The Nature of Fragile Things

The San Francisco earthquake of the morning of Wednesday, April 18, 1906, is a historical event, which occurs at the pivotal narrative point when Martin comes home to find two of his wives, Sophie and Belinda, conspiring against him. While his six-year-old daughter Kat’s action of pushing him down the stairs has temporarily paralyzed him, the swiftly ensuing natural disaster provides the illusion that he has been killed in the quake, giving the women a grace period to mask his whereabouts while they try to rebuild the lives he destroyed. From the outset, Sophie thinks the earthquake is her accomplice in getting rid of Martin and preventing him from further harm, as “for one lone second I think the earth is going to open up beneath me and swallow Martin whole to save me the trouble of having to do it later” (152).

Because the earthquake is so central to the plot, Meissner is determined to present both the geological phenomenon and the subsequent fires “as accurately as possible,” going to archives and consulting local San Francisco historians (365). According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the San Francisco earthquake “ranks as one of the most significant earthquakes of all time” (“The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.” United States Geological Survey). The agency writes:

Rupturing the northernmost 296 miles of the San Andreas fault from northwest of San Juan Bautista to the triple junction at Cape Mendocino, the earthquake confounded contemporary geologists with its large, horizontal displacements and great rupture length (USGS).

The earthquake measured 7.9 on the Richter scale and struck in two rounds. Just before dawn, at 5:12am on Wednesday, April 18, a foreshock occurred with enough force to be felt throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Sophie experiences this first, gentler spell almost as an afterthought to the “shudder” that runs through her when she contemplates finding Martin’s corpse and discovers that “the trembling strangely intensifies, and it’s as if the very house is quivering at what might await me when I come back to this house” (152). Then, the real earthquake began 20-25 seconds later, with an epicenter near San Francisco and featured violent shocks that lasted up to a minute long. Sophie experiences this as “a beast, huge and loud and monstruous, awakening enraged from slumber” and different from the “gentle rocking” of the miniature earthquakes she previously experienced in the city (152). The bestial imagery conveys a sublime scale and an utter loss of control; the drama presented by the human narrative will now subside in a tale of trying to survive.

Meissner relates the historical fact of how the violent shocks broke open water mains and gas lines and started multiple fires, which burned the city for three days. The fires led to 80% of the city being destroyed and to 3000 lives being lost. Sophie, Belinda, and Kat’s escape from the fires forms a key part of the narrative. Meissner also accounts for how the city changed from a technologically advanced urban center advantaged by a natural port and the Gold Rush wealth of the late 19th century, to one where underfed horses are relied upon and people must walk the city’s hills instead of relying on the convenience of cable cars. She also conveys the scale of change and destruction in the repurposing of buildings; the Mechanics’ Pavilion that Kat went to for her first candy apple on her sixth birthday becomes a makeshift morgue and hospital where Belinda must deliver her baby. The fact that the building’s roof catches fire further indicates that nothing is stable.

The characters experience the earthquake’s devastation, including the destruction of the Polk Street house, and are forced to camp with some of the city’s 400,000 refugees in temporary accommodation in Golden Gate Park. Their removal to Belinda’s inn in fictitious San Rafaela allows them to escape daily reminders of the devastation. This also affords Meissner the convenience of moving her plot forward despite the earthquake. Still, the disaster presses on Sophie’s consciousness; when she returns to the city in the fall, the poor continue to suffer the losses of the earthquake, while the rich, like Libby, take advantage of others’ misery to get their homes built back sooner. Moreover, by November, when Marshal Ambrose Logan summons Sophie to the police station, there is the sense that things are going back to normal and that all unfinished business, including Martin’s disappearance, will be dealt with. The earthquake is thus a temporary calamity that puts life and the restoration of order on pause.