The Fiery Furnace Effect
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By the time he neared Davison Avenue, he realized that he was lost. The long, high orange wooden fence on his right was completely unfamiliar, and he felt as if he was set down into a foreign land, which, in a sense, he was. A sensation of total emptiness overwhelmed him, one that invokes Auden’s words from his "Urban World."
This stupid world where Gadgets are gods, and we go on talking Many about much, but remain alone. Alive, but alone, belonging...where?-- Unattached as tumbleweed.
It seemed to be a bleak world indeed to Adam, and he had little left in him of personal resources to go on in facing up to it. He had not yet read, for instance, any of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who counseled full self reliance and autonomy, so as to capitalize on every set-back as the beginning of a new achievement to come, and who advised us to search for and to cherish changes in our lives as a source of personal growth. Even if Adam had read Emerson, he might have concluded that it likely was easy for the author to practice his own advice, he who benefited from the privileged childhood of an intact, caring family who capped his rich endowment with a Harvard education and a considerable bequest. With a solid inner foundation from such favorable, enriching, circumstances a person ought to be well equipped to master life’s challenges. Adam, though, had nothing of the sort. After a fair beginning, he was systematically, step by step, broken down, until his own mother crushed what little was left of his spirit. How was an eight year old boy going to withstand fate’s onslaughts when every one of his meaningful ties to family, kin, and community, as well as that to his very identity, were shredded?
His only hope, Adam intuited, was to somehow survive his existential void until, somewhere, some way, conditions for a new worthwhile life should manifest themselves again, and instead of panicking at being lost and so deeply isolated, he decided to search for his way home. Eventually, after taking several more wrong turns, he succeeded.
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About the Book
The early phase of industrialization in America devestated many lives by what the author calls 'The Fiery Furnace Effect.' Not only were the initial participants affected, but much of the effect, through them, was carried over into the subsequent generation, and beyond in some cases. This novel focuses upon the intergenerational impact for two decades in the life of young Adam Vasilyevich, born out of wedlock in 1926 in the 'Loch Jean' coal camp of 'Paine County,' West Virginia. His early personal development, in what Borges would call his 'green Garden,' is detailed, as is the subsequent series of events that strip him of his human connections and even his identity. Then he is uprooted from his native soil, like a hickory sapling, and is banished into, for Adam, the urban wilderness of Detroit. There, he is abandoned by his mother, who was his last bond to his previous existence.
For six years thereafter, Adam is increasingly demoralized and estranged from his life and from his own self. At that point, he is surely on a path toward a life of crime and self destruction, but a fortunate stroke of fate provides new opportunities for a meaningful and gratifying life. However, Adam has been beaten into a feckless, alienated condition for so long that it is highly problematic whether or not he can marshall any inner resources to take advantage of the new circumstances in Melville Township.
About the Author
John Dackawich is Professor Emeritus, Sociology, at the California State University, Fresno, following a productive thirty-nine year career on the faculties of several American universities. He has long believed in a fruitful union between much of the factual content of sociology and literary fiction. The Fiery Furnace Effect, which is a fictional account of real life cases, is a product of his endeavor to merge the two fields.
John and his wife Shirley celebrated fifty years of their marriage in May, 2000. They reside, in retirement, in Visalia, California near their two grown children and grandchildren, in whom they take great delight. They travel widely and often; they both read a lot; John plays golf regularly; and is an ardent alumnus of Belleville High School, Class of '42, in Belleville, Michigan. Also, he has been included in Who's Who in America each year since 1970.