The Fireman's Wife

October 20, 2008
The unhappy wife of a fireman in 1970 realizes too late that her independence comes at a high price in Riggs's often heavy-handed novel. Early pregnancy forced Cassie Johnson into a marriage and a life she wasn't sure she wanted. Her husband Peck's job as their small South Carolina town's fire chief prevents him from giving her the attention she craves. Cassie finds solace in the arms of another fireman, Clay Taylor, and leaves town with him, determined to start over, but when she realizes she's just repeating her mistakes, she flees to her mother in the mountains for some soul searching. Soon she realizes the unexpected and tragic consequences of her actions. Riggs's 1970s South bears little resemblance to the South of social turmoil, and he overuses tired metaphors of rain, drought and oppressive humidity. But despite Cassie's lack of complexity, Riggs captures her internal life well and gives her conflicts legitimacy and gravitas.

November 15, 2008
In Riggs second novel, after When the Finch Rises (2003), the South Carolina low country becomes as much a character in the novel as the young family at its center. It is set in the summer of 1970 during the middle of a vicious drought, with small fires constantlythreatening to consume the parched countryside. Cassie Johnson is only 33 but feels much older, still wrestling with the repercussions of an unplanned pregnancy 15 years ago that forced her to drop out of college and get married. Her husband, Peck, afire chief, is not only consumed by his dangerous work but also worried sick that his wife is having an affair and that theirtortured marriage has negatively affected their daughter. Cassie hates her life on the marsh as much as Peck loves itits the mountains she calls home, and its there she decides to retreat to. Riggs brings an intimate knowledge of the land as well as a feel for the emotional highs and lows of marriage to this sensitive novel of love and loss.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)