A review by gdlutz
A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker

3.0

A Box of Matches is about the most mundane novel I have ever read. I often wondered if it was really fiction, or if it was Baker's experimental journal. The set up is that the protagonist has decided to get up early every day (aiming for around 4:00-4:30), light a fire (hence the box of matches) then write in his journal. And again, the journal entries are mundane, for example peeing in the middle of the night and deciding whether to sit or stand (this could be informative for women) or how different paper burns in the stove. For being so bland, each chapter is very well written, but the book could have used a little oomph or something more tying the journal entries together than that they are early morning ramblings.