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Shoshana, September 20, 2008

An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England is best read as a spoof of fictionalized memoirs. Some reviewers haven't liked this novel; my guess is that they are reading it straight rather than as a parody of the genre. Of course the protagonist acts stupidly. Of course the characters are either flat or larger-than-life (My Friend Leonard, anyone?). It's meant to be absurd, and it means to draw attention repeatedly to its own artifice. In this sense, though it's written in a pretty straightforward narrative style, it is really better classified as postmodern than as classically-organized fiction.

Here's a reading strategy: First read James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, published as memoir but now widely accepted to be self-aggrandizing fiction. Then read (not watch) One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest for a narrator who's having trouble grasping what's happening in his life because his internal chatter is so pronounced. Finally, read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for a narrator who knows less than the reader does as he struggles to solve a mystery. Now read An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, the putative memoir of Sam Pulsifer, who as a teenager accidentally burned down the Emily Dickinson House, killing two people and setting in motion the events of the rest of his life.

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