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lacytelles's review against another edition
3.0
I listened to this book and enjoyed it well enough. A small town in New Hampshire is hit with a spate of house fires, and a journalist and a prodigal daughter connect over the fires and life as an adult in a small village.
dookiehana's review against another edition
2.0
whilst reading the last few chapters i felt a deep burning rage at every word. i didnt feel anything for any of the characters, i dont care about frankies sexcapades or white saviour complex or what could have been for any of them. they are all dull in their own insignificant ways, i wish all their houses burned down. of course alfie wanted to hide from this pathetic town full of boring people my god! and who cares if so and so went shopping or so and so had a meaningless conversation nothing added to the already empty plot whatsoever! god! i could scream!
dmantonya's review against another edition
3.0
The story makes you think it is about and arsonist but that is the underlying story. It is more about a love affair between two people.
thatjoybird's review against another edition
2.0
Um, did I completely zone out or something? Who writes a book called "The Arsonist" but ends the book without ever making it clear who the arsonist was? I am already wasn't enjoying this book as much as I wanted to so by the end I was just mad. I kept expecting to find out that it was really Alfie but now I will never know. Overall, I just feel like I wasted my time on this book.
elizabethajohnston's review against another edition
2.0
It never took off for me, and it didn't give me the kind of closure I need in a book.
nancf's review against another edition
4.0
I'd forgotten Sue Miller and that I had enjoyed a few of her books. But I picked this audio book up at the library just because Sue Miller is the author. Miller also reads the audio book.
I very much enjoyed The Arsonist which is mostly the story of Frankie Rowley who returns after many years of working in Africa to a small town in New Hampshire where her family summered and her parents have retired. There's a lot going on in Pomeroy: a series of fires, primarily to summer folk's homes; Frankie's decision not to return to Africa, though ambivalent about her next move; Bud, who runs the weekly newspaper after a career in Washington, DC; Frankie's parents, Sylvia and Alfie, who is showing signs of dementia; the stories of various other "townies."
From the box:"...The Arsonist is vintage Sue Miller - a finely wrought novel about belonging and community, about how and where one ought to live, about what it means to lead a fulfilling life."
"The lesson was there were things you had to let go of - losses, mysteries you had to learn to live with."
I very much enjoyed The Arsonist which is mostly the story of Frankie Rowley who returns after many years of working in Africa to a small town in New Hampshire where her family summered and her parents have retired. There's a lot going on in Pomeroy: a series of fires, primarily to summer folk's homes; Frankie's decision not to return to Africa, though ambivalent about her next move; Bud, who runs the weekly newspaper after a career in Washington, DC; Frankie's parents, Sylvia and Alfie, who is showing signs of dementia; the stories of various other "townies."
From the box:"...The Arsonist is vintage Sue Miller - a finely wrought novel about belonging and community, about how and where one ought to live, about what it means to lead a fulfilling life."
"The lesson was there were things you had to let go of - losses, mysteries you had to learn to live with."
erin_andi's review against another edition
1.0
Uninteresting characters, plot didn't hold my attention. Somehow I finished it anyway, but it was a struggle.
thepoisonrain's review against another edition
4.0
I think this read was actually more of a 3.5, objectively, but it had many lovely revelations about aging and relationships that struck me closer to home now than it would at other points in my life. The love story was the main narrative that carried the story forwards (which is usually a write-off for me), but this one wasn't syrupy or indulgently tragic either. My favourite part, though, was the insight we got into Frankie's parents and how they deal (or fail to deal) with ageing and the ailments that go along with ageing. I also really enjoyed the nuanced view this book had on humanitarian aid and its complications/problems even while acknowledging the will to do good in many of the people who involve themselves in it.