If there’s an award for best title, Brock
Clarke’s An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New
England belongs, at the very least, on the shortlist.
Clarke’s engaging, subversively titled novel follows bumbling
Sam Pulsifer, packaging scientist, arsonist and accidental
murderer. Sam also fancies himself a detective. Combined, all these
roles make for one often-hilarious narrator.
We meet Sam at a time when he is trying to remove himself from
his past infamy. He’s recently achieved some success by “helping to
make antifreeze containers that were more translucent than
previously thought possible”. But, as his father always warned: “No
greatness in tennis ball cans.”
And so simple-minded Sam focuses his tale on the most seditious
aspect of his life: the time he broke into the Emily Dickinson
House in Amherst, Massachusetts and, inadvertently, set it on
fire.
Early in the novel, Sam writes: “It’s probably enough to say
that in the Massachusetts Mount Rushmore of big, gruesome tragedy,
there are the Kennedys, and Lizzie Borden and her axe, and the
burning witches at Salem, and then there’s me.”
Clarke sustains Sam’s clever-but-perplexed voice and his
blundering activities throughout this light novel. As the title
suggests, he also sprinkles Sam’s tale with advice for would-be
arsonists. “Practise,” Sam suggests. “For god’s sake,
practise.”
Eighteen at the time of the Dickinson arson, Sam’s errors led to
the death of two people engaged in intercourse on Dickinson’s
bed.
This, and not the arson itself, causes Sam’s philosophical
awakening. “There is nothing more lonely,” he writes, “than being
an accidental arsonist and murderer and virgin.”
Ten years after the arson and now out of prison, Sam attempts a
new life as a university student. Fearing that literature majors
might identify him for his sins, he studies packaging science and
falls in love with a fellow scholar. They marry and have two
children. All the while, Sam lives quietly and keeps his previous
deeds secret.
Given the self-confessed Kennedy-like status of Sam’s crimes,
such suspension of disbelief becomes difficult. Sam has begun his
new life not far from the crime scene and hasn’t bothered to change
his name, yet no one recognises him.
Sam also reminds us continually of the Dickinson arson, as
though he were afraid that we will forget his claim to fame. As a
self-appointed detective, Sam often clarifies the novel’s mysteries
before readers have time to make their own discoveries. This causes
occasional frustration. But even Sam admits that he’s riddled with
faults. “Because maybe this is yet another thing that defines you
as a detective: not that you’re especially good at being a
detective, but that you’re so bad at everything else.”
There are, however, enough delightful moments to make this an
engaging read.
When Thomas Coleman, son of the Dickinson House victims, arrives
on Sam’s doorstep, his tranquil life shatters. Coleman threatens to
tell Sam’s wife about the fire and murders. Shortly after this
warning, Sam watches as, one by one, houses of other famous New
England writers go up in flames. All of the evidence points to Sam,
and Clarke adds another level to the novel as his inept hero
struggles with the implications of these copycat crimes.
Some of the more moving passages in An Arsonist’s Guide
involve Sam’s life with his parents. Once strict professionals,
they’ve traded working hours for more time at home with the bottle.
Clarke’s narration moves nimbly from Sam’s own domestic troubles to
his discovery of when and how his parents’ lives drastically
changed. He writes movingly of a relationship strained by parents’
expectations and the harsh realities of a child’s criminal
actions.
Through all of this, Sam becomes an unlikely but endearing
sleuth.
Clarke achieves a complex narrative through a surprisingly
uncomplicated narrator. As one character says to Sam: “You always
seemed so happy. Happy in a simple way, like a child, only
bigger.”
While his decision to over-explain sometimes deprives the reader
of working out the pieces of this intricate puzzle, Sam is
ultimately an amiable criminal whose story yields many
pleasures.
Kevin Rabalais’ novel, The Landscape of Desire, will be
published by Scribe next month.
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