Synopses & Reviews
At once a novel and an open letter to Osama bin Laden,
Incendiary is a shocking, hilarious, and heartbreaking debut that crashes head on into huge questions of right and wrong, good and evil, madness and sanity.
Incendiary is the story of a working class woman who likes her simple life: watching Arsenal matches on the telly with her husband and little boy, fishsticks for dinner in their small flat, the occasional trip to the pub.
One spring afternoon the woman, whom we know only by the nickname “Petal”, watches her husband and their son head happily off to Ashburton Grove, Arsenals brand new stadium, to see their favourite team play. A few hours later the horror of a terrorist bombing plays out on her television the bombing of Ashburton Grove.
“Petal” tells her own story in an extraordinary voice, one both desperate and sharply funny, speaking directly to the man responsible for the bombing. She shows the reader an incredible world, a London that is not quite real, in a time that is not quite our own. And as deeply enmeshed as the reader becomes in her reality, a tiny, persistent doubt begins to creep in about just what is reality and what is a manifestation of her griefstricken and distraught imagination.
Dear Osama they want you dead or alive so the terror will stop. Well I wouldnt know about that I mean rock n roll didnt stop when Elvis died on the khazi it just got worse. Next thing you know there was Sonny & Cher and Dexys Midnight Runners. Ill come to them later. My point is its easier to start these things than to finish them. I suppose you thought of that did you?
Theres a reward of 25 million dollars on your head but dont lose sleep on my account Osama. I have no information leading to your arrest or capture. I have no information full effing stop. Im what youd call an infidel and my husband called working class. There is a difference you know. But just supposing I did clap eyes on you. Supposing I saw you driving a Nissan Primera down towards Shoreditch and grassed you to the old bill. Well. I wouldnt know how to spend 25 million dollars. Its not as if Ive got anyone to spend it on since you blew up my husband and my boy.
excerpt from Indendiary
About the Author
Chris Cleave was born in London in 1973, and spent his earliest years in Cameroon, where his dad built the Guinness brewery. In 1991 he wrote a novel called The Roadkill Cookbook and went to Balliol College, Oxford, which he left with a First in Experimental Psychology. After having worked sailing yachts from the south of France to the Eastern Mediterranean for their owners and as a busboy in Melbourne, Australia, he returned to London and spent three years with The Telegraph. In 2000 he met Clémence. They moved to Paris, and he now divides his time between playing with his son Louis and writing a new London-based novel. Incendiary will be his first published book.
Reading Group Guide
1. Look at the narrative style of
Incendiary. The letter writing format means that the story is conveyed solely from one viewpoint. How successful is the narrative/voice in conveying the events of the novel?
2. The novel is written from the viewpoint of a working class woman. Many of the characters she comes into contact with are, however, upper class. How successful are the different classes portrayed and how do we as readers feel towards each class?
3. The publication of Incendiary coincided with the terrorist attacks in London. Do the real-life terror attacks affect our feelings and viewpoint on the fictionalised terror attacks in the novel? How effectively do you feel Chris Cleave fictionalises the idea of a terrorist attack?
4. London is portrayed in the novel as a city descending into chaos: a place in which a great deal of the essence and true meaning of life has been lost. Do you agree with this?
5. How successful is Incendiary as a study in grief?
6. Incendiary is narrated by a woman, but written by a male author. Can we tell? How convincing is the narrative as that of a female voice?
7. 'I am Petra Sutherland' repeats our narrator over and over again, as she begins to see how different her life could have been, had she been given different opportunities in life. Both she and Petra look very much alike, yet have been thrown very different paths in life and become very different people with different priorities. Their relationship starts off with intense dislike and mistrust but undergoes a transformation as the novel progresses, until the two women, although never friends, form a mutual understanding for one another. Look at the relationship and differing characters of the two women. You may also wish to look at Jasper's relationship with each of the women and the 'love triangle' that is formed between the three.
8. Look at the function of Mena the nurse in the novel. Mena, a Moslem is used to convey certain messages in the novel and is ultimately fired from her job at the hospital simply for her religious beliefs after the tide of hatred against Moslems, following the terrorist attacks. What do Mena's thoughts, beliefs and attitudes add to our understanding of Incendiary?