About Fire Exit

From the award-winning author Morgan Talty, comes a masterful and unforgettable story of family, legacy, bloodlines, culture and inheritance, and what, if anything, we owe one another.

From the porch of his home, Charles Lamosway has watched the life he might have had unfold across the river on Maine’s Penobscot Reservation. He caught brief moments of his neighbor Elizabeth’s life―from the day she came home from the hospital to her early twenties. But there’s something deeper and more dangerous than the river that divides him from her and the rest of the tribal community. It’s the secret that Elizabeth is his daughter, a secret Charles is no longer willing to keep.

Every week, we will be discussing a section of the book; follow along and learn more by visiting our BLR Book Club page, where weekly posts will live.

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Note: All pagination is based on the paperback version.

Week 5: Chapters 15-19 

Louise begins electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). During a secret nighttime visit, Mary reveals to Charles the extent of Elizabeth’s illness.

1. Louise’s loosening hold on reality—her confusion about Charles’ identity—causes long-buried resentments to emerge. How does this affect their relationship?
2. Through flashback, we learn why Mary separated Charles from their daughter: “She wanted Elizabeth to be ‘Native’” (139). What was she hoping to give their daughter?
3. Seeing Elizabeth at the ECT clinic reinforces Charles’ desire to reveal her paternity. “The blood she did not know about that ran through her body was tainted, flawed. This was why it was so important she know all of this, who I was and who her grandmother was. This was why her body’s secret history was important to know” (143).
   
   Gizos and Bobby caution Charles against it; Gizos even questions Charles’ interpretation of the past. Do Gizos’ words change your view of Charles’ reliability as a narrator?
4. Mary and Charles argue about the necessity of telling Elizabeth the truth. Charles postulates Elizabeth’s illness is due to her ignorance of her history. “Maybe that’s why she’s sick—maybe she needs to know her full story. Have you thought about that? Maybe her body and mind know something is missing” (169).
   
   But Mary believes the knowledge would break her. What do you think is the right choice? Should Charles reveal himself to Elizabeth?
5. Charles senses the presence of spirits—“Goog’ooks”—when he is at the clinic with Louise. He wonders if spirits are simply his “body’s remembering something I did not—this woman, Louise’s mother, from a time that I had no memory of” (160). I loved this reframing—that the feeling of being haunted resides, perhaps, in the memories stored within our bodies.