by Jack Riggs
3. The book begins, and ends, with Cassie thinking about the Great Wallenda's tightrope walk across Tallulah Gorge. What symbolic significance does this event hold in the novel? How does the meaning of the tightrope walk change for Cassie by the end of the book?
4. Cassie explains, “Peck always told me that in a fire there's nothing good for anyone, not those caught in it or those that have to fight it.” What larger significance does this statement have for the events of the book? In what ways does Cassie's decision to leave Peck resemble this kind of fire?
5. There are several different kinds of parent- child relationships in the novel: Cassie and Kelly, Parker and Cassie, Pops and Peck, etc. Even Peck and Cassie have very different approaches to parenting their daughter. How do these family relationships affect the individuals involved, and how could each be improved? What do you think makes each of these parents and children treat each other the way they do? What lessons can be learned from these relationships?
6. “Momma used to say children were empty vessels that we fill.” Do you agree with this statement? What evidence does the story offer for and against this idea?
7. Pecks first emergency call is for a child who died because his parents weren't paying attention—ironically, this call takes him away from an important moment in his own daughter's life. In what ways do the series of fire calls narrated in the book reflect on Peck's and Cassie's own lives? How do they add to and deepen the meaning of the novel?
8. Clay tells Cassie, “I don't think anything could make you happy.” Is that true, do you think? What is Cassie looking for? Do you think she'll ever find it?
9. Peck is surrounded by old friends like Teddy, and an alternate “family” of sorts at the firehouse; Cassie spends most of her time alone, or clashing with Kelly. How do you think this influences their different outlooks on life?
10. Meemaw, Cassie, and Kelly are each very different women. Discuss the ways in which their passions and personalities represent the worlds in which they came (or are coming) of age.
11. What do you think attracts Cassie to Clay? Do you ultimately think he is a sympathetic character? Why or why not?
12. When Peck apologizes for taking Pops to a nursing home, Pops explains that “a man builds his home in his heart.” How true do you think this is for the other characters in the novel? What symbolic role do physical houses—Cassie and Pecks house on the marsh, Clay's rented cottage in Walhalla, Meemaw's little house on the disputed land in Whiteside Cove—play in the lives of their inhabitants?
13. The story takes place in the summer of 1970. Why is this timing important? How would Cassie's and Pecks lives be different if their story were happening today?
14. Cassie is a headstrong character, with stubborn opinions of her own—yet she is always quoting the thoughts and comments of the men in her life. In what ways is she passive, and in what ways is she active? How does her passivity contribute to her frustration, and is there anything you think she could have done to resolve it without leaving Peck? How does this frustration play out in her relationship with Kelly?
15. Cassie says, “I've come too far, even if I fail, to give up trying now.” She says this about running away with Clay, but could it be applied to her life with Peck as well? Do you agree with her statement? Is it a good principle to live by? Why or why not?
16. The novel's title is The Fireman's Wife. Ultimately, whose story do you think it is—the fireman's, or his wife's? In what ways is it accurate, or not, to define Cassie as mainly a “fireman's wife”? Does this change as the novel progresses?
JACK RIGGS s first novel, When the Finch Rises, won the Georgia Author of the Year Award, and was chosen by Booklist as one of the Top 10 First Novels of 2003. Riggs is the writer-in-residence at the Writers Institute at Georgia Perimeter College in Atlanta.
ABOUT THE TYPE
This book was set in Fairfield, the first typeface from the hand of the distinguished American artist and engraver Rudolph Ru -zicka (1883–1978). In its structure Fairfield displays the sober and sane qualities of the master craftsman whose talent has long been dedicated to clarity. It is this trait that accounts for the trim grace and vigor, the spirited design and sensitive balance, of this original typeface.
Rudolph Ruzicka was born in Bohemia and came to America in 1894. He set up his own shop devoted to wood engraving and printing in New York in 1913 after a varied career working as a wood engraver and as an art director and freelance artist. He designed and illustrated many books, and was the creator of a considerable list of in dividual prints—wood engravings, line engravings on copper, and aquatints.
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