City on Fire

A Novel

By: Garth Risk Hallberg

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman, Tristan Morris, Bronson Pinchot, MacLeod Andrews, Alex McKenna, Paul Michael

Length: 37 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

A big-hearted, boundary-vaulting novel that heralds a remarkable new talent: set in 1970s New York, a story outsized in its generosity, warmth, and ambition, its deep feeling for its characters, its exuberant imagination.

The individuals who live within this extraordinary first novel are: Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney, estranged heirs to one of the city's largest fortunes; Keith and Mercer, the men who, for better or worse, love them; Charlie and Samantha, two suburban teenagers seduced by downtown's punk scene; an obsessive magazine reporter and his idealistic neighbor; and the detective trying to figure out what any of them have to do with a shooting in Central Park. Their entangled relationships open up the loneliest-seeming corners of the crowded city. And when the infamous blackout of July 13, 1977, plunges this world into darkness, each of these lives will be changed forever. A novel about love and betrayal and forgiveness, about art and truth and rock 'n' roll, about how the people closest to us are sometimes the hardest to reach - about what it means to be human.

Read by Rebecca Lowman with Macleod Andrews, Alex McKenna, Paul Michael, Tristan Morris, and Bronson Pinchot.

©2015 Garth Risk Hallberg (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

" City on Fire is a big, stunning first novel and an amazing virtual reality machine, whisking us back to New York City in the 1970s with bravura swagger and style and heart . . . The ghosts of New York memorialized by earlier writers—F. Scott Fitzgerald, J. D. Salinger, Richard Price—hover over City on Fire…[In] Hallberg's XXL tool kit as a storyteller: a love of language and the handsprings he can make it perform; a bone-deep knowledge of his characters' inner lives that's as unerring as that of the young Salinger; an instinctive gift for spinning suspense. He also possesses a journalistic eye for those telling details that can trigger memories of the reader's own like small Proustian grenades…A novel of head-snapping ambition and heart-stopping power—a novel that attests to its young author's boundless and unflagging talents." ( New York Times)

"A remarkably assured, multivalent tale...an epic panorama of musicians, writers, and power brokers and the surprising ways they connect...The story never feels overwritten, and the plotlines interlace without feeling pat...At times the novel feels like a metafictional tribute to America's finest doorstop manufacturers, circa 1970 to the present: Price (street-wise cops), Wolfe (top-tier wealth), Franzen (busted families), Wallace (the seductions of drugs and pop culture), and DeLillo (the unseen forces behind everything). That's not to say Hallberg has written a pastiche.... As his various plotlines braid tighter during the July 1977 blackout, his novel becomes an ambitious showpiece for just how much the novel can contain without busting apart. The very-damn-good American novel." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"Dazzling… City on Fire is an extraordinary performance…Hallberg inhabits the minds of whites and blacks, men and women, old and young, gay and straight with equal fidelity…making every one of them thrum with real life…And what endlessly fascinating characters they are!...[The novel's] Whitmanesque arms embrace an entire city of lovers and strivers, saints and killers." ( Washington Post)

Long, But a Stunner Nonetheless

Any additional comments?

To be honest, I jumped on this audiobook because I knew it would get me through a lot of commuting hours! But I ended up really enjoying it. The nice thing about a book this long is that there is plenty of time to delve into the psyche of each character before the book hits its climax. Only downside is that it starts to drag a bit toward the end, since for whatever reason the author decided to jump 20 years forward in time at random while the action is going on--the problem is nobody really CARES what happened in 20 years, or who sent who what email. Aside from that, it's quite a story, and I can see why the movie rights for this one were snapped up right away. Buy it--it's worth it!

OMG this book needed an Editor

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I made my self listen to the whole book I am never a quitter even though I wanted to. The detail of this book was so great I did not care what happen to the characters. There was so many characters I could not keep up. This book was written very beautifully written but my goodness it was way too long. Could lose a hundred pages or more to tell the story .

Has City on Fire turned you off from other books in this genre?

I am not sure where it would fit it part mystery part drama, and part soap opera

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

They were all very good

Could you see City on Fire being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

I sure it will be but trust me it will be awful. I just wasted 30 days listening to this book that is about all I am willing to waste . If made into a series or movie count me out .

Any additional comments?

Yes, first of all the story was to long and there was no big pay off in the ending. I wont discuss it here but trust me when you find out the ending you go I wasted 36 hours for this. Parts of the book was great but a lot of it was just a waste. There were no characters to root for they all seemed so dispersed with their life that as a listener you wanted them all go to group therapy and the therapist would say “get over it welcome to life.” The three stars is for the narrators of this book. I read in a lot of areas and have been an book reader since 1977 but what would help this book is a editor that’s would help shape this book into greatness.

Just stunning.....

Sad and evocative yet beautiful in every way. I adore every character- from the most menacing demon brother to the prophet, Charlie. A book I will definitely listen to again, soon.

Good story but pretentious writing

The story is interesting enough but the way it was written was pretentious. The writer uses inappropriate words like he pulled them out of a thesaurus and then uses references which are totally out of context for the 1960s/70s. High thread count, Eritrea? People drinking Lagavulin and mezcal like hip millenials? While thread counts may have been high then, no one was counting them and while Eritrea as a state existed, it was known as part of Ethiopia then and did not become an independent nation till the 90s. I found it annoying - all this trivial references that were just so out of place.
I did, however, finish the entire book because I wanted to know the entire story.

Loved it from the first minute

I really enjoyed listening to this book. The characters are multi-level and are developed from the very beginning. I was pleased with the narrator and her ability to differentiate the characters.

Struggled to finish

I'm sorry but finishing this, until I actually started finishing, was something I kept putting off I actually enjoyed the wrap up, but getting there a bit of a slog. Could have been three books!

Very long novel

"City on fire" contains many interesting aspects and views on New York. However, it is far too long, and I find that the performance of the person reading the major part of the book didn't fit in with the characters. Her voice and acting was too sentimental. In many ways, it's a sad story, but her performance underlined it negatively. Her voice should have had a more matter-of-fact quality - or she should have read only Regan's part.

This book is insane. Great narrator.

I think some people got confused about the narrator when it changes. It's only for a short time, 1.5hrs max, then it goes back to the main reader.

Other than that. This book really impressed me. The loaded content of 6 main characters and 6 more side ones, was shockingly easy to follow. I rarely confused myself when the POV changed, and I always fell into whichever character was described.

This isn't for people who want a story for the story. It's a story that tells more in its details than what's "happening". David Mitchell meats Murakami you could say. But definitely something on his own. I'm excited to see what he writes next.

Wait on it?!

There is an interesting story here but you have to wait on it. I think the payoff was worth it (probably).

Loved...Most of It

Would you listen to City on Fire again? Why?

Yes. in time. The two negatives I mention below would not keep me away.
1. I didn't enjoy the "interludes," at all. I thought they were boring and they felt self-indulgent to me.
2. Toward the end, the author jumped 20 years forward in time, at random, while the action is going on. Personally, I was invested in the period of the novel, not future small details.

Would you recommend City on Fire to your friends? Why or why not?

I would recommend it to all of my New Yorker friends, young and old. The author allows glimpses into several different worlds of NYC, and a time in history that was crazy, gritty, a hellhole of squalor; and unlike most of NYC today.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Rebecca Lowman's narration gets on my nerves and was the weakest point of this Audible book. I will avoid her narrations.

If you could take any character from City on Fire out to dinner, who would it be and why?

William, of course. He was the star. He was a star.

Any additional comments?

I can already see the movie in my head