Monica Hesse. (2017). American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land. Unabridged Dreamscape Media.

Monica Hesse. 2017. American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land. Dreamscape Media.

Monica Hesse, American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land. Dreamscape Media, 2017.

Monica Hesse. American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land. Unabridged Dreamscape Media, 2017.

OverDrive Product Record

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• role: Author
• name: Monica Hesse

title

American Fire

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Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land

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1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Hesse, Monica
   • bioText: Monica Hesse is a feature writer for the Washington Post. A finalist for a Livingston and James Beard Award, she is also the author of Girl in the Blue Coat. She lives in Washington, DC.
   • name: Monica Hesse
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2017-07-11T00:00:00-04:00

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title

American Fire

fullDescription

Shocked by a five-month arson spree that left rural Virginia reeling, Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse drove down to Accomack County to cover the trial of Charlie Smith, who pled guilty to sixty-seven counts of arson. But Charlie wasn't lighting fires alone: he had an accomplice, his girlfriend Tonya Bundick. Through her depiction of the dangerous shift that happened in their passionate relationship, Hesse brilliantly brings to life the once-thriving coastal community and its distressed inhabitants, who had already been decimated by a punishing economy before they were terrified by a string of fires they could not explain. Incorporating this drama into the long-overlooked history of arson in the United States, American Fire re-creates the anguished nights that this quiet county spent lit up in flames, mesmerizingly evoking a microcosm of rural America - a land half gutted before the fires even began.

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1. • premium: False
   • source: Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
   • content: A captivating story about arson, persistent law enforcers, an unlikely romantic relationship, and a courtroom drama...
2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content: Narrator Tanya Eby tells a fascinating story. From late 2012 through early 2013, Accomack County, located on Virginia's Eastern Shore, endured 86 fires, all set by an elusive arsonist. But listeners shouldn't expect a prolonged whodunnit. The culprits, a local couple, are revealed early on. Instead author Monica Hesse paints a vivid portrait of a struggling rural community that is both divided and united by the baffling crimes. Eby briskly delivers the background information that sets the stage for the onset of the fires. When quoting firefighters, investigators, and citizens, Eby uses a range of Southern accents that ring true and humanize the community. Her respectful approach mirrors Hesse's treatment of the arsonists, who are presented as emotionally complex and morally gray. A.T.N. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     March 27, 2017
     Washington Post reporter Hesse (Girl in the Blue Coat) leads readers on an extended tour of a bizarre five-month crime spree in rural Accomack County, Va.: a series of over 80 arsons, of predominantly abandoned buildings, committed by a local couple. It began one day in November 2012 with four fires in 24 hours and carried on for five months. As hysteria mounted, police camped out in tents near potential targets and a group of vigilantes set up their own operation. At the center of this narrative is the extremely compelling couple: Charlie Smith, a 38-year-old recovering drug addict, and Tonya Bundick, a 40-year-old partier described as the “queen” of the local nightclub, Shuckers. Hesse traces their romance from charming Facebook exchanges and plans of a Guns N’ Roses themed wedding to passing notes in the prison yard after their arrest. Their love totally imploded under the pressure of their prosecution. Hesse offers sociological insight into a small town where “doors went unlocked, bake sales and brisket fund-raisers were well attended” despite its downward economic trajectory. There is something metaphorical, she notes, about a rural county suffering through a recession being literally burned to the ground. The metaphor becomes belabored by the time Hesse shoehorns in a comparison between small-town America and the aforementioned Shuckers, but otherwise this is a page-turning story of love gone off the rails.

popularity

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1. • value: History
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shortDescription

Shocked by a five-month arson spree that left rural Virginia reeling, Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse drove down to Accomack County to cover the trial of Charlie Smith, who pled guilty to sixty-seven counts of arson. But Charlie wasn't lighting fires alone: he had an accomplice, his girlfriend Tonya Bundick. Through her depiction of the dangerous shift that happened in their passionate relationship, Hesse brilliantly brings to life the once-thriving coastal community and its distressed inhabitants, who had already been decimated by a punishing economy before they were terrified by a string of fires they could not explain. Incorporating this drama into the long-overlooked history of arson in the United States, American Fire re-creates the anguished nights that this quiet county spent lit up in flames, mesmerizingly evoking a microcosm of rural America - a land half gutted before the fires even began.

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Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land

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   • description: Social Science / Sociology / Rural
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