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A review by drillvoice
The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire by Chloe Hooper
3.0
Mixed feelings about this one. I think what it did best was actually evoke the horror of the Black Saturday bushfires and the way the community felt at the time and after. It was a good empathic immersion in that sense. I also learnt a bit about how fire operates, which was interesting.
Beyond that though, I found the writing a bit tabloid, and I also struggled a bit with the depiction of Brendan Sokaluk. Initially it's all from the police perspective, whereby Brendan is a cunning villain, then it quite suddenly swaps to the legal defence, where he is an intellectually-impaired victim, of circumstance if not the authorities. It was good to see different facets of this, but it felt a bit jarring.
Overall I'm reminded of Helen Garner's "Joe Cinque's Consolation", which isn't surprising. They are both crime/procedural faction stories about people who did the crime but maybe where the moral culpability or sentencing is in question. However, I think Garner's book does a better job of interrogating the desire for sentencing and retribution and what, if anything, it is worth in the end. Garner also includes herself more in the text, which I think is more honest and relatable.
Beyond that though, I found the writing a bit tabloid, and I also struggled a bit with the depiction of Brendan Sokaluk. Initially it's all from the police perspective, whereby Brendan is a cunning villain, then it quite suddenly swaps to the legal defence, where he is an intellectually-impaired victim, of circumstance if not the authorities. It was good to see different facets of this, but it felt a bit jarring.
Overall I'm reminded of Helen Garner's "Joe Cinque's Consolation", which isn't surprising. They are both crime/procedural faction stories about people who did the crime but maybe where the moral culpability or sentencing is in question. However, I think Garner's book does a better job of interrogating the desire for sentencing and retribution and what, if anything, it is worth in the end. Garner also includes herself more in the text, which I think is more honest and relatable.