How to Set a Fire and Why: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries)

"I … thought about the fire. I know it was just an abandoned building but I felt like something had happened, a real thing for once. My aunt's stroke had felt pretty real too. I guess real things happen all at once, and then you go back to the false parade of garbage that characterizes modern life"

How To Set a Fire And Why is the sixth novel by American author, Jesse Ball. Lucia Stanton lives in virtual poverty with her elderly Aunt Margaret in a garage at the back of a messy garden. She has been thrown out of her last school for anti-social behaviour and now attends Whistler High School. When her aunt gives her a notebook with a black felted cover, she decides to use in to write down her predictions: The Book Of How Things Will Go.

It is apparent from her narrative that Lucia is intelligent: a lot smarter than some of her teachers. But Lucia has a subversive streak, and her aunt supports her individuality. Along with predictions, Lucia relates the events of her life in an almost stream-of-consciousness style. And, after some interaction with would-be fire-setters at her new school, she also records in her notebook, her own pamphlet: HOW TO SET A FIRE AND WHY.

Lucia's behaviour may be related to the reason that her mother is essentially catatonic in a care facility, that her father is dead (his Zippo lighter is her only remaining piece of him), and that her aunt is now her guardian. But whatever those events may be, they are never revealed to the reader. Lucia is bright and audacious, but for older readers, may be a little difficult to relate to, and some readers may have difficulty with the lack of quotation marks for speech. Kelly Blair has designed a brilliantly clever cover to showcase this highly original novel. 3.5 stars