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reading

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
Brock Clarke, the author of this book, is apparently a very well-thought of writer.  Since he's published by Algonquin Books, it's clear that he's considered of literary value.

I don't think I'm one of his intended audience.

Sam Pulsifer accidentally set fire and burned down Emily Dickinson's home in Amherst, Massachusetts.  Mr. and Mrs. Coleman, who were volunteer tour guides at the house were in an upstairs bedroom involved in a moment of romantic pursuit and died in the fire.  For this Sam served ten years in prison.

When he got out two things happened. One was his father showed him a box of letters from people all over asking Sam to burn down writers' homes for him, many offering to pay him to do it.  The second thing was his parents asked him to leave. Living in Amherst was simply not a good idea, and they were suffering from having him in their home.

Sam is shocked by this request. He does leave their home, and doesn't return for another ten years. During that time he goes to college, becomes a "packaging" expert for products, meets a lovely woman, marries her, gets a good job, and has two children.  His daughter Katherine and his son Christian are very dear to him, and he tries to be a good man and a good father.

He has never told his wife about what happened in the past. He has, in fact, told her his parents are dead.

Then one day Thomas Coleman, the son of the couple killed in the Dickinson house fire comes to Sam's home and tells him he's going to ruin his life. 

From the very beginning I don't find Sam very sympathetic. And he's apparently only supposed to be in that sort of "poor schmuck" kind of way. But really, he just doesn't have a personality as far as I can tell.

His wife doesn't treat him very well even though he loves her dearly, and at the first hint of trouble (that trouble being lies told to her by Thomas Coleman), she throws him out.

Sam then returns home to his parents, where he finds 1) they are both severe alcoholics, 2) they've both lost their jobs, 3) his mother no longer really lives with his father, and 4) that the three years his mother had told him his father was "out finding himself by traveling around the USA," he was actually living 20 miles away with another woman.

Then someone begins attempting to burn down the writers' homes in New England, and of course, Sam is the prime suspect.

I think my problem with the book is this: Sam is supposed to be "heartbreakingly hilarious" according to the book jacket and many of the reviews I've seen.  I find him stupid and bland, and he makes a great patsy because he is stupid.

I don't see any humor at all in finding out his parents are both extreme alcoholics. Probably because I grew up with an alcoholic for a father, so the humor of parents lost in the haze of beer doesn't do a thing for me. 

I don't feel much of anything for anyone in the book other than disgust, except for Sam's children.  They are the victims of Sam's ruin. They love their father, and because of their mother's attitude, Sam's ineptitude, and the general viciousness of the other characters in the book, they lose out.

The one thing I found interesting in the book was the idea of people hating books because they see themselves in the stories, and they don't want others to have those perceptions of them. They want to be "real."

This is an idea that actually seems to me to have merit, and in fact the problem with this book is that no one in it seems anything BUT a character in a novel. Maybe if they'd all been as real to me as Sam's children, I'd have seen some humanity and therefore the "heartbreaking hilarity" would have happened.

WP