The House Is on Fire by Rachel BeanlandDescription
The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland is a book club pick--a fictionalized account of a real theater fire in 19th century Richmond. During a packed performance, the theater caught fire, the blaze quickly growing and causing structural damage. The audience fought their way out, some jumping from second and third stories of the building. Over fifty people died in the fire and the theater was completely destroyed. The grief of the community was overwhelming.
Beanland tells the story from the points of view of four distinct characters: Sally, a widow at the theater with her her dead husband’s brother and his wife; Jack, a young stagehand, Cecily, a slave accompanying the slave owner’s daughter; and Gilbert, a slave who was not at the performance, but who rushes to find the daughter of his wife’s slave owner. While the experiences of each are very different, all four survive the fire, and all four deal with the aftermath in different ways.
Beanland tells the story from the points of view of four distinct characters: Sally, a widow at the theater with her her dead husband’s brother and his wife; Jack, a young stagehand, Cecily, a slave accompanying the slave owner’s daughter; and Gilbert, a slave who was not at the performance, but who rushes to find the daughter of his wife’s slave owner. While the experiences of each are very different, all four survive the fire, and all four deal with the aftermath in different ways.
Would I Teach This Book?
Would I teach The House Is on Fire? Beanland uses the fire as a vehicle to explore gender relations, the experience of the enslaved, and employment, among other topics. There is certainly much to discuss and Beanland shows great imagination in creating the lives of the four characters. In a genre writing class, the book could serve as an example of a lot of the moves that contemporary historical fiction makes. There is a strong female character who bucks against societal norms, a graphic show of how the “good slave owner” is nothing more than a myth, what appears to be a well-researched account of what theater life was like, and a historical event on which the plot is built. For all these reasons, it creates a good example to aid in a discussion about how historical fiction works. I did enjoy reading the book over all, but I would put at least a few other historical fiction novels ahead of The House Is on Fire.
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