Charles lives across the river from his daughter. He’s only had one chance to meet her, which did not go all that well since then he’s not seen her other than from a distance from his house across the river with his mother, sick and suffering from dementia and him, wondering, how to take care of her and how to honour her when she goes thinking he finds out that his grown-up daughter has taken off somewhere and her neighbour does not know when or where when she’ll be back or when she’s gone, these things in his mind these things make him think about death and legacy, and he thinks his daughter needs to know about him, his family his past but when he
<blockquot talk to her, she’s gone and the neighbor, not knowing when she’ll be back, begins thinking about his which is filled with tragedy, loneliness, addiction, abuse, and happiness

Charles Lamosway grew up on the Penobscot Reserve, but, not being Penobscot, he was forced to leave when he turned eighteen. All his ties, however, are on the reserve, including his stepfather Fredrick, now dead in a hunting accident.

At the novel's open, Charles lives across a river from where he can see the home of Mary, a woman he was involved with years earlier lives. Mary and Charles had a daughter, Elizabeth, but Mary ended up marrying Roger, a man of the Penobscot nation. Elizabeth was raised with no knowledge of Charles. For years, Charles has desperately wanted a connection with his daughter.

This passage beautifully illustrates Charles' thoughts and emotions:

"It was Fredrick’s love that made me feel Native. He loved me so much that I was, and still am, convinced that I was from him, part of him, part of what he was part of. That was how I felt about Elizabeth—in truth, she was a descendant only from her mother’s side, and if that were to come out and she were taken off the census, would she feel any less Native? I didn’t think so. Blood matters only enough to keep us alive. She was Roger’s daughter in the same way I was Fredrick’s son, and I knew deep down he was as good to her as Fredrick had been to me."

Charles' mother Louise is gradually losing her memories, and has suffered for years from what seems to be depression. Charles then finds out that Elizabeth's health is compromised, prompting him to tell Mary that he must tell Elizabeth the truth of her parentage. Mary opposes this, as Elizabeth would then lose her tribal membership.

This is a complex story of family and identity, and the various controversial means (such as blood quantum) the government has used to gradually reduce the numbers of indigenous people from their population statistics, and consequent allocations.

Interestingly, for a story so much about indigenous identity, and the legacy of genocide and difficult circumstances on reserves which can lead to poor health, among other things, author Morgan Talty chooses to speak about these things form the perspective of an outsider, but whose heart still turns to his indigenous connections. At the same time, Talty comments on racist legislation, while not obviously harmful to whites, still has an effect economically on the working class and the poor, and how this has affected Charles and Louise.

While Talty keeps the focus around Charles' dilemma, his excellent story is large in scope, dealing skillfully with complex emotions, complicated history and the legacy of trauma.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Penguin Random House Canada for this ARC in exchange for my review.

While I typically go for more mystery/thriller type novels, I thoroughly enjoyed this book that was a change of pace for me. I really felt the emotion of this book and I loved the writing style, as it was beautiful “story telling”. Thank you for the opportunity to read such an excellent book - I am grateful to have found a new favourite author!

I didn’t like nor dislike this book. I feel like it was missing something that I can’t quite put my finger on. The writing was well done and it was a gripping read, just not as thrilling as I had hoped

‘We are made of stories, and if we don’t know them—the ones that make us—how can we ever be fully realized? How can we ever be who we really are?’

A beautiful and emotional debut novel that deals with mental health, aging, family dynamics and secrets, alcoholism, and how these issues impact a caregiver. Charles has spent over 20 years secretly watching his daughter Elizabeth grow up with a different father from across the way on Penobscot Reservation. He must care for his mother as she deteriorates from dementia, manage his best friend's addictions and grapple with whether or not to tell his daughter the truth. The emotions in this book are real and raw, and you truly feel how difficult things must be for Charles. This is a beautiful novel and a triumph of a debut.

4 stars for some confusions in the way the narrative went, but overall an incredible read.

Talty's narrative is both eloquent and immersive, drawing readers in with its rich descriptions and deft storytelling, ensuring a thoroughly engaging read from start to finish!

FIRE EXIT
Thanks to Penguin Random House and Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this debut novel by Moran Talty. I found it to be quite consuming and hard to put down
From the Penobscot Reservation Charles Lamosway reflects back on his life and the choices he made along the way He is a white man who was raised on the reservation, his father being native. He now lives across the river from the reservation where he watches a daughter he fathered with Mary, a Native American woman.
Even though he hasn’t been allowed to be part of his daughter’s life , he never gives up hope that they will someday form a bond.
The book winds back and forth from past to present. He grew up amid harsh circumstances but the love in his family was always present. The care he gives his ailing mother is ever present. The longing and brief glimpses of the daughter he hasn’t been allowed to see are heartbreaking,
This is a great novel, there is excellent narration and character development. I highly recommend this book.

Very well written story about the human experience.

This is a story about pain, and about guilt, and about those feelings in the face of loss. Loss of others and yourself.

It takes a while to get into the story but it is well written and to the point. It reminds me a lot of the way Kerouac writes, his stories that are just stories about life.

Fire Exit by Morgan Talty is an interesting story told from the perspective of Charles Lamosway as he watches his daughter from across the river grow and live without knowing who he is. This tortured tale of love and longing takes you through Charles life of addiction, his worry of his mother who is suffering from dementia and the past he wants to leave behind.

This was a very good story, with a few high points, but somewhat slow as there was not a real "climax" so it was more a slow burn. While I prefer books that have a definitive story, this one had many interwoven layers that built on each other, more a story of his life. It also touched on aspects of abuse and life on a reservation. Overall a good story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for this Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was an interesting journey. The life story was a bit sad but the ending was nice. To live a life watching from the other side of the river he must have felt disconnected. The way it was written I felt for the characters and their struggles. It was written like real life with hardships and human emotions that don’t always get resolved.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Charles Lamosway is just a river away from Maine’s Penobscot Reservation and a daughter he isn’t allowed to call his own. It’s a secret he has had to keep for over 20 years. However, when he starts to worry about her safety and with his mother’s dementia worsening, Charles doesn’t know if he wants to keep the secret any longer.

Morgan Talty’s writing truly brings you into the character of the introspective and sometimes ruminating Charles. You can really feel the layers of worries he faces as he cares for his mother (the past) and is always keeping an eye out for his daughter (the future). This book is one that really explores family, bloodlines, culture and the stories that are inside us, both the ones we know and the ones we don’t.

Thank you NetGalley, Knopf Canada & Penguin Random House Canada for the copy to read and review.

Fire Exit is the first non-romance book I've ready in years. The author's voice captured me from the beginning. What a tender, vulnerable tale about grief and belonging and memory and personal narratives.
I really liked how it was centred on Indigenous issues but from the perspective of an outsider, and the exploration of how subjective memory can be was both fascinating and heartbreaking at different turns in the book.
What a lovely reminder that literary fiction can be about flawed characters that still have a lot of warmth and love, even as they deal with tough circumstances. I though the author handled every issue with the utmost care and I was held in tension the entire time, waiting for Charles to tell his secret.

✨Book Review✨
Fire Exit - Morgan Talty

Thank you to @penguinrandomca and @knopfca for my NetGalley copy of Fire Exit for review.

I discovered Morgan Talty’s writing when I read Never Whistle at Night earlier this year and loved his short story in that anthology. This is his debut novel! I also recently picked up his book of short stories titled Night of the Living Rez and look forward to getting to it.

This book follows Charles, he grew up on the Penobscot reservation with his mother and his step-dad. Due to blood quantum requirements, once Charles turned 18 he could no longer live in the place he called home with the culture he was accustomed to.

He has a daughter named Elizabeth, her mother chose to stay on the reservation and marry an indigenous man so that they would not be displaced. As time goes on Charles feels like it is his duty to let his daughter know who her real father is so she can make sense of herself but her mother is set against it.

A large part of the novel also focuses on Charles taking care of his elder mother with dementia.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the concept was fascinating and certainly discussion worthy! However, I did feel like maybe this read a bit like a long short story? It didn’t read in a very fleshed out way like I would expect from a novel and I think it needed some more world/character building for me to be fully invested.

4/5⭐️ I recommend this for people who enjoy discussion around culture, blood connection, lost family ties, mental health and more!

Fire Exit is one of those novels that feels very alive. It's about Charles, who is harbouring a secret that he feels he has little control over.

My only complaint about the novel is I would have liked it to be longer, with more. I felt like I had just gotten to know many of the characters when the novel ended. It was hard to feel as much as I wanted to when I didn't know much about two of the female characters in his story.

Thanks for the Arc, I give it 3.5 out of 5.

This book was super intense. I just wish the tone had changed within the book because it made for a less interesting read but the last 1/3 of the book..... Might be the best writing I have read this year.

I truly felt like all the characters touch the soul and I cant recommend this one enough

Thank you net galley for giving me this opportunity to read this book.
This story is set in the state of Maine on a reservation.
Charles lives just outside the reservation from where his daughter lives.
Charles has watched his daughter grow up into a young woman.
Charles mother also lives close by but has dementia. Charles looks after his mother.
Charles daughter Elizabeth doesn't know that he is her biological father.
One day as Charles is sitting on his porch he doesn't see his daughter and gets concerned about her wellbeing.
Charles would like Elizabeth to know her 'real' history, but her mother is at odds about letting her know.
This story deals with dementia, mental illness and other ailments.
Personally I would say this book isn't for everyone. The author Morgan Talty really made you have compassion for the characters.
Again thank you net galley.
These are my own opinions.

Delighted to include this title in the June edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national lifestyle and culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

I really enjoyed Night of the Living Rez so I was very excited to read FIRE EXIT by Morgan Talty and I really enjoyed this novel too!! It’s about Charles who lives across the river from Maine’s Penobscot Reservation. He’s dealing with caring for his mother Louise who has dementia, his friendship with Bobby who is wanting to move away but not really, the loss of his stepfather and trying to connect with his secret daughter. I loved how Charles described what it means to be Native and how it’s not just living on the reserve. I really enjoyed how this novel focused heavily on family, heritage, connection, and culture. The audiobook narrator Darrell Dennis was excellent! Definitely recommend to contemporary lit fic lovers like me!

Book Review: Fire Exit - Morgan Talty ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"As Charles attempts to hold on to and care for what he can—his home and property; his alcoholic and bighearted friend Bobby; and his mother, Louise, who is slipping deeper into dementia—he becomes increasingly haunted by his past. Forced to confront a lost childhood on the reservation, a love affair cut short, and the death of his beloved stepfather, Fredrick, Charles contends with questions he’s long been afraid to ask. Is his secret about his daughter, Elizabeth, his to share? And would his daughter want to know the truth, even if it could cost her everything she’s ever known?"

Fire exit is a beautiful story about family - the families we are born into, the families we make and the families we never get to be apart of. The main character Charles speaks about his life, his decisions and struggles and grief, almost at arms length - like he can't/won't process the hurt. It was deeply satisfying to go with Charles on his journey of struggling with the question of whether to tell his daughter his secret because it felt like he was almost coming back to life - like he stopped living his life through the lens of 'what if' and actually started living. The scenes of Charles caring for his mother Louise as her dementia advances will stay with me for a long time - beautifully written and intensely sad while also having these sharp, funny moments.

I really enjoyed #fireexit and would definitely recommend in general but specifically if you liked books like There, There and Everything I Never Told you.

Thank you to #rbmedia for the advanced copy of this audiobook.

#fireexitbook #morgantalty #audiobook #audiobook #bookreview #readinginstead

It is important to note that most of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the book's subject matters & those detailed in my review overwhelming. I suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters that contain reflections on self-harm, parental abuse, physical violence, homophobia, substance abuse, Dementia, grief, & others.

Following the red thread that links one person to the other is a tedious endeavour. One might be surprised to find that the thread is slim, nearly indistinguishable. Whereas on occasion, a person may feel as though the entire universe conspired to weave two people together, the connections we share are tender & delight in the interpretations we might gather independently of the bones that hold us up.

When exploring the nature of genealogy & the intricate study of genetics, one observes the foundation on which rests human society; one must be the same as the other to merit entry to a neighbourhood, a home, or a heart. Conflicts arise through adoption, abandonment, displacement, & the forlorn forgetfulness of stories that can no longer be told.

Stories speak to an intimate experience of the world. The author has in their hands the ability to weave a narrative that is powerful & overwhelming though they may decide to go the other way; choosing instead to make their story one of slow wandering worry, paved with secular stones, & false idols.

Whereas Talty had experienced success in their previous work, namely “Night of the Living Rez” (2022) & most recently by contributing to the anthology “Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology” (2023), their recently published story follows a very sullen path & readers may not find the terrible tremble of the plot as engaging as in the author’s previous work. However, if they have the patience to accept that not all stories are Odysseys, that some stories are simple tumbles of stones at the base of a mountain, they may thoroughly enjoy what Talty has brought to their doorstep.

In essence, this is a story about a man who lives outside the community that raised him. Charles is not an Indigenous person by heritage or ancestry, yet his entire life is shaped & sung by the voices & people of the community he was raised in. When the reader meets Charles, he is seated on his porch, watching the world go by.

More specifically, Charles sits outside of his house day & night to watch the goings on of his neighbours across the river; the house where his child once lived & where his former best friend & romantic partner now resides with her husband. As he watches their lives unfold, Charles toys with his freedom to inform Elizabeth, his daughter, that she is his child. The reader must decide whether Charles is correct in his pursuit or if his silence is worth the torment, it causes him.

My experience with this story is strange to quantify into words. Talty’s writing style is very simplistic, I am confident any number of readers will be able to grasp the inner workings of the story at play & leave with more than they bargained for. The stylistic choices he employs throughout the book allow an easy flow to the narration that the main character provides.

At times, the juvenile reflections gave me pause: Why was I reading this story? Charles is older than I am & has lived a life humbled by regret & guilt. The reflections he provides throughout this story felt tangible & realistic because the book was not littered with prose. Though, there are times when writing with smoother edges might have cushioned the transitions of the story, Talty did well by providing Charles with the saw-toothed letters he spoke with.

While reading this book I found myself reflecting on the sincerity of the accusations Charles brought to the reader. While it was true, Charles felt immense guilt for the death of his stepfather, & though it is accurate to say that he was self-involved, much of this story could have been avoided had the main character been granted the opportunity to be heard.

This might seem like a silly thing to say & you would be correct in thinking this. Ultimately, Charles is not able to speak his mind & he does not have anyone who will earnestly listen to him, this is not the reality of this story. However, I find it useful to ponder the nature of his circumstances because they are too tangible to be fictitious.

In life, many things take place that remain outside of our control. When Charles refused to go with his stepfather into the woods, he could not have known that the man would pursue a moose deep into the trees until he succumbed to frost & ultimately, death.

What makes the plight of the main character so dreadful is that there is no redemption. His life is moving in a direction that no longer parallel’s his parent’s; he must go it alone. Talty has ensured that the cast of characters were fleshed out enough for a reader to see similarities between themselves & their environments, within the strict frame of the story.

As the plot unveils itself to the reader, several key pieces are brought to light. The communal influence that has left Charles feeling Indigenous; the home that reels with the absence of his parents; the proximity to what he can no longer attain.

Certainly, one may find the dilemmas that Charles ponders rather annoying, nearly insulting. However, it is not the reader’s role to judge the main character for his views nor for his moral conundrums. Rather, because the reader is not given a full scope of the reality that has surrounded Charles, they are kept in a distinctly primed position.

The author knows they will judge Charles, & he bets on their heightened feelings to drive home the conclusion of this story; we are all who we are in part because of the people we meet, & primarily because of those who have come before us.

The scope of this story follows one man & his troubles are valid; he has a child & his partner all but abandons him with this knowledge so that their child can be perceived as “full blooded”—a practice wholeheartedly inappropriate & reminiscent of the deranged lack of understanding that accompanies those without knowledge of genetics; blood is not mathematically fractioned, it is oil & stone into the entity; rippling monsters under the cavernous sea to boast of old stories & lore unbeknownst to the newborn. 

However fancifully I wish to write about this subject, the truth remains; certain communities still perceive blood, heritage, lineage, & ancestry to be something one can keep purely to the point; a tit-for-tat in the mirror of dynasties & mile-high perverse incompetency.

I am not here to write about my feelings towards Charles identity. This is not my place & I would not want to add fuel to a fire that is burning ominously as it is. Rather, my reflections contain the truth of my experiences in the world as a person who is the human fraction, a putrefied equivalent of a mutt dog; a mongrel; a half breed; a silly slimy frog in a pool of swans.

That being said, so are we all. In some storybooks the Prince is tender & sweet, whereas in others, she is hidden behind the beast of his own appearance. These tales are meant to guide humanity & ease their personal burdens—they are not alone. No matter the moral at the end of the fantasy, one must acknowledge that there is a role for all to play & so we do.

Charles was a son, he is a father, he is a recovering alcoholic, he is lonely, he is a friend, he is frustrated, & warm-hearted; he is a human being with a complicated relationship to the world & with himself. Part of the joy of this story is being privy to the chaptered representations of his philosophy.

On occasion, Charles is the Prince & in other cases, he is the magic mirror captive in the house. The character was dynamic & crafted to reflect the people we share this life with. However, there were still instances wherein I found the story to stall & I wondered what the point of such a narrative was, if my thinking had been thought & all my ruminating had been completed before the final curtain call.

The story hinges on the decreased mental ability of Charle’s mother who has Dementia. The secret of her past tumble forward when she is at her most vulnerable & the author nearly reveals what happened before the reader arrived on scene but, he doesn’t. Instead, he reminds readers that the spectrum of this story is contained & sheltered in the confused fear of the narrator. I cannot fault him for this, it appears that he wrote the story he wanted to tell & he did not leave room for meandering. Rather, I mention this detail because I was waiting for something more.

Perhaps it is unkind to reveal that I wanted more from a story that simmered so densely on subject matter that is objectively difficult to experience firsthand. Yet, I claim my spot here; I wanted the story to reveal more vulnerability than it had in store.

Though the characters were earnest in their portrayal, the core of the narrative remained poised on the surface level. Charles does not necessarily grow from his reflections, nor does he ever truly take into account the reality that encumbers each of the people impacted by Elizabeth’s unstable mental state. I do not say this to be unkind, but rather to highlight that each character who was a parent to her tried to give her the upper hand without understanding the vulnerability that coveted her psyche.

Ultimately, this is a good book & one that reveals a distinct reality for many people. Readers may find themselves drawn or repulsed by Charles & his quest to speak truth into Elizabeth’s life in an attempt to clear her blue skies. Their genuine attempts to do the right thing, while being uninformed & self-serving, made harsh the environment where their shared love grew into a matured & tender greenery.

If one has the patience to follow flawed characters, one will find themselves drawn to the yellow brick road that leads to the protected centre of the story; we are who we are & no claim, chain, status, or census will change what nestles deep within; the studies & fruitfully crafted code that propels us forward until the end.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada, & Morgan Talty for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I absolutely loved this book!! I couldn’t put it down.
I just loved all the characters. I highly recommend this book.