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Nothing Left to Burn
Nothing Left to Burn is a remarkable memoir that looks into the life of a family that has spent years harboring secrets, both dark and volatile. It eloquently tells the story of a son’s relationship with his father, the fire chief and a local hero, and his grandfather, a serial arsonist.
When Jay Varner, fresh out of college, returns home to work for the local newspaper, he knows that he will have to deal with the memories of a childhood haunted by a grandfather who was both menacing and comical and by a father who died too young and who never managed to be the father Jay so desperately needed him to be. In digging into the past, he uncovers layers of secrets, lies, and half-truths. It is only when he finally has the truth in hand that he comes to an understanding of the forces that drove his father, and of the fires that for all his efforts his father could never extinguish.
When Jay Varner, fresh out of college, returns home to work for the local newspaper, he knows that he will have to deal with the memories of a childhood haunted by a grandfather who was both menacing and comical and by a father who died too young and who never managed to be the father Jay so desperately needed him to be. In digging into the past, he uncovers layers of secrets, lies, and half-truths. It is only when he finally has the truth in hand that he comes to an understanding of the forces that drove his father, and of the fires that for all his efforts his father could never extinguish.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published September 21, 2010
About the author
Jay Varner
4 books14 followersJay Varner grew up in Central Pennsylvania. He earned a B.A. in creative writing from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA. He helped found The Susquehanna Review, one of the few national literary journals dedicated solely to undergraduate writing. He received his M.F.A. in creative nonfiction from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. While in graduate school he taught creative writing and literature courses. He also served as nonfiction editor and eventually managing editor of Ecotone: Reimagining Place. "
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 8, 2011
It is well known among fire investigators that people who set fires often are also fire fighters. Varner, whose father was a fire chief, seems unaware of this truism.
This account is very focused on the personal, and displays little journalistic impulse. For example, he often seems just to accept his mother's version of events (regarding relations with others in the town), without considering alternative explanations (maybe she was widely perceived as snobbish — she did after all snub all the other fire fighters' wives).
The first section of the book, with its many typos and awkward sentences, feels like an uncorrected proof was used by mistake. The last half is much better. Of most interest is the story of the decline of the economy in small-town Pennsylvania.
This account is very focused on the personal, and displays little journalistic impulse. For example, he often seems just to accept his mother's version of events (regarding relations with others in the town), without considering alternative explanations (maybe she was widely perceived as snobbish — she did after all snub all the other fire fighters' wives).
The first section of the book, with its many typos and awkward sentences, feels like an uncorrected proof was used by mistake. The last half is much better. Of most interest is the story of the decline of the economy in small-town Pennsylvania.
August 1, 2010
This is a brilliant, touching and transporting memoir.
November 17, 2012
This is set in my home town! How can I not know this guy? I am really looking forward to a good, cathartic read when it comes from Amazon.
Later, after finishing. . .
Everyone experiences pain in life. Varner has experienced pain, and has done the ordinary with it--he has become bitter and estranged from others. The extraordinary story comes from an extraordinary response to pain. Nothing Left to Burn tells a tale with potential, but it falls flat because the author has no unique response. There is no beauty from ashes. Read All Over but the Shoutin' for beauty.
Later, after finishing. . .
Everyone experiences pain in life. Varner has experienced pain, and has done the ordinary with it--he has become bitter and estranged from others. The extraordinary story comes from an extraordinary response to pain. Nothing Left to Burn tells a tale with potential, but it falls flat because the author has no unique response. There is no beauty from ashes. Read All Over but the Shoutin' for beauty.
August 15, 2016
Author Jay Varner and I have a few things in common.
First, we both grew up in small, blue-collar town Pennsylvania. Second, we witnessed the demise of the factory world (and the birth of the Rust Belt) during our lifetime. Third, we both left for college only to return home with college degrees in English (a degree that is bewildering to blue collar families). Finally, when we did return home, both of us ended up in jobs as local newspaper reporters -- a position that many people did understand (So that is what you can do with an English degree one of my relatives exclaimed!)
But these are where the similarities end.
In Nothing Left to Burn, Varner returns home to McVeytown, Pennsylvania, and takes a job as a reporter, only to find out that one of his beats, so to speak, is writing about local fires. Ironically, Varner's late father was the town's fire chief (and a local hero), and Varner himself can't help but feel torn by this position. Part of him believes that his father would be proud, but another part of him can't help but still feel resentful for the way that fighting fires took his father away from home.
Varner's memoir intertwines his story as a newspaper reporter with memories of the past. This past includes an exploration of Varner's relationship with both his parents, but also with a person who complicates his family situation even more: his grandfather, who was a fire bug and who delighted in starting fires of his own.
Nothing Left to Burn is a wonderful memoir about family, history and place. While those of us who grew up in rural Pennsylvania can certainly relate to Varner's book in many ways, in general his memoir is a great coming of age tale that shouldn't be missed.
First, we both grew up in small, blue-collar town Pennsylvania. Second, we witnessed the demise of the factory world (and the birth of the Rust Belt) during our lifetime. Third, we both left for college only to return home with college degrees in English (a degree that is bewildering to blue collar families). Finally, when we did return home, both of us ended up in jobs as local newspaper reporters -- a position that many people did understand (So that is what you can do with an English degree one of my relatives exclaimed!)
But these are where the similarities end.
In Nothing Left to Burn, Varner returns home to McVeytown, Pennsylvania, and takes a job as a reporter, only to find out that one of his beats, so to speak, is writing about local fires. Ironically, Varner's late father was the town's fire chief (and a local hero), and Varner himself can't help but feel torn by this position. Part of him believes that his father would be proud, but another part of him can't help but still feel resentful for the way that fighting fires took his father away from home.
Varner's memoir intertwines his story as a newspaper reporter with memories of the past. This past includes an exploration of Varner's relationship with both his parents, but also with a person who complicates his family situation even more: his grandfather, who was a fire bug and who delighted in starting fires of his own.
Nothing Left to Burn is a wonderful memoir about family, history and place. While those of us who grew up in rural Pennsylvania can certainly relate to Varner's book in many ways, in general his memoir is a great coming of age tale that shouldn't be missed.
March 6, 2011
When I read a review of this book and saw what it was about, I knew I had to read it. A lot of memoirs seem to stretch rather thin life substance into 200-300 pages. Not so this book. The story is deep; the writing is crisp and clear. For years I have shied away from reading memoir because some seem so embellished that they lack credibility, or they come in a series that seems to tell the same story in a way that I find redundant rather than deepened by reflection (loved Mary Karr's The Liars Club, but not so much her other two). After a spate of recent memoirs I really like and trust (Kaylie Jones's Lies My Mother Never Told Me and Patti Smith's Just Kids to name a couple), I'm reading memoir again, and I'm glad I added this one to my list.
February 8, 2021
Found this book reading it as part of a curriculum for my university a while ago, maybe in 2016(?), and it left a big impact on my life. The author actually came to my class for us to be able to ask him questions and discuss the book with him after we read it. I was also at a time in my life of processing my own childhood and family, and this was a book that really helped me move and grow as my own person. Jay Varner did a wonderful job of balancing a traumatic story with growth and moving forward, and the story has and will continue to stick with me. Jay Varner, I have no idea if you even check these, but your book made a massive impact on my life and I'd like to thank you.
April 23, 2025
"At least everyone will read your work. People always want to know who died."
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but Varner needs less than half of that to paint the most vivid images you've ever fathomed. I can hear, see and even smell small-town Pennsylvania with each page.
Loss is something we all have in common, yet affects everyone in different ways. People who are brave enough to share their stories in this way should be celebrated for trying to connect those of us who mourn our lost ones, and honor those who are no longer with us.
They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but Varner needs less than half of that to paint the most vivid images you've ever fathomed. I can hear, see and even smell small-town Pennsylvania with each page.
Loss is something we all have in common, yet affects everyone in different ways. People who are brave enough to share their stories in this way should be celebrated for trying to connect those of us who mourn our lost ones, and honor those who are no longer with us.
September 8, 2010
Jay's father, Denton, was the chief of a volunteer fire department in a small town. His career started early, and he rose to be one of the town's most recognizable mascots. He was known for his devotion to the community and his singular focus on both preventing and fighting fires. It comes as little surprise in the reading that Denton's own father, Lucky, was an arsonist. Jay describes growing up in such a volatile environment, where much of the community was clued in to the disparate activities of his father and grandfather. It's clear that one man was trying to find redemption for the deeds of his father.
Memoirs are tough to read, and I imagine they'd be hard to write. You don't have the luxury of fiction to soften the blows or shine a more flattering light on yourself as you would a created character. Jay Varner even acknowledges that there would have been no way to write this fictionally-no one would be able to believe it all. After much thought, no doubt weighing the consequences, he decides to write the story of his family. What he exposes is painful and ugly and improbable, yet it rings true.
The history begins with Jay's return to his small hometown, complete with a new job as a journalist with the local paper. The community appears amused by this latest generation of Varner, especially in that his beat includes reporting fires. Jay alternates between present and past as he reveals his childhood, the death of his father, and his own changing face in the community. At moments, when discussing his father's frequent absences, his words uncover the pain he felt at being secondary to the needs of others. In discussing the procedures of writing obituaries and local fires and accidents, his words seem almost profound as he describes the numbness that envelopes him after he gets used to the frequent suicides and accidents. He is meticulous in his details, and while it's not fiction, many twists still surprise the reader. He clearly wants to find the link that would explain both men's fixations on fire, and yet their completely differing acts. To the last page, astonishing details are revealed.
And yet...as I said at first, memoirs are difficult because of what they reveal. Perhaps because I've been reading a great deal about Siberia and the Holocaust, I feel a bit impatient with Varner's more childish complaints. He repeats continually during the first half of the book how often his father abandoned him for others, and recounts in detail all the milestones of his life that his father missed. It's clear that it caused him pain then, as well as now. In the second half of the book, in the aftermath of his father's death, he still tends to focus on what he and his mother missed out on, and how the community shut them out. Not to minimize his pain, but his focus seems to be inordinately about his own disappointments rather than searching out their cause. Towards the end, he does acknowledge that there must have been reasons for the strange behavior of his grandfather, but he doesn't go any deeper.
Since he was trained as a journalist, I would have expected him to cover both sides of his family's history, yet he admits most of his information about the past comes from his mother and his mother's family. This omission seems a bit jarring, especially in that he clearly dislikes his father's family and spends a large portion of the text with a negative focus on them. There isn't a single positive thing said about them, the focus being only on their crazy behavior and his sense of embarrassment of being connected to them. While his memoir is undoubtedly gripping, I'm left with a sense that there's even more to the story.
Memoirs are tough to read, and I imagine they'd be hard to write. You don't have the luxury of fiction to soften the blows or shine a more flattering light on yourself as you would a created character. Jay Varner even acknowledges that there would have been no way to write this fictionally-no one would be able to believe it all. After much thought, no doubt weighing the consequences, he decides to write the story of his family. What he exposes is painful and ugly and improbable, yet it rings true.
The history begins with Jay's return to his small hometown, complete with a new job as a journalist with the local paper. The community appears amused by this latest generation of Varner, especially in that his beat includes reporting fires. Jay alternates between present and past as he reveals his childhood, the death of his father, and his own changing face in the community. At moments, when discussing his father's frequent absences, his words uncover the pain he felt at being secondary to the needs of others. In discussing the procedures of writing obituaries and local fires and accidents, his words seem almost profound as he describes the numbness that envelopes him after he gets used to the frequent suicides and accidents. He is meticulous in his details, and while it's not fiction, many twists still surprise the reader. He clearly wants to find the link that would explain both men's fixations on fire, and yet their completely differing acts. To the last page, astonishing details are revealed.
And yet...as I said at first, memoirs are difficult because of what they reveal. Perhaps because I've been reading a great deal about Siberia and the Holocaust, I feel a bit impatient with Varner's more childish complaints. He repeats continually during the first half of the book how often his father abandoned him for others, and recounts in detail all the milestones of his life that his father missed. It's clear that it caused him pain then, as well as now. In the second half of the book, in the aftermath of his father's death, he still tends to focus on what he and his mother missed out on, and how the community shut them out. Not to minimize his pain, but his focus seems to be inordinately about his own disappointments rather than searching out their cause. Towards the end, he does acknowledge that there must have been reasons for the strange behavior of his grandfather, but he doesn't go any deeper.
Since he was trained as a journalist, I would have expected him to cover both sides of his family's history, yet he admits most of his information about the past comes from his mother and his mother's family. This omission seems a bit jarring, especially in that he clearly dislikes his father's family and spends a large portion of the text with a negative focus on them. There isn't a single positive thing said about them, the focus being only on their crazy behavior and his sense of embarrassment of being connected to them. While his memoir is undoubtedly gripping, I'm left with a sense that there's even more to the story.
September 15, 2010
Most of the book is a sweet and nostalgic story of growing up poor (his father is excited about them moving up to a double-wide trailer) in a dying part of America. Although Jay actually grew up in the 80s, it has a feel of older times, the 60s or even older, with wood-burning stoves, town parades, and shoveling snow. The book is a touching homage to his father, who Jay as an adult is starting to understand. Not only was being the fire chief a position of real responsibility and respect in the town, but his father was in his way doing penance for the crimes of his father, Jay's grandfather, who was an arsonist.
I think the book isn't helped by the treatment - the title, cover and description all make it out to be a big conflict between arsonist and fire chief, that there will be a big, bad surprise, that it will be very exciting, but that's not what the book is, and setting people up to expect something other than what the get is a sure-fire way to assure disappointment. The book is about a boy who wants to go to Hershey Park with his Dad, and be big enough to ride the rollercoasters. It's about a boy who wants to connect with his father and be the #1 thing in his life, and his sorrow and eventual acceptance that he will always be #2. To say the book doesn't match up with the title and cover should in no way be a criticism of the book itself - it's a criticism of the publisher. I get that the hook they've set up is easier to pitch becuase it's very exciting, but it sets up unreasonable expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed the book which is a fast read. But it's the story of a family, coming together and then falling apart, with a crazy grandfather and disliked grandmother, a beloved father, and respected mother. It's the story of illness and death, and moving on. Touchingly told and brutally honest, this memoir will stay with me for a long time.
I think the book isn't helped by the treatment - the title, cover and description all make it out to be a big conflict between arsonist and fire chief, that there will be a big, bad surprise, that it will be very exciting, but that's not what the book is, and setting people up to expect something other than what the get is a sure-fire way to assure disappointment. The book is about a boy who wants to go to Hershey Park with his Dad, and be big enough to ride the rollercoasters. It's about a boy who wants to connect with his father and be the #1 thing in his life, and his sorrow and eventual acceptance that he will always be #2. To say the book doesn't match up with the title and cover should in no way be a criticism of the book itself - it's a criticism of the publisher. I get that the hook they've set up is easier to pitch becuase it's very exciting, but it sets up unreasonable expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed the book which is a fast read. But it's the story of a family, coming together and then falling apart, with a crazy grandfather and disliked grandmother, a beloved father, and respected mother. It's the story of illness and death, and moving on. Touchingly told and brutally honest, this memoir will stay with me for a long time.
November 21, 2010
I am a sucker for memoirs with troubled father-son relationships; you can guess why....
If a book is compared to Rick Bragg's All Over But the Shoutin' on the back cover, well, it would be difficult for me to not consider reading it.
I recently finished Jay Varner's NOTHING LEFT TO BURN, and it was a thought-provoking book. As a boy, Varner resented the fact that his father wasn't around more -- he was the town's Fire Chief and was always having to rush away to fight fires, control emergency situations or attend to fire hall business. Even on those few opportunities when he and his father would do something together, it seemed like dear old dad would be called away.
Add to this the ironic family dynamic that his dad's dad was an arsonist and the real conflict in the memoir begins. Varner's grandfather, called "Lucky," along with being an arsonist is depicted as an anti-grandfather of sorts, certainly not made for the role of male role model.
Then, a heart-wrenching family secret is revealed, and Varner has to reconsider all he thought he knew about his dad, his family, and himself. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.
Jay Varner has crafted a touching memoir of a boy who longed for his dad's attention and I highly recommend it for anyone who loves well-written narrative non-fiction.
December 26, 2010
It's no secret that I love a good memoir. And this one has it. Jay grows up in your standard small town, where everyone knows everyone's business, and his family is… less than desirable. Though they live in the same house, he has nearly no relationship with his father. If Dad isn't at work, he's at the firehouse, which he makes the first priority in his life. Dad's parents aren't much better; Jay's grandfather, Lucky, has this odd obsession with fire. Everyone knows it, but no one discusses it.
It switches back and forth between past and present, which really ties the story together. We're experiencing Jay's childhood at the same time he's figuring it out himself, learning who his father is and what the family history is about. It makes us force our own opinion about the situation, and then we see how Jay feels about it himself.
There's a lot going on. On the surface, it's about a kid who wants his dad to pay attention to him. But it's so much more than that. It's about him growing up and making a name for himself in small-town Pennsylvania, all the while learning about his family's history. I devoured this book in two days. It doesn't try to be dramatic and over-the-top like most memoirs; it's just true. You don't find that much these days.
It switches back and forth between past and present, which really ties the story together. We're experiencing Jay's childhood at the same time he's figuring it out himself, learning who his father is and what the family history is about. It makes us force our own opinion about the situation, and then we see how Jay feels about it himself.
There's a lot going on. On the surface, it's about a kid who wants his dad to pay attention to him. But it's so much more than that. It's about him growing up and making a name for himself in small-town Pennsylvania, all the while learning about his family's history. I devoured this book in two days. It doesn't try to be dramatic and over-the-top like most memoirs; it's just true. You don't find that much these days.
January 13, 2013
After graduating from Susquehanna University, Jay Varner got a job back in his home town reporting about fires for the local newspaper. That's all well and good, but throughout the course of this book, you get an interesting family background. Jay's reporting fires. His late father was a well-loved fire chief. His father's father? The town arsonist.
This book examines Jay's relationship with his father and grandfather through this connection of fire. A very interesting take on such relationships.
On a more personal note, because I was also at Susquehanna University at the same time as Jay Varner and I knew who he was, I was really excited to read this book. Though we weren't friends, we had mutual connections and shared experiences through the Susquehanna University Writer's Institute, and I am familiar with the town to which he returns after college to write for the newspaper. For this reason, I felt that I could visualize everything pretty well. I'm not sure if that's good or bad (perhaps some things are better when left to the imagination) but it is what it is, and I still thought this was a really great debut book.
This book examines Jay's relationship with his father and grandfather through this connection of fire. A very interesting take on such relationships.
On a more personal note, because I was also at Susquehanna University at the same time as Jay Varner and I knew who he was, I was really excited to read this book. Though we weren't friends, we had mutual connections and shared experiences through the Susquehanna University Writer's Institute, and I am familiar with the town to which he returns after college to write for the newspaper. For this reason, I felt that I could visualize everything pretty well. I'm not sure if that's good or bad (perhaps some things are better when left to the imagination) but it is what it is, and I still thought this was a really great debut book.
September 7, 2010
A young man covers the fire/police beat in his small town's local paper. His father was the fire chief. His grandfather? The town arsonist. Aside from these compelling facts about Nothing Left to Burn, it's just a very well written, engrossing read. I tore through it in about three days last week while visiting New Hampshire, where we were surrounded by mountains and blessedly chilly air. It's a coming-of-age book about the death of illusions which somehow functions perfectly in a world of dying leaves and the first early mornings in which you can see your breath. It's damn hard to put down.
Full disclosure: Jay was in the year ahead of me in UNCW's MFA program. However, rather than academic nepotism or anything like it, this review comes from a sense of honest-to-goodness amazement. (And yeah, not a small amount of pride.)
Full disclosure: Jay was in the year ahead of me in UNCW's MFA program. However, rather than academic nepotism or anything like it, this review comes from a sense of honest-to-goodness amazement. (And yeah, not a small amount of pride.)
July 1, 2012
I discovered Nothing Left to Burn when reading an article by the author in the winter 2011 issue of the Oxford American. In the article Varner says that his mother stopped speaking to him after he wrote this book. Obviously, I had to read it. After some shenanigans with my local library, I ordered it off Amazon and read it in three days. The writing is only good, not great, but Varner treats his family with fairness and he bravely peels back the layers of his own life to share with the reader. Why? I don't know, but when I feel the urge I drown it. Varner did it.
August 21, 2010
An unflinching account of growing up in a dysfunctional family in small town Pennsylvania. If you think you already know what this book is about, think again. This is a family fascinated with fire. Some of them like to set fires; one spends his life putting them out. Some have compared this book to the work of Larry Brown (which is high praise in my opinion). But it is not unwarranted; this is a well written, painfully honest book.
December 23, 2010
Jay Varner has made a courageous and well-written study of his family, which involves fire in many varieties of activity. His grandfather was obssessed with fire to the point of arson, his father becomes the local fire chief and Varner writes about growing up in such an environment. The story is sensitive and perceptive. I have a review of this on Amazon also.
October 15, 2011
I bought this book when it came out, and now that I've finished it, I'm really sad that I didn't read it sooner. An absolutely mesmerizing book, beautifully written and well-crafted. I couldn't put it down.
December 31, 2012
kinda boring, long, drawn out and hard to keep going however; there were some good parts and things i could relate to. over all i probably wouldnt read a book like this again but it was alright... iv deffenetly read worse lol
December 23, 2010
A gracefully written memoir, with all of a memoir's brilliant flaws. Jay's Bookpod audio essay: http://www.bookpod.org/three-generati...
March 7, 2011
too depressing
April 18, 2011
Andrew went to High School with the author. It was very interesting reading about the town they grew up in.
January 18, 2014
This book has interesting and detailed stories of the author's childhood, but I found myself skimming through to get to the climax and was somewhat disappointed when I got there.
March 22, 2016
One of the best memoirs I've ever read.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews