The Trouble with Fire

by Fiona Kidman

Fiona Kidman has a genius for peeling back the lives of ordinary people to reveal their hidden passions and complexities. In this brilliant new collection, she explores - with her customary subtlety and insight - how we are all touched and sometimes scarred by the flames of emotion - whether it be the impossible love of a pregnant woman for a married man, grief for a dead baby or loss of a young woman in mysterious circumstances. Ranging in time from the colonial period to the present day, these stories by one of New Zealand's foremost writers are beautifully crafted, intriguing and evocative.

Genres: Short Stories

372 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Fiona Kidman is a leading contemporary novelist, short story writer and poet. Much of her fiction is focused on how outsiders navigate their way in narrowly conformist society. She has published a large and exciting range of fiction and poetry, and has worked as a librarian, producer and critic. Kidman has won numerous awards, and she has been the recipient of fellowships, grants and other significant honours, as well as being a consistent advocate for New Zealand writers and literature. She is the President of Honour for the New Zealand Book Council, and has been awarded an OBE and a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to literature.

Reviews

[Fabien Hubert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Difficile de dire si ma note tient plus à une écriture que j'ai jugée mauvaise ou à une traduction de piètre qualité. Dans tous les cas, on s'ennuie au fil des nouvelles, qui n'ont ni queue ni tête, ni intérêt ni objectif. Cette édition est truffée de fautes d'orthographe et les phrases sont juste difficiles à comprendre tant leur construction est étrange. Aucune concordance des temps, des pronoms qui ne renvoient à personne. De plus, les sujets sont (adroitement ?) mélangés, on passe du coq à l'âne au détour d'une virgule. Une perte de temps.

[Moushine Zahr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiona Kidman is the first author from New Zealand I've read. This book is a collection of short stories mostly set in rural areas of New Zealand. Most of the main characters of these short stories are women and their main themes are women's friendship, girl and boy relationships, marriage and divorce, and difficult life in rural New Zealand. The author has the writing and creative ability to take common stories add a zest of suspense and stretche the story to become a multi-generation family dramas and enough to make the readers continue to read. However, I didn't find the stories too great or unique. The different stories were a bit redundant for me turning around the same main themes. One short story set in Vietnam started well, but became very cliche. I'm still glad to have read at least one author from New Zealand even though I didn't learn much about the country's local culture and history.

[Geraldine · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, a great read. This series of short stories- some of them linked to one another- kept me turning the pages. Fiona writes about the ordinary in an extraordinary way. I appreciated her writing about the difficulties women seeking terminations in New Zealand faced in the 60s and 70s- having to stay with strangers in Wellington or Auckland if they were from out of town, in order to catch a flight to Sydney where they could have the procedure done. She reminds the reader that it was not so long ago that children born out of wedlock were frowned upon and often led to an escalation of poor life outcomes for not only the baby but the mother also. Fiona understands human nature and behaviour in depth and is able to express this in the written word so succinctly, Would recommend this to friends.

[Alumine Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I often find it hard to get into a book of short stories as they are usually brief. This however has to be the best collection of short stories I've ever read. Fiona Kidman has long been one of my favourite New Zealand authors and all her stories well worth reading. This collection has stories that stand alone and others which are about the same series of characters, telling a different part of their stories.
Really worth while, I loved this collection.

[Maggie Rainey-Smith]

I review this great collection over here for television http://acurioushalfhour.wordpress.com...

[Belinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyable