I listened to The Fireman by Joe Hill via Audible, as read by Kate Mulgrew, and it was a deeply satisfying and often riveting experience.I hesitated when I looked at the length of the recording, which my friend Paula Gallagher (a Baltimore County Librarian and the Dan Rodericks' Show book critic) highly recommended, both personally and on the Rodericks podcast. Over 22 hours? I love listening to audiobooks, especially in the summer, when my days are filled with working out in the yard or in the gym, but this was longer than even a roundtrip drive to my hometown in southwest Michigan.
But both the engrossing story and Mulgrew's remarkable vocal performance kept me entranced, and the book -- much like the disease it depicts -- became a seared into my brain as I listened more and more. By the end, I was listening non-stop as the story became more and more absorbing and I cared more and more about the characters.
The protagonist is Harper Grayson, a school nurse, and the novel opens up with her witnessing a man burning to death outside the school. He is a victim of a disease that is infecting the world; the disease is nicknamed Dragonscale, because it leaves patterned scales on the victims' skin, and the victim eventually spontaneously combusts.
The apocalyptic chaos comes quickly after the day the novel begins, and Harper volunteers to work at a hospital that is attempting to treat the fatal illness. Victims invariably die after a few weeks of being infected. Harper and her husband, Jakob, have discussed a suicide pact if either of them is infected, but plans change once Harper gets pregnant.
She's soon in need of rescue by an enigmatic figure called The Fireman, and the action moves into a camp, where victims of the illness have learned to control the illness. As the world is erupting into disorder and confusion around them, and mostly unbeknownst to them (communications have largely been cut off), we are introduced to a large cast of characters trying to survive, while "Cremation Crews" roam the outside world, looking for victims to kill before they spread the disease more.
And it's those victims that we follow, and I could probably put quotes around "victims," because, in many ways, these are the people that maintain their humanity in the text, kind of flipping around other apocalyptic fiction like The Walking Dead.
Indeed, this is not your everyday apocalypse novel; it reminded me most of Station Eleven by Emily St. John (my review here) in that it is elegiac and character-driven. But I also loved its quirks; the survivors hear about an island for survivors that is run by 1980s MTV VJ Martha Quinn, and we hear about stars like George Clooney who have spontaneously combusted themselves. Harper is obsessed with Julie Andrews and Mary Poppins, and the book is full of allusions to it, especially its songs. A foul-mouthed teenage girl is as expressive with curse words as Dexter's sister was on the TV show. There's also very authentic relationships -- romantic, familial -- that form, movingly, and Hill deftly handles a large cast of characters (including female characters, a strength) with incredible precision; the villains that emerge are multi-faceted and believable, and the heroes often come from unlikely places.
I guess apocalyptic literature is mostly trying to explore what makes us human, what would still exist if all of our comforts were taken away and we were just trying to survive. And Hill's vision is sometimes very negative, as can be expected by the existence of crews whose job it is to shoot diseased people. But there's an intriguing thread here, too, about humans' need for kindness as a survival tool, that the actual act of kindness helps keep us alive and give us our humanity.
Joe Hill is Stephen King's son, and I hesitate to mention it, as he's taken great pains not to be known by his father's name. And he deserves to be known on his own. I enjoyed this book as much as I've ever enjoyed any of King's books (and I do enjoy Stephen King). I'll definitely be sampling more of his novels in the future.
And I also want to say a bit about Kate Mulgrew, the actress ("Red" on Orange is the New Black and "Captain Janeaway" on Star Trek: Voyager) and vocal artist. Mulgrew was incredibly adept at shifting between accents (Irish, British, New England), and adding gravity and humor to Joe Hill's words. I'm going to be rooting for her to win a Grammy for this performance, because it's one of the most distinctive and perfect audiobook performances I've ever experienced.
Listen to this book. You'll be glad you did.
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