The Fire Baby, by Jim Kelly

Retrieved from: the library
(0312321457), 2004
Suggested by: he's on The List
My Ratings: 8 Merit, 8 Interest, 8 Fun

A week before the accident that put her in a persistent vegetative state, Dryden's wife gave him a key. Now, four years after their accident, Laura is waking up. Kind of: she responds occasionally to questions and has been provided with a machine which she can type out words if she wants. It's a bit like an Ouija board, though, so the messages are often garbled. She now has a roommate, a woman named Maggie Beck, who is dying of cancer but wants to confess her sins to Dryden and to her daughter before she goes. Her confession dovetails with the break in a person-smuggling-and-porn ring based in the area.

Dryden is stuck trying to figure out what the repercussions of her confessions mean to her family after her death. He is also trying to figure out what to do if his wife never actually wakes up. During all of his searches for good copy for the local paper, he compulsively tries his key on every lock he comes across. In the end, no one goes home happy, although there is some sense of contentment and commitment in some parts.

This is not a story that will cheer the reader, nor likely bring tourism to the fens around Ely, but Dryden is an absolutely human and clearly-written character; one can't help but feel for him as he sleepwalks through his days, insisting that he's not a particularly good person.