The Secrets of a Fire King

June 4, 2007
Edwards's debut collection features 11 beguiling, exquisitely crafted tales of transformation and the challenges of love. Bernadette Dunne provides deep emotional nuance to her reading, conveying precisely the awe of a first-time skydiver, the quiet desperation of an Asian mail-order bride or the surprise and jealousy of an old-guard colonialist wife meeting a modern-minded newcomer. Still, where on the page Edwards's writing springs to life and exerts a peculiar magic over the reader, here it's somewhat diminished, less captivating and singular. The stories have impressively diverse and realistically described settings, some reaching back in time by a century, others taking place on the other side of the world, but apart from the occasional use of a light French or British accent, Dunne's presentation does not vary with the stories, so after a while they begin to blend together. Listeners will appreciate Dunne's skillful handling of Edwards's poetic prose, but the production lacks any real sparks that would illuminate and complement the author's achievement of imagination in conjuring such different worlds so convincingly. A Penguin paperback (Reviews, Feb. 25, 1997).

March 3, 1997
While many debuts rehash the author's personal life, Pushcart Prize winner Edwards presents a first collection of 11 short stories noteworthy for the range of their settings--America, Europe, Asia--and for the scope of the author's impressive imagination. Edwards uses the elements (fire, air, water, earth and metal) symbolically to ground her stories as characters move through the various landscapes she has created. An adolescent girl skydives during an emotional crisis; a pair of acrobats works out their private and professional balancing acts; and Madame Curie's cleaning woman becomes fascinated with radium. In the title story, a young carny fire-eater gets into a love quadrangle involving a revival preacher, a virginal country girl and her young brother, but the emotional climax is more than just the expected conflagration. On a quieter note, "The Invitation" is a beautifully focused tale set in Malaysia, where the societal and the personal worlds clash. Though the book is full of invention, the narrative tone remains strangely constant throughout the stories, no matter the setting or the speaker. Not all of these stories fly, but when Edwards is at her best, her tales read like the work of a wise traveler who returns home with uncommon souvenirs from other lands.