The House Is on Fire

November 1, 2022

In 1811, on the day after Christmas, a theater in Richmond, VA, exploded in flames, as told here from the perspectives of four people. There's recently widowed Sally Henry Campbell; Cecily Patterson, sitting in what was called the colored gallery; young stagehand Jack Gibson; and, across town, blacksmith Gilbert Hunt, who had hoped to take his wife to the theater once he bought her freedom. Following the NPR best-booked, National Jewish Book Award--winning Florence Adler Swims Forever.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2023
Beanland imagines how the devastating Richmond Theater fire, which killed 72 people on December 26, 1811, impacted several survivors, some more fictionalized than others. The novel, which faithfully follows the recorded facts, begins backstage at the theater, where a teenage stagehand raises a chandelier lit with candles that sets the scenery on fire. Soon theatergoers are rushing to escape. Patrick Henry's daughter Sally Henry Campbell, at the time a 31-year-old widow, selflessly saves those around her before jumping from a window. While nursing wounded survivors over the next few days, she learns that men she knew deliberately trampled over women to get to the stairs, and she concludes that White men of her privileged class are morally bankrupt in their behavior toward both White women and enslaved Black people. While Sally is trapped inside the theater, Gilbert Hunt, an enslaved blacksmith who has secretly learned to read and write, stands outside catching women who jump. While Gilbert is touted as a hero and one of the women he saved raises money to pay for his manumission, the theater company, afraid to take the blame itself, spreads rumors pinning responsibility for the fire on a "slave rebellion." (The actual Gilbert, though also lauded, actually purchased his freedom years later.) Soon the slave patrol, headed by Gilbert's owner, is rounding up Black people. Meanwhile, Gilbert's niece Cecily Patterson decides that the fire, specifically all the bodies burned beyond recognition, might spell freedom if her owners believe she died. Beanland adeptly jumps among the characters' stories and delights in conveying details of everyday life in 1811 Virginia. But she's heavy-handed in using the story to emphasize the evils of slavery, racism, and sexism. Locked within the author's political message, characters like the progressive Sally, saintly Gilbert, and a variety of evil White men lack dimension. Only the young stagehand Jack Gibson is allowed to express the human complexity of moral decision-making as his sense of right conflicts with loyalty to his theatrical family. An overly schematic approach to what could have been a fascinating retelling of history.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from February 6, 2023
Beanland’s powerful second novel (after Florence Adler Swims Forever) follows four characters through a disastrous fire and its aftermath. In December 1811, 600 people are crowded into Virginia’s Richmond Theater for a performance when teenage stagehand Jack Gibson forgets to snuff the candles on the stage chandelier but obeys an order to raise it into the rafters, where it ignites a backdrop and then the building. Sally Henry Campbell, a genteel widow attending the play, and Gilbert Hunt, an enslaved blacksmith who runs to the scene to help, are among those who try to rescue theatergoers trapped by the enormous blaze. Despite such efforts, scores perish or are grotesquely injured. Gilbert’s niece Cecily Patterson makes it safely out of a section called the “colored people’s gallery,” then attempts to free herself from slavery amid the ensuing chaos. Gilbert tries to help Cecily and Campbell volunteers at a makeshift hospital, while Gibson watches helplessly as his troupe, attempting to evade criminal charges, falsely blames the conflagration on a slave rebellion. Beanland enlivens the smart and suspenseful narrative with fully developed protagonists that illuminate the community’s response to mass catastrophe. Readers will relish this. Agent: Chad Luibl, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

Starred review from February 1, 2023
In Richmond's only theater, there is a packed house for the performance on a cold night in 1811--600 attendees, from the grand society ladies and gentlemen in the second- and third-floor boxes to the gallery, where enslaved and free Black people sit, to the cheap seats in the pit. A fire in the rafters, caused in part by stage boy Jack, spreads quickly, and soon the whole theater is ablaze. Pandemonium breaks out as people trample one other in an attempt to escape. Sally Campbell, trapped on the third floor, has no choice but to jump from a window. Enslaved man Gilbert Hunt hears the commotion from outside and rushes to the theater. His subsequent heroic actions save many lives. His niece Cecily Patterson is in the theater with her mistress. Cecily sees the chaos as her opportunity to run away and be free from slavery. Seamlessly interweaving historical facts and her own narrative, Beanland follows these four characters through the fire, the immediate, chaotic aftermath, and the subsequent investigation. Fully realized characters and gripping prose makes for an excellent, riveting novel that is highly recommended for all public-library collections.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.