''Unquenchable Fire'' is a 1988 fantasy novel by Rachel Pollack. It won the 1989 Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Overview

In this surrealistic feminist book, Pollack uses rituals and themes borrowed from different religions to develop her society's mythology.

Plot

In the United States, 87 years after the second Revolution, a bureaucratic Spiritual Development Agency controls and monitors miracles, which are everyday occurrences. Founders sparked a spiritual revolution, overcoming secularists and technophiles to bring about the Living World. Tales of the Founders are told by Picture Tellers, shaman-like celebrities who interpret the Founders' will and are able to transport people into the essence of their myths. Sacrifices and magical rituals are commonplace. Meanwhile in Poughkeepsie, recently divorced Jennifer Mazdan has an unusual dream and awakes impregnated with a messiah. She is stopped by a strange force when she tries to get an abortion. She tracks her husband through Manhattan, meets a holy ice cream vendor, and gives birth to a daughter. Her immaculate conception disrupts the new order and restores the feminist heroines of the past.

Reception

''Unquenchable Fire'' received mostly positive reviews and won the 1989 Arthur C. Clarke Award. A review in '' Mythlore'' found Pollack's depiction of a post-Revolution world to be "prodigiously inventive" and "screamingly funny".

John Clute John Frederick Clute (born 12 September 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature who has lived in both England and the United States since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part o ...

called the book a "complex, though-composed, glinting tale". A review in '' Black Gate'' praised the novel's worldbuilding, but was critical of the "almost plotless" story, calling it "an intensely frustrating read". A review in '' The Gazette'' called ''Unquenchable Fire'' "a work of unparalleled inventiveness, passion, and beauty".

Candas Jane Dorsey Candas Jane Dorsey (born November 16, 1952) is a Canadian poet and science fiction novelist who resides in her hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. Dorsey became a writer from an early age and works across genre boundaries, writing poetry, fiction, ...

wrote in the ''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as ...

'' that the book "is technological without being technophilic, magical without being muzzy-headed".

Sequel and related work

Pollack published a follow-up to ''Unquenchable Fire'' in 1994, ''Temporary Agency''. The sequel was nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel. Inspired by the novel, musician

Joe McPhee Joe McPhee (born November 3, 1939) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone. McPhee grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and is m ...

scored an improvisational, four-movement free jazz work also named "Unquenchable Fire". During the premier of the piece at the Out of Doors festival in 1997, Pollack read several passages from her book. The piece was performed by McPhee and his quartet as well as Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening Band.

References

{{Arthur C. Clarke Award 1988 American novels 1988 fantasy novels English-language books Fiction about magic