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Synopsis
George Edward Stanley's powerful Night Fires explores the influence of the Klan in 1920's Oklahoma, and the danger of succumbing to peer pressure.
Children's Literature
The man in the house next door really seems to understand thirteen-year old Woodrow Harper. They have a lot in common. Woodrow's father, distant while alive, recently died in a car crash. George Crawford's son was killed a few years ago in France, while fighting in the Great War, and his wife died shortly after. Woodrow wants a father. Crawford wants a son. Furthermore, Crawford is a powerful man, a State Senator who knows all the right people in Woodrow's new home, his father's childhood home in Lawton, Oklahoma. In Crawford's company, Woodrow finally feels at home. Through Crawford, Woodrow gains acceptance and respect in the community. Woodrow takes uncharacteristic actions to please the Senator. His mother avidly opposes their association. There are other tensions in Lawton. Young black men go missing in the night. The son of the Harper's maid, Joshua, a boy Woodrow's age, is one of them. What does Crawford know about that, and how far will Woodrow go to gain his acceptance? Well paced and well written, Stanley's novel paints a plausible picture of the motivations, rationalizations and indoctrination methods of a 1920's era Ku Klux Klan. Reviewer: Heather N. Kolich