Love has always been one of the most difficult emotions to
portray in the light of art and under the shadow of internal conflict. In the
strongest scenes of the story, Ruby, who embodies a 19th century innocence,
breaks through the barriers of an age when the inadequacy of human civilization
begins to become apparent in her life.
“Many letters arrived from London and Paris. A sole
dispatch from Rome was followed by an abrupt cessation. As the silence from her
lovers lengthened, Ruby worried about them both.”
Through her spontaneous and inflammable prose, Suanne Schafer
makes Ruby’s world more intriguing by pushing her heroine into a battle of a mysterious
desire and an existential confusion. She helps us grasp the intimate connection
between art and love—passionate romantic instincts and “misplaced” artistic sensuality.
Devouring vivid scenes of same-gender courtship can be one of the great
pleasures of reading fiction. It can be a tonic to sensibilities blunted by
post-modern literature and intended to arouse creative desire.
As the story seesaws between Philadelphia and Truly of an
America that flourished before the age of motor cars, the scenic landscape of
ranches leads us to a world that at first seems to challenge the contributions
of the Renaissance. Then her roommate—someone from old wealth, and Ruby’s visit
to their mansion, continues to create fascinating history until we reach the
point of ecstasy. America is struck by a financial depression, but not the
unexplored desires of a ranch girl’s heart. Ruby acts and reacts in a sensible
state of receptivity in which the other actors play the role of governing her emotions.
Ruby projects an endurance of composure under dire straits when future artistry
miraculously arrives at her doorstep, and does not look disturbed by her
curious surroundings. It is a story that is difficult to discuss without giving
away the plot. The author, for her part, is so judiciously imaginative and
psychologically astute that she turns A Different Kind of Fire into a brilliant
portrayal of love at a restrained pace and with a contemplative tenor. It has
situations, superbly sensual and inventively vivid. Until I read this book, I
always thought that creating a classic piece of work is literature’s hidden
secret of appeal only a few like Jane Austen and Marilynne Robinson could
master.
Sidd Burth
18th February, 2019
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