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charina12's review against another edition
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
margaretmechinus's review against another edition
4.0
My third Sue Miller book in a row. I do enjoy her writing style. Her characters are well developed. Her plots are different and interesting: By now I’m not surprised that the endings are always a bit melancholy, not happily ever after, everything wrapped up with a bow. Her writing is very real. I did notice in this book, how often she has her characters “rinsing their plates and glasses.” Maybe an obsession of hers?
jstar84's review against another edition
2.0
You'd think a book called "The Arsonist" would be full of twists and turns and action, but when it comes to this book--you'd be wrong! I thought several times that I should abandon this book, but I have this personal rule about not doing it, so I suffered through the tedium. I'm not going to lie--this book is depressing. Sad story after sad story, and the love story doesn't even redeem it at the end. There were a few beautiful turns of phrase throughout that allowed me to rate this as two stars, but otherwise, I just can't get on board with this book.
nixieknox's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this better thanThe Lake Shore Express, so that's a plus! As is often the case, I found I liked all the supporting characters more than the protagonist. I didn't mind the ambiguous end re: the arsonist - like Bud I've learned to let things go. And I actually did appreciate how their relationship ended/was explained.
drkew's review against another edition
2.0
The premise of a daughter coming home to a community terrorized by a serial arsonist is solidity I just couldn't get invested in Frankie. Indeed, I cared more about the arsonist and what happened to her parents than I did what happened to one of the main protagonists.
sharppointysticks's review against another edition
3.0
I think I was drawn to the cover art of this book more than anything else... I have mixed feeling about it now that I have finished. There were parts of the story that I found compelling and parts that I found dull. I wanted to it to dive deeper into certain plot lines that were merely touched upon and felt unfinished. I both enjoyed and was some what frustrated by the ending. A solid "liked" but did not "love" for this one.
aurigae's review against another edition
4.0
I quite liked The Arsonist. Others have objected to its slow pace and meticulous attention to detail, and those are valid descriptors - but I don't consider them negative. The book isn't particularly long, and I found it quickly engrossing.
The story centers around three characters: Frankie, who is having a midlife crisis of sorts; Sylvie, her mother, who is struggling to manage retirement; and Bud, a local newspaperman with whom Frankie begins an affair. Each of them is struggling to define what gives their lives meaning, sometimes in relation to each other. The backdrop is a series of fires in the small town where they live.
It's true that the fires are not given the attention that the book's title (and the inherent drama of a town under this sort of siege) suggest. Miller is more focused on the drama of three ordinary people trying to assemble lives for themselves, and perhaps that is a smaller drama. In fact, this is a lot of what the book is about: what constitutes a big story or subject? Famine in Africa or fire in a small town? A sick parent or an abandoned child? Is a life of possibility inherently bigger than a life of specifics?
The main failing of this book, in my opinion, is that the author doesn't quite answer her own questions. She never tells us, really, who the arsonist is. There are some vague symbolic parallels between the fires and the other events of the story, but their potential is largely unexplored. In the final chapters of the book, I was eagerly awaiting what I hoped would be a powerful resolution to the carefully assembled drama - but in the end, Miller pulled her punches, and although much of the novel was powerful and absorbing, the final pages fell flat.
The story centers around three characters: Frankie, who is having a midlife crisis of sorts; Sylvie, her mother, who is struggling to manage retirement
Spoiler
and her husband's rapidly encroaching dementiaIt's true that the fires are not given the attention that the book's title (and the inherent drama of a town under this sort of siege) suggest. Miller is more focused on the drama of three ordinary people trying to assemble lives for themselves, and perhaps that is a smaller drama. In fact, this is a lot of what the book is about: what constitutes a big story or subject? Famine in Africa or fire in a small town? A sick parent or an abandoned child? Is a life of possibility inherently bigger than a life of specifics?
The main failing of this book, in my opinion, is that the author doesn't quite answer her own questions. She never tells us, really, who the arsonist is. There are some vague symbolic parallels between the fires and the other events of the story, but their potential is largely unexplored. In the final chapters of the book, I was eagerly awaiting what I hoped would be a powerful resolution to the carefully assembled drama - but in the end, Miller pulled her punches, and although much of the novel was powerful and absorbing, the final pages fell flat.
jess_sosenko's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25