Assorted Fire Events

Assorted Fire Events is a collection of thirteen short stories that examines loss, regret, loneliness, violence, and the fragile connections between people. Rather than following a single plot, the book presents a wide range of characters across the American landscape, including grieving spouses, drifters, homeless men, troubled children, and ordinary people whose lives are altered by unexpected events.

The stories often focus on moments of crisis or revelation. A businessman wanders railroad tracks after personal tragedy, a widow struggles with memories of her late husband, a homeless man disrupts a wedding reception, and a Depression-era hobo clings to a freight train while reflecting on his past. Throughout the collection, Means explores how chance, memory, and human frailty shape individual lives.

Written in lyrical, inventive prose, the collection is united less by plot than by recurring themes of suffering, redemption, and the search for meaning amid chaos. Critics praised the book for its emotional intensity and originality, and it won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction.