Review of Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson

Paul Theroux is a well known writer of both fiction and non-fiction. While I personally find his fiction more compelling than his non-fiction, undoubtedly there are readers who feel his travelogues stand taller. Having literally seen the world, he has a lot of insight to offer in his travel writing. When giving opinion about the West's stance on Africa, for example, Theroux said (I paraphrase) that Africans are capable of solving their own problems, the West's interference unnecessary. Taking this to heart in the context of American race relations is Terry Bisson's Fire on the Mountain (1988)*.

A work of alternate history, the Jonbar point for Fire on the Mountain is John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859. The raid successful (having failed in reality), it triggers a slave rebellion and ultimately paves the way for the American South to become a free nation. Called Nova Africa and ruled by blacks, it is a free nation which participates and contributes to mankind, including space travel.

On this broad swathe of history Bisson tells three stories from two time frames. In the historical perspective there are two tales. The first is told in epistolary form, that of a white doctor from Virginia writing to a relative and describing his experiences, initially with the abolitionist movement and later with the effects of Brown's slave rebellion. The second is from a young black slave, minimally educated, who witnesses first hand the arc of Brown's revolution. These two stories act as a framework for the primary arc of the novel, that of the future in which a black widow, whose husband died on a mission to Mars many years prior, must now confront her grief again as Nova Africa plans another mission to the red planet to celebrate the anniversary of Brown's raid. The novel shifts between these three points of view, and in turn the reader comes to learn how a black socialist utopia came into being, and how human it is.

Yes, you read those words correctly: black socialist utopia—trigger words in today's culture. They need a closer look. Nova Africa is indeed socialist. Playing off the successes of the Soviet Union (e.g. its space program) and replacing its failures with a more positive spin on the application of Marx's vision, the novel's primary setting is optimistic socialism. Bisson does not go into detail how Nova Africa was able to overcome the trappings we know are inherent to real world attempts at socialism. The reader must simply accept that it exists. And the same goes for the utopian label. In fact, I would argue that the utopian elements stem directly from socialism in the book's eyes.

I personally think capitalism, despite its failings, lies closer to humanity's hope for progress. As such, I struggle with the lack of explanation around Nova Africa's rise to socialist utopia. From the perspective of setting, it skips the most critical transition. However, I would defend the novel in one regard. It seems clear Bisson was not interested in society building. He buildt the novel on characters, instead. And the humanity of the people he foregrounds comes through in spades. Certainly the reader can poke holes in the socio-political fabric supporting them, but the characters themselves are the salt of the Earth. Odinga, the widow, is fully realized, as is Abraham, the slave in the mid-19th century. Bisson renders these people true as true, and its there that appreciation of the novel can be found regardless the political underpinning.

Which is a good time to mention Bisson's style. It's excellent. Both tight and subtle, it gets the point across directly and indirectly. It brings out the humanity of the characters through brief exposition as well as between the lines. Readers get a strong sense who the people are and the concerns driving their inner worlds. The reader, including myself, can have all the doubts they want about the ideological underpinnings of the novel, but its execution toward characterization, is great.

Before closing this review, I will comment on the novel's intentions. To get the obvious out of the way, yes, Bisson's intents are socialist in nature, and the reader must accept that going in. But the novel should not be dismissed out of hand for its politics. The other point which is obvious, and the point which I would hold to be the more critical of the novel, is its rebelliously constructive nature.

Rebellion is a two-edged sword. Rebellion for rebellion's sake, as seen in human history, generates bloodshed without purpose. It rarely institutes positive change on either side. Rebellion with moral purpose and strategy, however, has proven to be a successful model, on occasion. It's precisely this latter form of rebellion that Bisson portrays. Rather than angry victims lashing out in chaotic manner, Bisson portrays John Brown's rebellion as being ideologically motivated, as well as having the resources to drive real change for the benefit of the larger group. Again, the reader can disagree with the underlying politics, but the improvement in quality of life for people in Nova Africa is not something they can criticize. Its people have access to the latest elements of modern life (medicine, technology, etc.), giving testament to the fact Brown's rebellion was more than just anger. It wasn't victim mongering. It was strategic action with a path to make the lives of impacted people better. The overwhelming majority of human rebellions on Earth do not have such ideology or sustained sense of purpose. But they do sometimes, and Bisson presents a reasonably plausible one in which, as hinted at in the intro of this review, the solution lay within not without. Blacks in the South didn't need the North. They just needed internal organization and common purpose.

In the end Fire on the Mountain, despite assumptions some readers may want to make reading this review, is not a novel for 2024. Yes, it strongly features race. And yes, it features the conflict inherent to slavery in the USA in the 19th century. But it deviates from 2024 rhetoric. Instead of being a victim narrative, which the overwhelming majority of contemporary race debates boil down to, Fire on the Mountain is a constructive narrative. It gives black Americans agency, then provides a positive vision for how that agency could be implemented. Note I did not write “could have turned out”. That's not Bisson's game. He's not saying here's how it should have been, rather, anything is possible. Thus don't let the novel's politics throw the potential reader off. Yes, Bisson was a socialist, and there is certainly socialist utopia building in the novel with little clear path how to get there. Ignoring that, however, the human aspects of the novel, the aspects around which almost everything is centered and presented, are superb. It's for that reason to read this novel.

*Just a quick note. I was inspired to read Fire on the Mountain upon seeing Bisson passed away in early 2024. RIP Terry, your fiction lives on. If there is any justice in the world of fiction, Talking Man will be talked about for decades and decades.