An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England_ A Novel - Brock Clarke [1]
-The San Diego Union-Tribune
"An incisive satire that takes on everything from authors to reading groups and Harry Potter."
-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
"A witty, intensely clever piece of writing that scrutinizes our relationship with stories and storytelling.... Clarke composes with panache, packing his pages with offbeat humor, vibrant characters, and tender scenes."
- Utne Reader
"Rousing.... The antic goings-on and over-the-top characters are so entertaining."
-Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Brock Clarke is our generation's Richard Ford ... [and] Sam Pulsifer is an Everyman suburban nomad, a literary misadventurer who is as insightful and doomed as he is heartbreakingly hilarious.... I love this book."
-Heidi Julavits, author of The Uses of Enchantment
"A loopily shambolic narrative as captivating as its feckless firebug narrator.... The perfect end-of-summer book, funny and sharp and smart enough to ease the transition from beach to boardroom. Just don't leave it near a pack of matches."
-Village Voice
"It's a blast―its story line rollicking and often absurd, its themes satisfyingly hefty."
-Time Out Chicago
"Like TV analysts who deconstruct Tiger Woods' swing, it's not easy to do justice to writers like Brock Clarke. But I know just enough to recommend An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England to anyone, and especially to anyone who wants to read the best, newest manifestation of great American writing."
-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A multilayered, flame-filled adventure about literature, lies, love and life.... Sam is equal parts fall guy and tour guide in this bighearted and wily jolt to the American literary legacy."
-Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A subversively compelling, multilayered novel about the profound impact of literature.... Rendered masterfully by Clarke, Sam's narrative tone is so engagingly guileless that the reader can't help but empathize with him, even as his life begins to fall apart within the causal connections of these fires.... A serious novel that is often very funny and will be a page-turning pleasure for anyone who loves literature."
-Kirkus Reviews, starred review
AN
ARSONISTS GUIDE
TO WRITERS HOMES
IN NEW ENGLAND
ALSO BY BROCK CLARKE
Carrying the Torch
What We Won't Do
The Ordinary White Boy
An
Arsonist's Guide
to Writers' Homes
in New England
A NOVEL BY
BROCK CLARKE
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill | 2008
Published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Post Office Box 2225
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225
a division of
Workman Publishing
225 Varick Street
New York, New York 10014
© 2007 by Brock Clarke. First paperback edition, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, September 2008. Originally published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 2007. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited. Design by April Leidig-Higgins.
Although this novel is written as if it were a memoir, none of the events depicted in it are remotely true. The home of the poet Emily Dickinson still stands elegantly in place on a lovely street in Amherst, Massachusetts. Also still standing are the homes of Edith Wharton, Mark Twain, Robert Frost, and assorted other literary greats mentioned herein. As for the characters and their actions, they either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Clarke, Brock. An arsonist's guide to writers' homes in New England: a novel / by Brock Clarke. -1st ed. P. cm. ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-551-3 (HC) 1. Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886-Homes and haunts- Massachusetts- Amherst- Fiction. 2. New England-Fiction. I. Title. PS36o3.L37A89 2007 813.6- dc22 2006100732
ISBN-13: 978-1-56512-614-5 (PB) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
At the end of an hour we saw a far-away town sleeping in a valley by a winding river;