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Dark Fire
Dark Fire tells the true story of the Drews and Lawrences, two farming families that were horrifically massacred in the violent struggle for a tobacco growers union in 1920s Kentucky. Painstakingly researched and beautifully written, Dark Fire invites readers into the brief, incandescent lives of four adults and seven children whose murder has long been shrouded in mystery and collective silence.
226 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 26, 2021
Despite being set a century ago in 1921, Dark Fire is a book for our times: a roar of outrage and beauty from the postwar twenties that resonates with the current blistering of vigilantism in America which recently peaked at the Capitol in January, 2021. The raw facts of this true story are shudderingly powerful: eleven members of two families, including seven children, are shot to death in a Kentucky farmhouse while celebrating a birthday, by a terrifying vigilante gang called The Night Riders. But place these raw realities in the hands of a masterful writer and they transcend fact, becoming families so real, so loved by you, the reader, that when you learn the details of their murders, you will weep.
In Dark Fire, Bernadette Rule resurrects from the vault of vanished days two ordinary farming families, common, and yet particularly beautiful in the details of their lives-being-led. Rule creates fascinating, tender portraits of these lovely families, infused with her burning determination to carve their lives, if not in stone, then in words, setting down what has happened here, not for justice—which is long past possible—but for some flicker of immortality to counterbalance the briefness of these families� time in the world, to conjure a place for them in your heart, and to show you how quickly angry politics can flame into a dark fire that burns the living breath out of irreplaceable human beings. It is the most powerful book I've read in years.
In Dark Fire, Bernadette Rule resurrects from the vault of vanished days two ordinary farming families, common, and yet particularly beautiful in the details of their lives-being-led. Rule creates fascinating, tender portraits of these lovely families, infused with her burning determination to carve their lives, if not in stone, then in words, setting down what has happened here, not for justice—which is long past possible—but for some flicker of immortality to counterbalance the briefness of these families� time in the world, to conjure a place for them in your heart, and to show you how quickly angry politics can flame into a dark fire that burns the living breath out of irreplaceable human beings. It is the most powerful book I've read in years.
May 3, 2024
Gift copy received from author and friend, Bernadette Rule.
In her first novel, a work of creative non-fiction, Bernadette Rule, a poet and story-teller now living in Canada, recreates in painstaking detail the history of Mayfield, Kentucky, (fictionalized in the story proper as Greenberry) from which she hails. Despite a traditional upbringing in a seemingly idyllic setting, there are secrets looming in the little town's past of which the young Bernadette is only partially aware.
To get to the bottom of the century-old mystery, originally related in a rather sanitized version by her father, Rule has done years of research and interviewed many people who lived through the events or could help her expand her knowledge of them. In Dark Fire, we have the fruit of her labour.
She bases part of the story on the reminiscences of her Uncle Pat, who was a schoolboy at the time. She lets him retell in his own words daily events, childhood games, encounters with relatives, friends and village notables, as well as the ominous beginnings of the Night Riders, an increasingly violent vigilante group not unlike the Ku Klux Klan. In alternating chapters where the narration is in third person omniscient, Rule evokes the lives of the sisters Ola and Lora as they care for their households, raise children, try to maintain their sisterly bond, and try to guide their husbands.
What makes this poignant story so heartbreaking is that an organization founded to harass and intimidate people did not stop even at that, but put an abrupt end to the lives of innocent men, women and children. To this day, the needless absence of these people should motivate us to do what we can so that this type of brutality is not repeated. The other thing that touched me deeply was the collection of small reminders left by the deceased and discovered by grief-stricken relatives and friends.
This book reminds me of other classics I have read, such as some of Mark Twain's novels which reproduce regional speech patterns, with its concern for justice, and with its bittersweet portrayal of ordinary and simple lives. Yet Dark Fire has an original and powerful story to tell.
In her first novel, a work of creative non-fiction, Bernadette Rule, a poet and story-teller now living in Canada, recreates in painstaking detail the history of Mayfield, Kentucky, (fictionalized in the story proper as Greenberry) from which she hails. Despite a traditional upbringing in a seemingly idyllic setting, there are secrets looming in the little town's past of which the young Bernadette is only partially aware.
To get to the bottom of the century-old mystery, originally related in a rather sanitized version by her father, Rule has done years of research and interviewed many people who lived through the events or could help her expand her knowledge of them. In Dark Fire, we have the fruit of her labour.
She bases part of the story on the reminiscences of her Uncle Pat, who was a schoolboy at the time. She lets him retell in his own words daily events, childhood games, encounters with relatives, friends and village notables, as well as the ominous beginnings of the Night Riders, an increasingly violent vigilante group not unlike the Ku Klux Klan. In alternating chapters where the narration is in third person omniscient, Rule evokes the lives of the sisters Ola and Lora as they care for their households, raise children, try to maintain their sisterly bond, and try to guide their husbands.
What makes this poignant story so heartbreaking is that an organization founded to harass and intimidate people did not stop even at that, but put an abrupt end to the lives of innocent men, women and children. To this day, the needless absence of these people should motivate us to do what we can so that this type of brutality is not repeated. The other thing that touched me deeply was the collection of small reminders left by the deceased and discovered by grief-stricken relatives and friends.
This book reminds me of other classics I have read, such as some of Mark Twain's novels which reproduce regional speech patterns, with its concern for justice, and with its bittersweet portrayal of ordinary and simple lives. Yet Dark Fire has an original and powerful story to tell.
June 21, 2021
This pager-turner broke my heart. The story is told from the perspectives of two characters: Ola, a courageous young tobacco farming wife and mother, and Pat, a spunky and good-natured school boy on the poor side of town. From their two sometimes overlapping worlds, we learn about life in 1920's Kentucky. As the story unfolds, the community of eccentric characters, the believable love between them, their struggles and hard work, compromises and triumphs, all weave together to create a world that I was happy to feel a part of when I read this book. The horrifying murder had me bawling and shaking. Reading this book is a powerful experience, and one which I highly recommend.
September 13, 2023
Historical fiction based on the shocking and true story of the massacre of the 11 members of the Drew and Laurence families in Kentucky - marked for death by the tobacco farmers union, aka the Night Riders.
The story is well researched and told through the eyes of a child - a first cousin to one of the families.
I struggled a bit to remember how all the people were connected. I read this as an e-book and it would’ve greatly benefited from a family tree diagram. The relationships were explained but I found it difficult to keep track as more characters were introduced. I would recommend getting a physical copy of the book so you could turn back and refresh your memory more easily.
The story is well researched and told through the eyes of a child - a first cousin to one of the families.
I struggled a bit to remember how all the people were connected. I read this as an e-book and it would’ve greatly benefited from a family tree diagram. The relationships were explained but I found it difficult to keep track as more characters were introduced. I would recommend getting a physical copy of the book so you could turn back and refresh your memory more easily.
June 25, 2021
This book pulled me in immediately and has stayed with me ever sense I finished reading it. The detail and care with which the story is told is impressive, and a real gift to the memory of the people whose lives and deaths it is based on. It never stoops to stereotypes or a simple idea of good vs evil, and, therefore, tells a very human story that goes far beyond 1920's Kentucky, the time and place it recreates so well.
September 8, 2021
Dark Fire, by Bernadette Rule, well known for her poetry and oral storytelling as well as her prose, is historical fiction at its finest.
The Tobacco Wars in the U.S. states of Kentucky and Tennessee, were a time of violent struggle. In western Kentucky, where the new union was formed in resistance to the monopoly of the American Tobacco Company, the pressure to join the union (which ultimately helped the tobacco growers to make a more reliable living) was huge and not always peaceful or fair. The Night Riders committed many acts of violence, the most appalling of which was the murder of two young families in western Kentucky. This story has haunted Rule fo decades; her research is meticulous and her treatment astoundingly even-handed, but the massacre speaks for itself.
Rule's intimate portraits of the various characters were very satisfying to read, and the unfolding of the story, even though we know the end all along, is fascinating and compelling to read. How she structured the narrative, using the different points of view, was excellent. The use of Pat as a narrator was a device that enriched the telling, and her capturing of the voice of an 11 year old boy was amazing. And of course her outstanding mastery of language, her overall sense of the story, her passion for it, and her compassion for the individuals and the community lift a sad and horrifying story into another plane.
The term Dark Fire refers to the cured tobacco itself, but it also describes both the opening and the climax of the book.
Thank you, Bernadette Rule, for writing this! I know it is getting an astounding readership in Kentucky, and it is read also in Canada, so I hope it is read far and wide, as it deserves to be.
The Tobacco Wars in the U.S. states of Kentucky and Tennessee, were a time of violent struggle. In western Kentucky, where the new union was formed in resistance to the monopoly of the American Tobacco Company, the pressure to join the union (which ultimately helped the tobacco growers to make a more reliable living) was huge and not always peaceful or fair. The Night Riders committed many acts of violence, the most appalling of which was the murder of two young families in western Kentucky. This story has haunted Rule fo decades; her research is meticulous and her treatment astoundingly even-handed, but the massacre speaks for itself.
Rule's intimate portraits of the various characters were very satisfying to read, and the unfolding of the story, even though we know the end all along, is fascinating and compelling to read. How she structured the narrative, using the different points of view, was excellent. The use of Pat as a narrator was a device that enriched the telling, and her capturing of the voice of an 11 year old boy was amazing. And of course her outstanding mastery of language, her overall sense of the story, her passion for it, and her compassion for the individuals and the community lift a sad and horrifying story into another plane.
The term Dark Fire refers to the cured tobacco itself, but it also describes both the opening and the climax of the book.
Thank you, Bernadette Rule, for writing this! I know it is getting an astounding readership in Kentucky, and it is read also in Canada, so I hope it is read far and wide, as it deserves to be.
December 29, 2021
I had delayed reading this book and what better time to read it when your boyhood home in Mayfield is blowing away. This book is very real to us all. I did not know the Lawrences nor Drews until I married into the family even though I had heard of them. My father had mentioned the "burning of the chute" but never mentioned the occurrences in this book and I never heard it mentioned. My wife said her grandfather would never discuss it although Ottus was his brother. (They were killed during a robbery. I found the story of the concubine interesting. You can see the tomb stone in the article about the ancient cemetery in Mayfield (NY Times 11 or 12 Dec. 2021 on tornado destruction in Mayfield. Also remains of my home.)
One thing that is interesting is the way of life at the time. Only member of my family that was a farmer was my grandfather and he did not raise tobacco, raised pigs. I remembered hog killing as described. It was a gathering and the neighbors came to help and the women to cook. A way of life that probably no longer survives. Unless the local Amish have retained it.
It is interesting the book is written in dialect, my native tongue. And takes a few minutes to see it is written from the eyes of a boy.
If you are interested in culture I would highly recommend this booK.
One thing that is interesting is the way of life at the time. Only member of my family that was a farmer was my grandfather and he did not raise tobacco, raised pigs. I remembered hog killing as described. It was a gathering and the neighbors came to help and the women to cook. A way of life that probably no longer survives. Unless the local Amish have retained it.
It is interesting the book is written in dialect, my native tongue. And takes a few minutes to see it is written from the eyes of a boy.
If you are interested in culture I would highly recommend this booK.
September 28, 2023
I have seen this listed as non-fiction. It is not. It is a fictionalized story of true events that took place in Graves County, Kentucky, in 1921. The Tobacco Wars were real. The Night Riders existed. Eleven people were massacred.
The book gives a good account of life in 1921 rural Kentucky. I don't know why she wrote it as fiction.
The book gives a good account of life in 1921 rural Kentucky. I don't know why she wrote it as fiction.
June 4, 2021
Loved lots of this book. Really good writing but such a sad story. It’s a dark look into terrorism and human depravity. I live in the town where this happened so I the history added to my interest.
December 20, 2021
An impressive first novel
August 6, 2022
Lovely evocative writing that transported me to a time and place with which I was not familiar. Delightful read!
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February 23, 2024Heart breaking story of 11 horrific murders in western Kentucky. I have never heard of this part of The Black Patch War.
August 25, 2021
Very interesting history.
My Grandad was a tobacco farmer in West Ky during this time and until his death. I would have loved to ask him about this.
My Grandad was a tobacco farmer in West Ky during this time and until his death. I would have loved to ask him about this.
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