Letters to the Editor: A fire victim’s eloquent writings generated empathy in this reader

To the editor: John Wirth’s regaling of the trauma he and his family suffered by seeing their home reduced to ash during last January’s fires and the balm that John Irving’s novels brought him took me back to Steven Soderbergh’s wonderful Oscar acceptance speech (“John Wirth: After the fire took my home, John Irving’s books became one,” Jan. 8). “I think this world would be unlivable without art,” the filmmaker said.

In the same way Wirth has been moved by the words of his favorite author, he did much the same for me and I’m sure many others. “The four of us sobbed as we entered the Palisades village, trying to make sense of the ravaged town.” How could one not feel their pain?

Words can generate empathy. Wirth’s words — his art, as it were — brought me closer to those flames than any other writer so far. In doing so, he made me sympathize that much more for the fire’s victims. Irving would be proud.

William P. Bekkala, West Hollywood