{"id":6358,"date":"2026-05-18T12:38:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=6358"},"modified":"2026-05-18T12:38:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:38:00","slug":"close-enough-to-the-fire-by-gisela-fitzgerald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=6358","title":{"rendered":"Close Enough to the Fire by Gisela Fitzgerald"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of the most powerful relationships are those that never fully develop.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Gisela Fitzgerald\u2019s Close Enough to the Fire<\/em> traverses the perilous emotional territory between intimacy and restraint. It begins not with drama but with a moment so ordinary it might easily be overlooked: a wave at an airport terminal. Yet that fleeting gesture becomes the catalyst for the story\u2019s central tension.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As a departing Mike disappears through the glass doors of the terminal, Cherry suddenly erupts in agitation: \u201cDid you see that? [\u2026] He waved! [\u2026] At whom? You? Me? Livy? All three of us?\u201d<\/em><\/strong> From this comic but anxious question develops a subtle and often melancholy meditation on friendship, loyalty, aging, and the quiet persistence of desire.<\/p>\n

The novella revolves around three characters whose emotional lives become entangled in ways none of them fully intends: Stefanie \u201cStef\u201d Bartok, a seventy-year-old widow; Cherry Wilkinson, her exuberant forty-year-old friend; and Cherry\u2019s husband Mike, a thoughtful cardiologist whose reserve renders him both sympathetic and mysterious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Their relationship is outwardly harmonious\u2014shared dinners, cultural conversations, mutual care\u2014yet beneath the surface lies a complicated web of longing and restraint. Fitzgerald explores what happens when affection deepens into something less easily defined. Do they remain close enough to the fire to feel its warmth without entirely surrendering to its danger?<\/p>\n

Stef, who is perhaps the most introspective of the three central figures, gradually becomes aware of emotions she had not expected to experience again, not since the death of her husband. The airport wave\u2014so intriguing for Cherry\u2014is disturbing for Stef, stirring memories and sensations she thought safely buried.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat nameless emotion has Mike\u2019s brief gesture called forth in me?\u201d<\/em><\/strong> she wonders. \u201cIt seized me like a cage dropped on a stunned bird. He stirred up something long forgotten.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> The feeling is both thrilling and imprisoning. Stef is acutely aware that Mike is her friend\u2019s husband, and that awareness lends the attraction moral gravity.<\/p>\n

Author Gisela Fitzgerald handles this emotional awakening with notable restraint. Rather than dramatizing the attraction via overt flirtation or confession, she allows it to emerge through small gestures, silences, and private reflections. The tension lies not in what the characters do but in what they resist doing.<\/p>\n

Cherry\u2019s presence complicates everything. She is energetic, outspoken, impulsive\u2014a personality who often fills the room with laughter and drama. At the same time, she is deeply dependent on Stef\u2019s emotional steadiness: \u201cNo matter how obnoxious and stupid I can be, you always listen to me. You\u2019re ten of my friends rolled into one.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

This captures the strength of their friendship, but it also reveals the imbalance within it. Stef often acts as mediator, confidante, and emotional ballast in Cherry\u2019s turbulent marriage. Her loyalty to Cherry becomes the ethical boundary that keeps her relationship with Mike from evolving into something more explicit.<\/p>\n

Unlike many contemporary novellas that favor rapid plot development over reflection, Close Enough to the Fire<\/em> unfolds through conversation and intellectual exploration. Opera, philosophy, and literature weave through the story, providing the characters with a vocabulary for discussing their emotional lives.<\/p>\n

One recurring reference is Goethe\u2019s Faust<\/em>, particularly the episode in which the elderly poet falls in love with the young Ulrike von Levetzow. Fitzgerald uses this anecdote as a lens through which the characters contemplate the persistence\u2014and potential absurdity\u2014of desire in later life.<\/p>\n

Music plays a similar role. When Stef sings \u201cSong to the Moon\u201d from Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s opera Rusalka<\/em>, the song choice carries symbolic weight. The aria tells of a supernatural being who longs for a human lover, only to suffer tragic consequences. Cherry immediately recognizes the parallels and wonders what such stories mean for their own lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These references might seem digressive, but they establish the cultural atmosphere in which the characters live and strive to understand themselves. Their conversations about art and philosophy are not decorative; rather, they are attempts to interpret the emotional dilemmas unfolding around them.<\/p>\n

Cherry and Mike\u2019s marriage adds another dimension to the story. On the surface, their relationship is affectionate and lively, but it is also prone to sudden tensions. \u201cYou know he loves to dance, so you should still learn it for him.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Cherry\u2019s impulsive personality often collides with Mike\u2019s more measured temperament.<\/p>\n

At one point, a seemingly trivial conflict\u2014Cherry blocking the entrance to a bumblebee nest beneath the house\u2014becomes emblematic of their differences. Mike protests that the bees are harmless pollinators, whereas Cherry insists they cannot remain in their home. \u201cThey\u2019re not in the house,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Mike argues. \u201cClose enough,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Cherry replies.<\/p>\n

\u201cClose enough.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> This phrase echoes the title of the novella, captures Fitzgerald\u2019s central metaphor, and encapsulates the emotional situation of the characters. In terms of the latter, they are not openly betraying one another, although the proximity of unspoken feelings creates a constant sense of danger.<\/p>\n

The emotional complexity intensifies when Mike suffers a serious accident that leaves him temporarily incapacitated. Stef becomes deeply involved in his care, feeding him, assisting him with daily tasks, and quietly observing the fragile dynamics of his marriage. Their new closeness is \u201cactually a more dangerous kiss because it never ends.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

These scenes blur the line between compassion and intimacy. Stef finds herself drawing closer to Mike in ways that feel both natural and unsettling. The act of caring for someone\u2014touching, feeding, watching over them\u2014creates a physical closeness that mirrors the emotional one she has sought to resist. At the same time, Cherry\u2019s volatile reaction to the accident reveals unresolved tensions in the marriage. The crisis brings buried resentments to the surface, culminating in heated arguments that place Stef in the uncomfortable position of witness and mediator. They are three people bound by affection, obligation, and unspoken desire.<\/p>\n

Yet Fitzgerald refuses to assign blame or offer a moral verdict. As Stef quietly remarks, \u201cNo one is indicted, no one acquitted.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> This phrase captures the novella\u2019s refusal to simplify human relationships into categories of guilt or innocence. Love, Fitzgerald suggests, is rarely so clear-cut. Hence, what ultimately distinguishes Close Enough to the Fire<\/em> is its refusal to transform its emotional tensions into conventional romantic dramas. Fitzgerald is less interested in consummated love than in the complicated state of almost-love\u2014the condition of living with feelings that cannot easily be acted upon.<\/p>\n

The result is a quietly reflective novella about emotional restraint, about the complicated ethics of desire, and about the ways people continue to surprise themselves even late in life. Close Enough to the Fire<\/em> suggests that some of the most powerful relationships are those that never fully happen. They linger in the imagination, glowing like embers.<\/p>\n

The post Close Enough to the Fire by Gisela Fitzgerald<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of the most powerful relationships are those that never fully develop. Gisela Fitzgerald\u2019s Close Enough to the Fire traverses the perilous emotional territory between intimacy and restraint. It begins not with drama but with a moment so ordinary it might easily be overlooked: a wave at an airport terminal. Yet that fleeting gesture becomes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6358"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}