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A review by kristianawithak
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
2.0
The novel's plot seems to read light hearted but it does not read that way. (My kind of light hearted funny book.)
I read a lot of dark books, books with serious themes or dark humour and Arsonist's Guide reads dark, but an unfamiliar dark. I wonder if it is the narrator. (Sorry narrators I never miss an opportunity to blame you for the quality of a book). I never know how much to blame on the narrator of the audio book or on the writing. I have this book at home and may try physically reading it (if I remember how) but I will probably push through to listen to the rest of it - I listened to all but the last page of the book because I ran out of time at work and read the end of it. I believe my inner voice is much less irritating as the main character.
The book seems unbalanced in places. There are statements made about literature and reading that are truly thought provoking, but they are said in such an obvious self aware way that it is distracting.
The author is honest in the mistakes he will make or things that he will regret, so the story is barely mysterious. It is a strange form of reverse forshadowing. He is not subtle in the way the story will play out, but as a reader you are kind of expecting a big reveal. Maybe he won't end up in jail again, maybe what he said is going to happen might not happen.
At the end of the book I found myself wanting to like it more than I did. There seemed to be some good ideas but the style was blase.
Side notes:
Dark comedy that I enjoyed while being entirely disturbed, A Spot of Bother.
I just saw the paperback cover and it is very interesting and I think and improvement from the Hardcover. Not unlike Spot of Bother, but in reverse, the HC was very nice and the TP horrified me and made it pretty unsaleable.
I read a lot of dark books, books with serious themes or dark humour and Arsonist's Guide reads dark, but an unfamiliar dark. I wonder if it is the narrator. (Sorry narrators I never miss an opportunity to blame you for the quality of a book). I never know how much to blame on the narrator of the audio book or on the writing. I have this book at home and may try physically reading it (if I remember how) but I will probably push through to listen to the rest of it - I listened to all but the last page of the book because I ran out of time at work and read the end of it. I believe my inner voice is much less irritating as the main character.
The book seems unbalanced in places. There are statements made about literature and reading that are truly thought provoking, but they are said in such an obvious self aware way that it is distracting.
The author is honest in the mistakes he will make or things that he will regret, so the story is barely mysterious. It is a strange form of reverse forshadowing. He is not subtle in the way the story will play out, but as a reader you are kind of expecting a big reveal. Maybe he won't end up in jail again, maybe what he said is going to happen might not happen.
At the end of the book I found myself wanting to like it more than I did. There seemed to be some good ideas but the style was blase.
Side notes:
Dark comedy that I enjoyed while being entirely disturbed, A Spot of Bother.
I just saw the paperback cover and it is very interesting and I think and improvement from the Hardcover. Not unlike Spot of Bother, but in reverse, the HC was very nice and the TP horrified me and made it pretty unsaleable.