The Fireman's Wife: A Memoir

Farren shares with readers the pride, fear and resentment that make up her "abnormal" life next to her husband, Dan, engaged full-time in the Petaluma, Calif., fire department, 50 miles north of San Francisco. Unlike his Irish ancestors, on whom the dangerous, low-ladder jobs of policeman and fireman fell by default, Dan has craved the daily danger and heroism of fire fighting since childhood. Farren recounts Dan's initial acceptance as a recruit after a grueling series of trials and his eventual assimilation into a fiercely loyal brotherhood that would see him through the births of his five children and a devastating accident that nearly ended his active career. Farren ably takes readers through the stress of calls on her husband, ending either in a valiant "save" by the force or a depressing loss of life; she recalls the galvanizing effects of 9/11 in bringing the community of firefighters together. Moreover, she writes of her own career transition, from paramedic to full-time mom and "shivering ball of nerves" whose status as a fireman's wife did not exempt her from distractedly courting disaster or calling 911 when she heard a noise in the house. Although short on fire-fighting history and containing awkward shifts in POV to narrate the action, Farren's memoir proves an elucidating journey. (Mar.)