Incendiary

Incendiary
Chris Cleave

I didn’t take any notes while I was reading Incendiary as I was on an airplane, certain that death was only a few moments away. I am always amazed when I walk down the aisle for my 1,000th bathroom trip, at the people calmly working their crossword puzzles, putting together a presentation for work, or just in general holding it together.

The subject matter of Incendiary, also didn’t help my barely repressed urge to yell WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE and 16 ACROSS IS MISSOULA . The unnamed protagonist is writing a (really, really long) letter to Osama bin Laden after her husband and “four year and three months” son are burned/blown to bits by a terrorist bomb while attending a soccer game. Not exactly cheery stuff. But a good book nonetheless.

It’s written (mostly) sans commas, which gives an urgent, yet peculiarly flat feel to the voice. It’s either done very well, or I’m not a very observant person, as I didn’t notice this until I was about three-fourths of the way done.

The author was also adept at creating characters that swung from likeable to dislikeable to plain ambiguous. For example, the main character primarily deals with stress in one of three ways, tidying up, sleeping with other men, or tidying up for the other men she’s slept with. Not exactly your flawless heroine. But she goes on to exhibit compassion for those that wrong her, in ways that would be impossible for most. And it is her compassion that one of the men she is involved with after her husband’s death is counting on when he reveals a horrendous secret that upends the tentative rebuilding of her life. In this new world, nothing can be counted on. And that is what the characters try to do, to find that one thing that can sustain them as the ground rocks beneath them.

The only flaw with the book was that at moments it had that “this was written to be made into a movie” feel to it. And sure enough, it turns out that the book was made into a movie. I was curious about the movie. Unfortunately, as they say, curiosity killed the pretty enjoyable book. Or at least the interesting and funny main characters.