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

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

by Brock Clarke (Author)

Synopsis

Sam Pulsifer has come to the end of a very long and unusual journey. He spent ten years in prison for accidentally burning down poet Emily Dickinson's house - and unwittingly killing two people in the process. He emerged aged twenty-eight and set about creating a new life for himself. He went to college, found love, got married, fathered two children, and made a new start - and then watched in almost-silent awe as the vengeful past caught up with him, right at his own front door. As, one by one, the homes of other famous New England writers are torched, Sam knows that this time he is most certainly not guilty. To prove his innocence, he sets out to uncover the identity of this literary-minded arsonist. What he discovers, and how he deals with the reality of his discoveries, is both hilariously funny and heartbreakingly sad. An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England is a novel disguised as a memoir; a deeply affecting story about truth and honesty and the damage they do.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Publisher: Windmill Books
Published: 07 May 2009

ISBN 10: 0099532964
ISBN 13: 9780099532965
Book Overview: A wise, funny, poignant and incredibly moving novel about one of life's losers who desperately wants to reinvent himself , but who discovers that he doesn't really know who he is in the first place.

Media Reviews
Clarke manages, with considerable dexterity and flourish, to pull out of the fire a series of absurdist scenarios and radically screwball characters that never stretch credulity...The high drama is mixed with some delightfully plaintive meditations on family life * Independent on Sunday *
Wildly, unpredictably funny * New York Times *
A tale that fuses tinder-dry comedy with meaningful questions of identity and literature * Daily Mail *
A playful, clever novel ... Billed as a novel disguised as a memoir meant as a self-help book, The Arsonist's Guide is also a rather brilliant satire on the culture of modern reading ... A highly enjoyable, absurdist farce. * New Statesman *
A wonderfully wry, witty escapade. * Esquire *
Author Bio
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 Pushcard Prize and New Stories from the South anthologies and on NPR's Selected Shorts. He lives in Cincinnati and teaches creative writing at the University of Cincinnati.