Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
One incident is an invisible tripwire that in turn sets off another and another. Time collapses. There is no straight line. Memory, history, things that happened fifteen years ago or fifty, are as alive now as if they had just happened or are about to happen.
Signal Fires
Dani Shapiro
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I have never read anything by Dani Shapiro but I was so grateful to be sent a copy of Signal Fires from Knopf so I could correct that. And before I go any further I have to warn you: prepare yourself to be emotionally gutted by this book.
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It's been awhile since I devoured a novel so fiercely, felt so emotionally invested while reading and then was both devastated and wowed at the end. While Signal Fires is a family drama, that description doesn’t do it justice. There is a life altering incident at the opening of the story that sets things in motion and Shapiro takes us back and forth in time to see where these characters came from and where they end up. There are two very different families in Signal Fires and Shapiro weaves their lives together in such a beautiful manner. At a mere 220 pages, she takes us into the heart of the Wilf family: Ben - an elderly doctor whose beloved wife is suffering from Alzheimers, and their two children who harbor a shared secret. Woven into their lives by fate is the Shenkman family: a father who struggles to connect to his socially awkward but brilliant son Waldo, a mother who would do anything to protect her misunderstood child and Waldo who is really the glue of this story.
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Signal Fires is a meditation on parenthood and on grief. It speaks to the fact that we can't outrun our pain no matter how far we go and that secrets can fester and destroy us. But what is so redeeming is that even amidst all of the tragedy (and there is a lot) Signal Fires is a beautiful reminder about how interconnected we are as part of the universe. The relationship between Ben and Waldo is one of the most tender and well drawn I’ve ever read. It’s rare to find a genuine connection between an elderly man and a young boy; in Shapiro’s hands it was incredibly believable and moving.
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Shapiro’s writing reminds me of Fredrik Backman's because she allows us to jump into character's lives mid stride and feel so much empathy for their situations; she cuts to the core of human emotions and behavior with both a sharp knife and a magnifying glass. Shapiro's observational voice is written to perfection and she exquisitely handles multiple timelines to peel back the layers of this story and bare her characters souls.
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I think one true test of a great writer is knowing how to end a story. I’ve read enough books to witness that when an author doesn’t know how to finish their novel, it often goes off the rails. Shapiro is a gifted artist because the way she brought this story full circle was nothing short of masterful.
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Signal Fires is one of those books that makes me grateful to love reading, but it is not an easy read. There are incredibly sad situations involving both the death of a child and the descent into Alzheimers; those may be triggering to some readers. Shapiro’s writing is powerful, dramatic and insightful; a reading trifecta.
