An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England

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An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England

2.93 of 5 stars 2.93 · rating details · 4,054 ratings · 1,054 reviews

As a teenager, it was never Sam Pulsifer’s intention to torch an American landmark. He certainly never planned to kill two people in the blaze. To this day, he still wonders why that young couple was upstairs in bed in the Emily Dickinson house after hours.

After serving ten years in prison for his crime, Sam is determined to put the past behind him. He finishes college, be...more

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Published (first published January 1st 2007)

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Dec 02, 2007 Jason rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: nobody, really...

I really wanted to love this book. I couldn't tell you why, but I wanted this one to be a triumph.

But, considering it took countless small bursts of very reluctant reading over the course of the entire fall to get through it, I have to classify this one as a total bust. Even more disappointing still is that I don't even have a great reason other than to say that it was just bad!

The first and foremost problem here is that the narrator is a total disaster. Sam is a convicted arsonist who, through...more

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Aug 29, 2007 Caryn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: ... actually, I don't think I would recommend this book at all.

Shelves: fiction

I have to admit, I think I was expecting something completely different out of this book.

It started out well enough: Sam Pulsifer, a native of Amherst, Massachusetts, "accidentally" burned down the Emily Dickinson house when he was eighteen. He has, since then, served his time (seven years in a minimum security prision, hanging out with corrupt bond analysts), gone to college (he has a degree in packaging science... he helped invent the zip loc bag), gotten married (to a tall woman named Anne Ma...more

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Dec 16, 2010 oriana rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-new-new-new-new-thing, read-2010, why-werent-you-better

You know, I really considered giving up on this about sixty pages in, and I probably should have; it never got any better. It was just so un-compelling. And the main character was really unlikeable, which drives me nuts. It reminded me of A Confederacy of Dunces, which I don't remember much but definitely remember hating; this had the same kind of bumbling, not-very-smart protagonist who just doesn't seem to get why bad things keep happening to him. He was so whiny and stupid and boring. Why sho...more You know, I really considered giving up on this about sixty pages in, and I probably should have; it never got any better. It was just so un-compelling. And the main character was really unlikeable, which drives me nuts. It reminded me of A Confederacy of Dunces, which I don't remember much but definitely remember hating; this had the same kind of bumbling, not-very-smart protagonist who just doesn't seem to get why bad things keep happening to him. He was so whiny and stupid and boring. Why should I go on a three-hundred-page journey with someone I can't stand?

The other thing that drove me absolutely crazy about this book was that the narrative kept doubling over on itself, like in the middle of describing some kind of action or reaction, it would start to discuss broader ideas and concepts, like "For those of us who've lost it, love is also the thing that makes us speak in aphorisms about love, which is why we try to get love back, so we can stop speaking that way. Aphoristically, that is." What? That's both convoluted and incredibly insipid. There were all these "realizations" or like comments on the human condition or something, which were uninspired and uninteresting and really just served to distract me from the uninspired and uninteresting plot. It reminded me, strangely, of one of my most favorite books ever, Daniel Handler's Adverbs , where he does a similar kind of thing, but with achingly beautiful metaphors, and with ideas that are thrilling and original and wonderful and sad. Brock Clarke is no Daniel Handler, is what I'm trying to say.

And speaking of the writing? Ugh. Here is a convolutedly stupid metaphor, which happens right after our, uh, "hero" has relieved himself after needing to pee for a long time, and someone has just told him that he doesn't have any money. Says our "hero": "I empathized: his lack of money weighed heavily on him and he needed relief from it, his poverty being to his vessel what my pee had just been to mine." Ew. Idiotic.

Here's one more quote, which combines bad writing with bad allusions with bad ideas: "I know nothing about her, not even her name, although I think about her all the time, the way you do about people and things which change your life forever –- although I doubt she thinks about me, which is the way life works, which is why I'm sure Noah couldn't ever stop thinking about his Flood, but once the water receded, I'm sure it didn't once think about him." What? Monumentally stupid. Just like this whole monumentally stupid book. (less)

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Oct 16, 2008 Marcus rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: ansolutely noone

I picked this one up because it had a lot of great reviews. That'll teach me. There have been few books that have given me less likable characters, or storyline. The initial idea is a really good one, and I really hoped for some sort of saving grace in it all, but I never once found myself rooting for the protagonist, he was merely protagonizing to read about. If ever there were a book I'd warn people against reading this would be it (or Jpod by Coupland, but don't get me started on that just ye...more

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Sep 06, 2008 Gregory Baird rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008-booklist, fiction-literature, abandoned

“An Arsonist’s Guide to Writer’s Homes in New England” is the odyssey of Sam Pulsifer, a perpetual but completely accidental ne’er do well. His life story is rather convoluted, so suffice it to say that he snuck into the Emily Dickinson home one fateful night, eager to check out the veracity of several spooky stories his mother told him growing up, and unwittingly started a mighty conflagration that reduced the historic landmark to rubble and killed the amorous couple he did not know was inside....more “An Arsonist’s Guide to Writer’s Homes in New England” is the odyssey of Sam Pulsifer, a perpetual but completely accidental ne’er do well. His life story is rather convoluted, so suffice it to say that he snuck into the Emily Dickinson home one fateful night, eager to check out the veracity of several spooky stories his mother told him growing up, and unwittingly started a mighty conflagration that reduced the historic landmark to rubble and killed the amorous couple he did not know was inside. Fifteen years later, Pulsifer has gotten out of prison and started his life anew in a new town. Everything seems to be going well, until Thomas Coleman, the son of the couple he accidentally killed, shows up on his doorstep eager for revenge. And someone starts torching the homes of famous writers in New England, causing the police to investigate Pulsifer. And the life he has worked so hard to build starts coming apart at the seams.

Brock Clarke is a capable enough writer, and he certainly has a great deal of wit. The problem is that he has too much of it, and he just can’t seem to stop showing it off. He suffers from a serious case of ‘too-muchness’. Each chapter is drowning in absurd plot twists and cock-eyed reasoning that digs Pulsifer deeper and deeper into his own private hell. And it gets very painful by the halfway point of “Arsonist”. Just look at the title of this novel; it’s kind of cute and amusing, if a wee bit pretentious. Now imagine getting beaten over the head with that kind of humor for 303 pages and you have an idea of what it is to slog through this book.

It’s relentless!! The plot gets so ridiculously contrived by page fifty that you’ll have a headache from slapping your head and asking “he did WHAT?” after Pulsifer’s latest egregious misstep. Honestly, bumbling doesn't begin to describe him -- even Inspector Clouseau would think Sam Pulsifer is insane, and that says a lot. Making what by all rights could have been a light-hearted romp irritating and painful.

It’s a shame.(less)

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Feb 04, 2008 Andrew rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

This was a great story with an interesting narrative style, ruined by yet another pinball protagonist. I'm sick of novelists annoying me with characters that bounce around while people do things around them and especially to them. Instead of acting, they choose the path of silence, the path of not doing anything. For instance, every chance the protagonist gets to make a choice--- especially an important one, he does nothing at all. The worst part is that this bullshit indecisiveness is usually p...more

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Jan 22, 2009 Ellen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It took me three weeks to read a book that I should have completed in three days. The fact that I forced myself to finish it is an indication of how disinterested I was in the story. The characters were unlikeable, the style rambled, and I did not find anything about it "funny" or "heartbreaking", as described on the jacket.

There is something about this style of writing that makes my eyes glaze over. The main character was so self absorbed that I skipped whole pages of navel-gazing just to get t...more

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Mar 25, 2008 Janell rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Seldom do I start reading a book and think "I really like this", only to get about halfway through and find I dislike it so much I cannot finish. This was the case here. What happened for me is that the quaint soliloquies of the main character started out fascinating, then just became annoying. Without giving too much away, I'll say that I kept finding myself saying "I can't believe you're going to let that happen! You idiot!" It's not that I can't stomach a character who makes poor choices, but...more

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Mar 22, 2008 Gunjan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this absurdly funny little book and I had to go ahead and take the one star off of my rating because some of the things Clarke writes and that our main character Sam conveys, are true enough to make you want to crawl away and hide. And you know, I just gave five stars to the last book I reviewed and I'm not trying to earn a reputation here. Besides, it's not like anyone's reading this. Except you.

A few favorites-

"After all, wasn't this what college was all about? Emptying your mind of th...more

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Sep 02, 2008 Deborah Edwards rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone with an open mind and a sense of humor

This book is a really fun read without being a frivolous read. In fact, the author takes on a myriad of dark themes, but in the voice of his main character, Sam Pulsifer, has a way of making even the most atrocious goings-on seem hilariously funny. Sam is a self-confessed bumbler, habitual liar, and accidental arsonist, and yet in the hands of Brock Clarke, somehow none of that seems unusual. And believe me, that's not the half of the unusual aspects of this book and its characters. Like Irving...more

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Nov 25, 2008 Thryn G rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The inside back cover compares this book to Confederacy of Dunces, Catch-22, and The World According to Garp . This does not match my experience- really, as far as I'm concerned, the only way these books are the same is that they all consist of pages filled with printed English words, bound on a side, and suitable for carrying with you.

An Arsonist's Guide isn't funny, isn't biting, isn't heart-breaking, or even all that interesting. It's pretty sad when someone's self-immolation doesn't provok...more

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Nov 08, 2008 kira rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Meh. I enjoyed this book, however I didn't find it "Absurdly hilarious... searingly funny" (Entertainment Weekly) or "Wildly, unpredictably funny" (New York Times). Instead I'd rate it perhaps "occasionally chuckle-worthy." Okay, it's a satire of memoir, the literary world, and many other things. I appreciated that. But I just didn't really care about Sam or any of the characters, and as a "mystery" it was pretty weak. However there were some good scenes and clever lines, so all in all I'd give...more

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Nov 28, 2008 christa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Life lesson learned about myself while reading An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke: I prefer my slapstick humor visually served up by Leslie Nielsen, as opposed to in book form, like this.

Sam Pulcifer accidentally burns down Emily Dickinson's house and inadvertently kills a mid-coital married couple that was hip-locked in a bedroom. He does time in prison with memoir-writing white-collar criminals, and afterward goes off to college, meets and marries his wife. P...more Life lesson learned about myself while reading An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke: I prefer my slapstick humor visually served up by Leslie Nielsen, as opposed to in book form, like this.

Sam Pulcifer accidentally burns down Emily Dickinson's house and inadvertently kills a mid-coital married couple that was hip-locked in a bedroom. He does time in prison with memoir-writing white-collar criminals, and afterward goes off to college, meets and marries his wife. Pops out a few kids and sets up shop in a suburb where shirtless lawn mowing is a social infraction. And then one day, the son of the people who died in the fire begins causing havoc in Sam's life. Everything else follows suit; Sam develops a taste for Knickerbocker beer.

The reading process for this book, and say a similar style of book like "I Love You Beth Cooper," sent me through these stages:

1. "When he saw me, my father made a kind of wounded-animal noise that I took to mean one-third surprise, one-third welcome home, one-third please don't look at me, I'm hideous. ... " Ohmygosh. This is the funniest book I've ever read in my life!

2. More than halfway through the book, Sam is watching his mother in the window of a building where a book group of adults dressed like wizards and witches are filing out into the night. " ... and then commenced to talk about the fog and how it was a very English fog, and then there was a long sincere discussion about about how very magical fog was and how they'd be sure to wake their kids when they got home to show them the fog and then find a passage in the book featuring fog ..." To my way of thinking, this remains pure comic gold, this social satire, this bookie social satire. Good geeky fun.

3. And then Part 4 splats. Instead of a few tiresome and absurd hiccups in the plot and an occasional twinge of annoyance at Sam's run-on, free association voice, everything is derailed. New characters are introduced. Old characters suddenly have knowledge of things that Sam didn't know they knew, and Sam makes out with a random woman.
Not only did I struggle to follow what was happening, but I struggled to care to follow what was happening.

4. Pure exhaustion.

What a buzz kill. If only this book had carried the momentum of the first three parts into the finale. Brock Clarke obviously has a strong grasp of voice -- maybe even too strong -- and he is quite funny. But the madcap and the loco clarinet sounds that would certainly accompany the antics in the movie version made me dizzy. (less)

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May 31, 2008 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a Weenie book, similar in the navel-gazing tone to the works of Sedaris, Burroughs and the Grand Schnitzel Eggers.

Unlike those writers, Clarke writes in a traditional style - past tense - and with some sort of plot.

So when the Weenie moments occur, and the narrator goes off on his weird life, it fits into a dramatic scheme. It's not the typical Weenie bleats.

Hey, I like that. The Weenies are now, officially, "The Bleat Generation."

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Apr 11, 2009 Melanie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm normally a great believer in the first-sentence test, and I bought a copy of this book based almost exclusively on its doozy of a first sentence ("I, Sam Pulsifer, am the man who accidentally burned down the Emily Dickinson House in Amherst, Massachusetts, and who in the process killed two people, for which I spent ten years in prison and, as letters from scholars of American literature tell me , for which I will continue to pay a high price long into the not-so-sweet hereafter"). Alas, the...more

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Dec 17, 2012 Jason added it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2008

While it's a little difficult to dissect this book, due to its hilarity and absurdity that is contrasted by an absolute seriousness, it is a book worth dissecting.

Sam Pulsifer is a bumbler. He accidentally burns down the Emily Dickenson house--killing two people and he accidentally falls into his life after 10 years of prison. Things devolve quickly because of a single, sudden event because Sam manages to bumble around in just the wrong ways.

In one respect the bumbling makes this book what it...more

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Jul 27, 2008 Rachel added it · review of another edition

"If you tell the truth, you will start crying and never stop, and what good will that do you, or anyone else for that matter? Besides, would anyone want to read a true story that made you start crying and never stop? Would you want to read such a story? Would you read it because it was true, or because it made you cry? Or would it make you cry because you thought it was true? And what would you do, what would you feel, who would you blame, if you found out it wasn't?"

This book makes me sad, but...more "If you tell the truth, you will start crying and never stop, and what good will that do you, or anyone else for that matter? Besides, would anyone want to read a true story that made you start crying and never stop? Would you want to read such a story? Would you read it because it was true, or because it made you cry? Or would it make you cry because you thought it was true? And what would you do, what would you feel, who would you blame, if you found out it wasn't?"

This book makes me sad, but not sad enough to cry, which makes me even sadder. No one in this book believes that you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

"...and for the first time in years I recognized that stories were everywhere and all-important.

...Of course a story could produce a direct effect. Why would anyone tell on if it didn't?

But what was the direct effect?"

Sam-the-narrating-protagonist tries on different versions, different stories, different lies, as though tinkering with the formula, looking for the desired effect. Is misunderstanding the desired effect? Sam chooses a storyline which effectively erases all distance between him and his mother, while creating close-but-not-too-close, far-but-not-too-far barrier/connections between himself and his family and "friends". I don't like this. I don't think choosing which misunderstandings and lies will shape your life. This is not an empowering choice. This is also lazy and manipulative and sick. And furthermore I don't like alternating alienation with incest.

I want to hear/to tell stories that will make me/you cry and never stop. And if you ask "Well what's the point? Where's the good in that? What good will it do you or me or anyone else?" - I can't answer your questions. It isn't that I'm refusing to understand, it's just that I can't understand you, or your "point", or what kind of good you might be looking to do me. I might be glad you asked, though, because wouldn't that mean - couldn't that be the opening scene of a story that could make you cry and never stop?(less)

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May 13, 2008 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A quirky sad/funny, mystery/comedy/tragedy that disturbs one moment, tickles the next, and left me uncomfortable more than I wanted to admit. At times it read like "Holes" for adults.

On one level, this book is a satire on the literary world and its pretensions. The author even makes a cameo appearance as a writer the main character/narrator makes fun of. Along the way there is a mystery to be solved, but the mystery is never so deep as to get in the way of the deeper mysteries the novel wants to...more

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Feb 11, 2008 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sam Pulsifer begins his faux-memoir with an explanation: he’s a convicted murderer, arsonist, and not much of a literature fan. Sam is also a “bumbler,” and I suppose that accidentally burning down the Emily Dickinson House and killing the two people still inside was his ultimate bumble. For his crime, Pulsifer serves ten years in a white-collar prison, and upon release discovers he is widely reviled by the denizens of his hometown of Amherst, MA, explaining "...in the Massachusetts Mt. Rushmore...more Sam Pulsifer begins his faux-memoir with an explanation: he’s a convicted murderer, arsonist, and not much of a literature fan. Sam is also a “bumbler,” and I suppose that accidentally burning down the Emily Dickinson House and killing the two people still inside was his ultimate bumble. For his crime, Pulsifer serves ten years in a white-collar prison, and upon release discovers he is widely reviled by the denizens of his hometown of Amherst, MA, explaining "...in the Massachusetts Mt. Rushmore of big, gruesome tragedy, there are the Kennedys, and Lizzie Borden and her ax, and the burning witches of Salem, and then there's me." However, it appears that he is only mostly reviled. During his prison tenure, Sam's father had been inundated with a strange form of fan mail - folks offering him money in exchange for burning down other authors' homes: Hawthorne's, Twain's, Alcott's, and the like. Although surprised, Pulsifer refuses to see himself as an arsonist and chooses to ignore the letters, focusing instead on trying to build some semblance of a normal life by going off to college, getting married, buying a house, having a few kids, and staying the hell away from Amherst. But his reasonably happy existence is eventually shattered when, twenty years after his crime, the son of his accidental victims shows up on his doorstep seeking vengeance. His arrival sets off Pulsifer's downward spiral and sparks the mystery of who has resumed his work of burning down famous authors' homes, leaving Sam to assume the blame.

An Arsonist's Guide..., although fiction, reads like a memoir, and takes satirical jabs at memoirs, book clubs, English professors, and literary fads such as Harry Potter. It received gushing reviews from a wide variety of critics, and while it aims to be humorous, I felt it occasionally fell flat. Sam's (or, rather Clarke's) tone is strangely detached while telling his life story, and although this takes some getting used to, it does allow for certain passages to be funnier than they may have otherwise been. Take, for example, Sam's description of life in prison:

I learned something from everyone, is the point, even while I was fending off the requisite cell-block buggerer, a gentle but crooked corporate accountant at Arthur Anderson who was just finding his true sexual self and who told me in a cracked, aching voice that he wanted me - wanted me, that is, until I told him I was a virgin, which I was, and which, for some reason, made him not want me anymore, which meant that people did not want to sleep with twenty-eight-year-old male virgins, which I thought was useful to know.

See? It's that special brand of straight-faced humor that sometimes works for some people.

Overall, An Arsonist's Guide... is something that many English majors and book geeks just might love; however, although I am both those things, there was something about it - be it the tone, the wimpiness of the narrator, or the combination of the two - that kept me from feeling such depth of affection. (less)

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Oct 17, 2007 Maria Headley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This has gotten a lot of press, but I wasn't in love with it. Good writing, for sure, and innovative conceptually, but I found myself never with the protagonist, and I wanted to be. He is at once innocent and completely culpable, at least in terms of his own assessment of himself, and this makes for an odd narrative point of view. The narrator spends a lot of time judging himself, and sometimes it feels like sitting in on someone's therapy, someone you actually didn't want to know this well. Thi...more

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Jan 02, 2010 Emily C. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: someone who likes having their heartstrings shredded

Recommended to Emily C. by: the Onion AV club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I picked up this book after it won the top spot on an Onion AV Club list of "Best Book Titles." I guess you can't judge a book by its cover.

The good: I loved Brock Clarke's zany, unique voice. He had many snappy one liners and keen observations about family, literature, literature culture and New England. I could tell that Clarke had a lot of fun writing this book. And the title is so much fun.

The bad: I have never read a book that is so flippantly depressing. I mean, honestly. All the reviews...more I picked up this book after it won the top spot on an Onion AV Club list of "Best Book Titles." I guess you can't judge a book by its cover.

The good: I loved Brock Clarke's zany, unique voice. He had many snappy one liners and keen observations about family, literature, literature culture and New England. I could tell that Clarke had a lot of fun writing this book. And the title is so much fun.

The bad: I have never read a book that is so flippantly depressing. I mean, honestly. All the reviews on the back of the book refer to how "funny" or "hilarious" the book is. I was expecting an exciting, wild ride with some laughs, some awkwardness and a damn good time. Is a person committing suicide by self immolation funny? Is it funny if they do that right in front of the main character within the last ten pages of the book, where you were really hoping something good would finally start happening for the main character? Is it funny when the main character's mother kills his father on the next page? Is it funny that he blames himself for not doing enough to prevent both deaths? I could let the slow and complete dissolution of the protagonist's marriage, career, and relationship to his children slide. I mean, these days that's just a given for the ever popular anti-hero of popular fiction. But really? Suicide and mariticide in the last 10 pages? Brock Clarke, I foolishly actually gave a shit about your character. Did I mention the unjust 20 to life prison sentence that ensued? I thought not. Literally, the book is 100% downhill after the first two or three chapters. Some authors have a gift for doing so in a redemptive way, but I found little compensatory in this novel.

I can't say I regret reading this book. As I said, I enjoyed the writing style. But I am fed up with this horseshit of leading the reader to genuinely care about a character and then methodically destroying every good thing that character has going for him. I find it increasingly often in literature and I cannot say that I appreciate it. In 9 out of 10 cases, it is a cheap trick. (less)

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Dec 30, 2008 Rose rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An Arsonist's Guide is the tale of Sam Pulsifer, who as a teenager burned down, under suspicious circumstances, Emily Dickinson's house - and the two unsuspecting adults who were cavorting on Ms. Dickinson's bed at the time of the fire. The story follows his life after serving his ten years in a minimum-security prison. What follows is a series of curious events, including mysterious fires at several local writers' homes, all told from Sam's perspective as he struggles to build and then keep tog...more

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Nov 30, 2008 Adele rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Compulsively readable and written in a conversational tone, but ultimately riddled with familiar tropes and cliches. Sam Pulsifer is an accidental arsonist who burns down the Emily Dickison house (and accidentally kills two people in the process) as a misguided youth. When Sam gets out of prison, he gets married and has children, but fails to tell his new family about his parents, and the house he burned down, though they live only minutes away from both. Then, the kid who's parents Sam accident...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Stewart rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England” by Brock Clarke is one of those books or movies or TV shows that you enjoy during the reading or viewing but you wonder, after reflecting later, what the whole point of it was.
Clarke’s novel is imaginative and has several amusing situations, characters, and lines, but ultimately I failed to discern what this book had to teach me (teach in the wide sense of that word). I didn’t learn anything about New England writers or their homes, despit...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Bookbeaver rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a very strange read. It's not a long novel, and it's not Pynchon, but it took some time and effort to get through it. At first I liked it, then it bogged down, then it picked up. Regardless, there was good writing throughout, at times anyway. It's a strange story concept, it comes off as satire, as mystery, as memoir, as … a surprisingly good story once it's all said and done. Is the main character all that likable? No. He is an admitted bumbler, and actually bumbles in the admission, de...more

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Aug 02, 2012 DL rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, audiobook, contains-strong-language, fiction

This book is frustrating and disappointing. The cover, the title, and especially the recommendation blurbs all suggest that it is full of wry, delightful silliness and wit. It is not. Instead, it contains a very earnest, thoughtful story of a man who never seems to get past his own mistakes. He is, as he describes himself, a bumbler. He makes mistakes, and then is unable to keep himself from making them worse because of his inability to connect with the people in his life, and his failure to und...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Tad Hopp rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I wanted to hate this book. Let me explain: I moved home after graduating college five years ago in order to save money while I figured out what was next for me and my life. Things quickly went south at home and I realized that I needed to move out for my own safety and sanity. I found a place with some college students that were near my age and it seemed like things were going to improve. Long story short, they didn't. The situation there wasn't that much better than the one I had left. There w...more I wanted to hate this book. Let me explain: I moved home after graduating college five years ago in order to save money while I figured out what was next for me and my life. Things quickly went south at home and I realized that I needed to move out for my own safety and sanity. I found a place with some college students that were near my age and it seemed like things were going to improve. Long story short, they didn't. The situation there wasn't that much better than the one I had left. There was one roommate in particular who was terrible to me. He recommended this book highly to me and said that I had to read it because it was one of the best books he had ever read. Well, considering how his opinion on most everything else was usually wrong, I figured he had to be wrong about this one. Plus, considering how he treated me, I really wanted to detest this book. 5 years after it was recommended to me and three years after moving out of that living situation, I finally picked up this book and read it. I hate to admit it but my roommate was right. This is a very good book. The main character felt so realistic and empathetic. I could relate to his struggles. I didn't find him unlikeable but instead relatable. I found that I actually cared about Sam Pulsifer and wanted to see him end up happy. I wanted things to work out for him and his wife and I wanted his parents to get back together and I wanted Sam to be cleared of the charges that were brought against him. Sadly, none of those things happened and after I finished the book, I just felt such a deep sense of sadness for him. However, I also thought that the way the book ended was really the only way it could have ended and been realistic. Life doesn't always end happily for us. Sometimes, we have to deal with some terrible stuff that causes great pain and agony for us. It's not always sunshine and rainbows. That's what I appreciated most about this book. It wasn't afraid to not give the characters a happy ending. Instead, it seemed like everyone ended up worse off than they started. Realistic and sad. I liked Clarke's use of language in this book. He came up with inventive wording and didn't resort to cliches. His wording didn't always work and sometimes came off as clumsy and awkward but I appreciated his willingness to try something different. All in all, it turns out my roommate was actually right about something. Fortunately, since he and I haven't spoken in three years, he will never have to know!(less)

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Mar 25, 2012 Patrick O'Duffy rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I, Sam Pulsifer, am the man who accidentally burned down the Emily Dickinson House in Amherst, Massachusetts, and who in the process killed two people, for which I spent ten years in prison and, as letters from scholars of American literature tell me, for which I will continue to pay a high price long into the not-so-sweet hereafter.

That's the first sentence of An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, and it's a terrific opener, one that intrigues and draws a reader in while showing...more I, Sam Pulsifer, am the man who accidentally burned down the Emily Dickinson House in Amherst, Massachusetts, and who in the process killed two people, for which I spent ten years in prison and, as letters from scholars of American literature tell me, for which I will continue to pay a high price long into the not-so-sweet hereafter.

That's the first sentence of An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, and it's a terrific opener, one that intrigues and draws a reader in while showing off a good fluid rhythm to boot. The novel's premise is also really good - Pulsifer builds a new and normal life for himself, but his life is destroyed when someone else starts burning down famous writers' houses, and he has to find himself as he finds the real culprit.

So there's a good, solid start and foundation to a novel there, and it's probably to Clarke's credit in some perverse way that he works so hard to tear down that foundation from the first page onwards, to the point where I gave up reading after six chapters and won't ever go back.

Part of that is writing that seems almost deliberately lacking in art, as if Clarke is writing down to his protagonist - something a more skilled author might be able to pull off, but that here just comes off as both self-conscious and bland. Bland is a good word for the dialogue, too, which makes every character around Pulsifer even less interesting. It's like Clarke is trying to point out that ordinary people say ordinary things (how observant of him), while forgetting that ordinary people also say really extraordinary, funny and interesting things all the damn time. Ignoring that comes across as more patronising than wise, a charge I could probably lay against the novel as a whole.

But the big flaw, the one the novel simply can't overcome with the power of its premise, is its boring, passive and unengaging narrator/protagonist - again, someone who is deliberately boring and passive, both internally and externally to the text. A protagonist can be flawed, can be reactive, can be unsympathetic, can headbutt puppies and then whine about it in church all novel long, but a protagonist who's dull is just the kiss of death to a novel. Character is one point of the Big Writing Triangle (the other two being Plot and Style); you can get by with two points (the Big Writing Line), but coupled with a flat style you just have the Big Writing Dot, and it doesn't matter how sparkly and pretty that dot is, it's still a one-dimensional figure and readers will look past it 'cos it's invisible.

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England has had a lot of good press. Don't believe the hype. It's shallow, warmed-over criticism of the everyday that is far less interesting than the world it wants to mock, and it hangs on a character that's neither sympathetic or pitiful but just generally irritating, like an ant bite on your narrative arsecheek. Avoid.(less)

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Dec 05, 2011 Angie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, humor

“…if a good story leads you to do bad things, can it be a good story after all?… It’s an interesting question, is it not? Can a story be good only if it produces an effect? If the effect is a bad one, but intended, has the story done its job? Is it then a good story? If the story produces an effect other than the intended one, is it then a bad story? Can a story be said to produce an effect at all? Should we expect it to? Can we blame the story for anything? Can a story actually do anything at...more

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Nov 18, 2011 Thomas Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The cover of my copy of this book quotes reviews from the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly that describe the book as wildly, unpredictably, and searingly funny and as absurdly hilarious. I can only assume the the authors of those reviews either didn’t read the same book as I did or have very different senses of humor. The word “hilarious” is especially over the top for this book. I will admit that I was mildly amused three or four times while reading and perhaps even laughed out loud once...more

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About Brock Clarke

Brock Clarke is the author of three previous books: The Ordinary White Boy and two story collections. His stories and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, OneStory, the Believer, the Georgia Review, and the Southern Review and have appeared in the annual Pushcart Prize and New Stories from the South anthologies and on NPR's Selected Shorts. He lives in Portland, Maine, and teache...more

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