Tom Lynch

Brock Clarke’s new novel, "An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England" (what a great title), works as if it was a memoir, a delicious, biting, hysterical and terrifically melancholy memoir, one actually worth reading in this age of telling the truth on paper. Of course, it’s fiction. Sam Pulsifer is our narrator, and he’s spent ten years in prison for accidentally torching the home of Emily Dickinson, killing two people in the blaze. He tries to move on—gets hitched, has kids, tries to have a new start—until, unfortunately, the houses of Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson and others catch fire. He’s being framed. He needs to find the culprit. He finds something else entirely. Clarke weaves his absurd tale with wonderful satire and a mountain of heart—it’s a sharp novel with its targets set dead in its sights, literary-nerd lit. Charming, graceful work.

Brock Clarke discusses "An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England" September 13 at Barbara’s Bookstore, 1100 West Lake, (708)848-9140, at 7:30pm. Free.

(2007-09-11)

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