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The Chicago Tribune calls An Arsonist's Guide "a Matryoshka doll of a book ... a novel, nested within a memoir, nested within a how-to-guide." Accidental arsonist Sam's misadventures allow for a lot of literary in-jokes and parodies, but they also accommodate serious musings about the powerful role stories and storytelling play in our lives. The Dallas Morning News opines that Brock Clarke's attempt to pull off "whimsy, satire and black comedy" all in the same novel results in a muddle, and othe

The Chicago Tribune calls An Arsonist's Guide "a Matryoshka doll of a book ... a novel, nested within a memoir, nested within a how-to-guide." Accidental arsonist Sam's misadventures allow for a lot of literary in-jokes and parodies, but they also accommodate serious musings about the powerful role stories and storytelling play in our lives. The Dallas Morning News opines that Brock Clarke's attempt to pull off "whimsy, satire and black comedy" all in the same novel results in a muddle, and other critics decry it as overplotted. However, most reviewers are enchanted with this seductive, whimsical novel that, at its core, asks how we remain true to the stories we tell-and ourselves.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.