The House is on Fire by Rachel Beanland

 

Title:  The House is on Fire

Author:  Rachel Beanland

Narrated by:  Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Andi Arndt, Michael Crouch, Ruffin Prentiss III

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 12 hours and 28 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank you @simonandschuster #BookClubFavorites for the free books!

Do you have any famous local fires in your area?  The Peshtigo Fire in Northeast Wisconsin was the same day as the Great Chicago Fire and it caused a much higher loss of life and property, but it was overshadowed by the Chicago Fire.  My sons were intrigued with it when they were little, and we read many accounts of the tragedy.  I had a hard time not crying reading the first-person accounts of horror as fathers ran back to save the family dog or a prize possession never to be seen again.

The House is on Fire is a historical fiction novel that is based on a famous fire and tragedy that occurred in Richmond Virginia on December 26, 1811.  A lot of people were in town for the general assembly and holidays and over six-hundred people packed the theatre when fire broke out.  The novel focuses on four different people who were involved with the event in very different ways.  Sally Henry Campbell is a widow and the daughter of Patriot Patrick Henry.  She is in a third story box when the fire breaks out.  Cecily Patterson is a slave that is attending with her mistress and sitting in the gallery.  Jack Gibson is a stagehand hoping to have a career in theatre who is at the epicenter when the blaze starts.  Gilbert Hunt is enslaved by a cruel blacksmith and dreams of purchasing freedom for himself and his wife.  All four of these individuals have to make decisions on that fateful night that that will change the course of their lives forever.  Just as important is the aftermath when people were searching for either the truth or for someone to blame for the tragedy.

This audiobook had four different narrators to go with the four different viewpoints of the novel.  It worked quite well and made it an enjoyable read with the four different perspectives of the fire.  I greatly enjoyed this audiobook.   The short chapters kept the momentum of the story going. The fire started at the beginning of the book and there was a lot of action that took place.   It really made me wonder, what would you do in such a situation?   I would like to think I would be a hero trying to save others, but I worry that I would be the person pushing my way out and walking on others just to survive.

I had never heard of this part of history before, and I enjoyed learning about a new to me piece of history.  I also appreciated that the four main characters came from very different backgrounds and that two of the characters were enslaved.  It was very interesting at the end of the novel to learn more about these real-life individuals in the author’s note.  I felt that through the characters that were written about, the reader was able to get a wide view of the tragedy through a lens that also showed the rampant racism and sexism of the time.  Cecily suffered great horrors as an enslaved women, but the theatre fire gave her a chance to start over.  Gilbert was the hero of the day in public, but abused by his master in private.  Orphan Jack struggles with speaking the truth when he may lose his job and opportunities.  Sally wonders at a world that doesn’t give a voice to women and their experiences and wonders about the men who left her to die in the blaze.  It was intriguing to think about so many aspects to the story and life in 1811.