earlier i said i'd say more about this book, so i guess i will. but not much. i've got better things to do.
The Story: it's 1947, World War II has recently ended, our hero is Aldred Leith, a 30-something decorated hero, with a knowledge of Chinese language and culture who has just ended a two year stint "walking through China" working on a report, or a book, or something, about the ancient China slated to disappear as Mao and his forces take over. he is now stationed in Japan, for reasons never made clear, close to the city of Hiroshima, the city devastated by the first atom bomb, and what we have to presume to be the locus of "the great fire" of the title. this devastation is scarcely mentioned, only in a day trip taken to it, in a strangely touristic fashion, by some of the characters. at his present post the children of the commanding officer become his main occupation, two fey teenagers, Helen and Ben, more or less ignored by their parents. Ben is slowly dying from a wasting disease, Helen is her brother's constant star, caretaker, companion.
Aldred, war hero, intellectual, scholar, grown man with more than one previous experience of adult love, finds himself falling in love with Helen, whom he believes to be 15 years old. she's really 17, and, well, sure, that makes it okay, doesn't it? she, no surprise, is flattered by his attention and shares the growing attraction. Leith travels a lot, goes to Tokyo, Hong Kong, his father dies, he goes home to Britain. Helen is forced to accompany her parents to their new posting, New Zealand. they write letters, lots of letters, we get to read their letters, of course, lucky us. there's another subhero, Leith's pal Peter, a nicer guy than Leith, but he kind of disappears late in the novel after getting polio trying to save his tailor's little girl from dying untreated in a back room.
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