The prose is a bit choppy in places, but it really carries you along — O’Nan is very skilled at giving a sense of the chaos and terror without overwriting.   He’s also quite good at imbuing the narrative with a sense of the time in which it took place, which is harder than it looks; he’s a good narrator in that he’s unobtrusive.   I don’t know if any of you watch Miracles, but a recent episode had a reference to the fire and the semi-famous unclaimed body of a little girl, and I’m particularly interested in the real story there, which is very strange and very sad, but the book as a whole is excellent.

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