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

This is a funny book.

It’s about Sam Pulsifer, a bungler who accidentally burned down Emily Dickinson’s home with two people inside, and spent eight years in jail for it.  Several years after he gets out, other writers’ homes in New England begin to burn down – and Sam isn’t the culprit.  He decides, for his own best interest and because his wife kicked him out and he quit his job and has nothing else to do, to figure out who’s doing it.  His suspects include characters such as 1) Thomas Coleman, the angry son of the people Sam accidentally killed in the original fire, 2) various letter-writers asking Sam to burn down different writers’ homes, 3) bond analysts, maybe, and 4) people alarmingly close to Sam, like either of his parents, who turn out to be more mysterious than he thought.

Though the author Brock Clarke makes An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England a critique of the literary, it is far too comical to attain the level of a satire; rather (and somewhat like Hugh Laurie’s Gun Seller), it is a parody that lovingly and devastatingly reduces the detective novel to a hysterical pulp.  Taking this novel too seriously (i.e. actually answering the “Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion” at the end of the book, which seems to me to entirely defeat the author’s point) would make a disaster of your enjoyment.  But if you’re looking for a laugh, or possibly more than one, An Arsonist’s Guide is just right.