Incendiary: A Novel (Book Club Readers Edition)
From the New York Times bestselling author of Little Bee comes “a gripping story…and portrayal of a woman unraveling in the face of overwhelming grief” (The Boston Globe) a “sensitive, artful, and deft…near-perfect debut” (Baltimore Sun).
A distraught woman writes a letter to one of history’s most notorious criminals after her young son and her husband are killed in a bomb attack at a soccer match in London. In an emotionally raw voice alive with grief, compassion, and startling humor, she tries to convince him to abandon his terror campaign by revealing to him the desperate sadness—“I am a woman built on the wreckage of myself”—and the broken heart of a working-class life blown apart.
A surreal vision made brilliantly, viscerally powerful and undeniable, Incendiary is a “a mesmerizing tour de force” (The Washington Post).
A distraught woman writes a letter to one of history’s most notorious criminals after her young son and her husband are killed in a bomb attack at a soccer match in London. In an emotionally raw voice alive with grief, compassion, and startling humor, she tries to convince him to abandon his terror campaign by revealing to him the desperate sadness—“I am a woman built on the wreckage of myself”—and the broken heart of a working-class life blown apart.
A surreal vision made brilliantly, viscerally powerful and undeniable, Incendiary is a “a mesmerizing tour de force” (The Washington Post).
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Community Reviews
Overall: 3.5
Story: 4
Characters: 3
Writing: 3.5
Learning: n/a
Ending: 3
Entertainment: 3.5
I started this book while I was waiting between doctor and nurse visits before I had my surgery and finished it on plane rides to/from business trip. It was a good book for both those things because I felt that it grabbed you from the start and it was very compelling. I wanted to find out what happened next.
The book is written as a letter a woman is writing to Osama Bin Laden, and so it's not your typical prose. However, there are parts that are not like anyone's typical letter either. The "speaker" (she is never identified with a name) writes dialog and descriptions in her letter that no ordinary letter would contain. It's all in a sort of rambling letter type style, but more descriptive, yet with the disconnectedness of someone telling a story back to you. If you can suspend the doubt that someone would write a letter like this, then you can enjoy the writing for what it is.
The characters in the book take a back seat to the story. You only get the narrator's version of them, and they all are a bit superficial including the narrator herself. Themes of working class vs. upper class get played out with the main characters.
The ending of this book was ok - it didn't resolve anything, kept you hanging, but then for the story, I'm not sure if you could do it any other way. I suppose the narrator could have had some sort of revenge or committed suicide or been committed, but any of those ending would have felt a bit trite.
Although I didn't give this book a super high rating, I would recommend it. The story and the writing were strong enough to make it worth it.
Story: 4
Characters: 3
Writing: 3.5
Learning: n/a
Ending: 3
Entertainment: 3.5
I started this book while I was waiting between doctor and nurse visits before I had my surgery and finished it on plane rides to/from business trip. It was a good book for both those things because I felt that it grabbed you from the start and it was very compelling. I wanted to find out what happened next.
The book is written as a letter a woman is writing to Osama Bin Laden, and so it's not your typical prose. However, there are parts that are not like anyone's typical letter either. The "speaker" (she is never identified with a name) writes dialog and descriptions in her letter that no ordinary letter would contain. It's all in a sort of rambling letter type style, but more descriptive, yet with the disconnectedness of someone telling a story back to you. If you can suspend the doubt that someone would write a letter like this, then you can enjoy the writing for what it is.
The characters in the book take a back seat to the story. You only get the narrator's version of them, and they all are a bit superficial including the narrator herself. Themes of working class vs. upper class get played out with the main characters.
The ending of this book was ok - it didn't resolve anything, kept you hanging, but then for the story, I'm not sure if you could do it any other way. I suppose the narrator could have had some sort of revenge or committed suicide or been committed, but any of those ending would have felt a bit trite.
Although I didn't give this book a super high rating, I would recommend it. The story and the writing were strong enough to make it worth it.
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