was also the one who tried to help a young gunshot victim, Samantha Cicciaro.

Samantha Cicciaro is the person shot and currently in the hospital in a coma, figuring out who shot her and why is one of the major plots of this book. Is she victim only or is there something else going on?

William Hamilton-Sweeney, the owner of the company, seeming to be suffering dementia and also facing federal charges. He now seems to be a pawn of his second wife, Felicia Gould, and her brother Amory. The charges against him don't seem to have anything to do with him. It feels like he's being set up by the Gould.

Amory Gould, aka The Demon Brother, an incredibly slimy character who has wesealed himself into power in the Hamilton-Sweeney power structure. He seems to be funding the Post-Humanists, a group pushing for revolution. But they are also pawns of Amory, who wants the destruction for his own purposes.

Felicia Gould- ick- enough said.

Charlie Weisbarger- Samantha's sometime friend, especially when she needs something. Essentially a good kid who's still finding himself. It was Charlie she was waiting for when she was shot.

Nicky Chaos, another pawn of Amory Gould, but he's not clueless. He's leader of the Post-Humanists, a group intent on revolution. Too bad they are high most of the time.

Larry Pulaski, idealistic policeman.

Jenny Nguyen, Richard Groskopf's neighbor, almost lover and protector of his legacy.

Richard Groskopf, idealistic reporter, looking to find that one last great article.

themusicaddict