I’ve read a string of really good books recently, so it means a lot to say that An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England is the best book that I’ve read in a while! The reviews and cover blurbs for Brock Clarke’s novel focus on the book’s humor (and it is funny!), but An Arsonist’s Guide is also thoughtful, sad (in a good way), witty, and wise.
As a teenager, Sam Pulsifer accidentally burns down the Emily Dickenson house in his home town of Amherst, Massachusetts; in the fire, two people (a tour guide and her husband, who are engaging in some amorous after-hours activity) are killed. After a ten-year stint in a low-security prison (where he meets several bond advisors who are working on their memoirs), Sam returns home. After a month, his parents (an English teacher and a book editor) discover that they can no longer live with him, and they send Sam off to college. He completes his degree, meets a beautiful woman, marries, has two children, and moves to a well-manicured suburban subdivision called Camelot (really!).
A decade into his new life, though, Thomas Coleman (the son of the fire’s victims) suddenly appears on Sam’s doorstep. Because Sam never told his wife about his past, trouble ensues. Things only get worse when the homes of other literary notables (Edward Bellamy, Mark Twain, Robert Frost) start to go up in flames. Naturally, the authorities believe that Sam is to blame.
An Arsonist’s Guide is a wildly entertaining ride. At the same time, it is a thoughtful meditation on literature (Clarke is clearly not a big fan of the memoir genre or the book club trend), on the power of storytelling, on the relationship between parents and children, on the bumbler’s search for his place in life.
A love letter to books and book lovers, An Arsonist’s Guide is my new favorite gift for fellow readers. (And don’t miss the hilarious and insightful interview between Sam Pulsifer and Brock Clarke—the protagonist and the author—at the end of the book.)
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