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thebobsphere's review
4.0
Tinderbox is a bit special to me as it’s the first book from Galley Beggar’s Press, that I bought (the first I read would be Toby Litt’s Patience) Now I have all the books this wonderful publisher has released and I’m slowly going through them.
Tinderbox is the kind of memoir, I like the best – a bookish/film based one: During Nanowrimo Megan Dunn tried to rewrite Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 from a female perspective. While this was happening, Megan Dunn’s relationship was going through problems, the Borders bookstores she worked in were under administration and she was struggling with keeping up her wordcount.
The end result is a humorous memoir. Megan is able to turn the more tragic episodes in her life into moment where the reader has to let out a giggle. I also liked her wry observations on both Bradbury’s book and Truffaut’s attempt to adapt the Fahrenheit 451. If there is an inner message, it’s probably things do work out in the end or, never try modernise Bradbury.
From all the GBP books I’ve read Tinderbox does not contain any of the experimental language I’m used to. As this book is one about failure at writing a story, it is quite meta and I guess that’s it fits in the Galley canon. It still is a great and flowing read though. Also if there is an unwritten rule about writing about books, I hope more break that – as a reader, I find bookish memoirs or novels addictive.
Tinderbox is the kind of memoir, I like the best – a bookish/film based one: During Nanowrimo Megan Dunn tried to rewrite Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 from a female perspective. While this was happening, Megan Dunn’s relationship was going through problems, the Borders bookstores she worked in were under administration and she was struggling with keeping up her wordcount.
The end result is a humorous memoir. Megan is able to turn the more tragic episodes in her life into moment where the reader has to let out a giggle. I also liked her wry observations on both Bradbury’s book and Truffaut’s attempt to adapt the Fahrenheit 451. If there is an inner message, it’s probably things do work out in the end or, never try modernise Bradbury.
From all the GBP books I’ve read Tinderbox does not contain any of the experimental language I’m used to. As this book is one about failure at writing a story, it is quite meta and I guess that’s it fits in the Galley canon. It still is a great and flowing read though. Also if there is an unwritten rule about writing about books, I hope more break that – as a reader, I find bookish memoirs or novels addictive.
bartvanovermeire's review
2.0
"Truffaut was French and even though the film was dated it was arty." Wish I could say the same (French, dated or arty, all would be fine for me) about this book. Too much counting words, though. Maybe it works better if you have any affinity with 'Fahrenheit 451'.
"One sentence added to another. I paused. The house hummed around me, like silence, but more than silence." Never try to be more than silence, if you want to convince me.
The best thing about this book was Drugstore playing in the background. Luckily, Isabel Monteiro is a genius who knows about silence.
I know it's hard
When the evening starts
Fading
And your guiding star
Seems to be so far away
"One sentence added to another. I paused. The house hummed around me, like silence, but more than silence." Never try to be more than silence, if you want to convince me.
The best thing about this book was Drugstore playing in the background. Luckily, Isabel Monteiro is a genius who knows about silence.
I know it's hard
When the evening starts
Fading
And your guiding star
Seems to be so far away
jenni8fer's review
2.0
I think this work shows a lot of promise for a good essay, but it read like a rough draft that needs more polishing.
I liked the juxtaposition of the writer's life working for Border's Books with Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451 and the Francios Truffaut 1966 film by the same name. However, I felt there was more discussion between the similarities of the film and her life and not enough of the book used as comparison. I understand there was an issue with the Bradbury estate, but if the author had kept to literary criticism without mentioning Ray Bradbury's personal life, I don't think there should have been a problem. Also, I would have liked for the author to relate the Fahrenheit 451 work to our modern political and cultural society.
I liked the juxtaposition of the writer's life working for Border's Books with Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451 and the Francios Truffaut 1966 film by the same name. However, I felt there was more discussion between the similarities of the film and her life and not enough of the book used as comparison. I understand there was an issue with the Bradbury estate, but if the author had kept to literary criticism without mentioning Ray Bradbury's personal life, I don't think there should have been a problem. Also, I would have liked for the author to relate the Fahrenheit 451 work to our modern political and cultural society.
rex_libris's review
4.0
I know what temperature books burn at. Half price.
In this droll, witty style Dunn walks us through her attempt to write an homage to Bradbury's [b:Fahrenheit 451|4381|Fahrenheit 451|Ray Bradbury|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1351643740s/4381.jpg|1272463] and more to boot. Unapologetically contemporary it is lively and reflective offering a mash-up of fiction and non-fiction mirroring the cultural flux she is writing about and we currently live in.
It's a book snatched from the jaws of defeat (perhaps the jaws of a mechanical hound?) with failures and struggles being the fuel behind it. Don't misunderstand that sentence and mistake this for some extended vacuous think-piece, it far too perceptive for that. It offer a personal literary treatment of what to do when things aren't quite going to plan in there broad frame of 'the creative process'. As someone with a number of friends who are trying to live as would-be creatives its a book that is encouraging and poignant
I'm finishing this review on Christmas eve so it feels like there should be a moral so here are a few takeaways [b:Tinderbox|36800762|Tinderbox|Megan Dunn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1512301467s/36800762.jpg|58581109]has left me with:
Culture has got messy(ier?). Everything is bleeding into each other at the moment.
The world is in flux and accelerated, and we can't really guess where its going next
And despite all this, if you're still trying to do your thing, know that what you set out to do might not be what you end up with, but the result may be better than what you set out to do anyway.
In this droll, witty style Dunn walks us through her attempt to write an homage to Bradbury's [b:Fahrenheit 451|4381|Fahrenheit 451|Ray Bradbury|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1351643740s/4381.jpg|1272463] and more to boot. Unapologetically contemporary it is lively and reflective offering a mash-up of fiction and non-fiction mirroring the cultural flux she is writing about and we currently live in.
It's a book snatched from the jaws of defeat (perhaps the jaws of a mechanical hound?) with failures and struggles being the fuel behind it. Don't misunderstand that sentence and mistake this for some extended vacuous think-piece, it far too perceptive for that. It offer a personal literary treatment of what to do when things aren't quite going to plan in there broad frame of 'the creative process'. As someone with a number of friends who are trying to live as would-be creatives its a book that is encouraging and poignant
I'm finishing this review on Christmas eve so it feels like there should be a moral so here are a few takeaways [b:Tinderbox|36800762|Tinderbox|Megan Dunn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1512301467s/36800762.jpg|58581109]has left me with:
Culture has got messy(ier?). Everything is bleeding into each other at the moment.
The world is in flux and accelerated, and we can't really guess where its going next
And despite all this, if you're still trying to do your thing, know that what you set out to do might not be what you end up with, but the result may be better than what you set out to do anyway.
amyjessicamarr's review
5.0
This book is incredible and beautiful and hilarious and insightful. I might have never connected to a book in a such a personal way before. Hurry out now and get yourself a copy!
bigcheese's review
2.0
Surprisingly it’s a relatable book. NaNoWriMo brought into the game quickly, and I was like heeyyy, I’m kind of doing that, I know what that is, it motivated me to put down the first word of a novel. Brave to publish a book which is talking about the bookstore franchise Borders, I am pretty much the youngest possible reader who ever set foot in a Borders, and the book would probably have been hard to get through if you don’t know what Borders is. And most people younger Han me would’ve forgotten seeing the Borders sticker on the backs of their parent’s books and their volumes they bought for two dollars from Vinnie’s.
Not all that deep, not offensive, not essential, not bad, not hard to read and stick by, not re-readable.
I skipped over the extended excerpts of Dunn’s ‘Fahrenheit 451’ rewrite, I’m sorry, just not motivated to read it.
Not all that deep, not offensive, not essential, not bad, not hard to read and stick by, not re-readable.
I skipped over the extended excerpts of Dunn’s ‘Fahrenheit 451’ rewrite, I’m sorry, just not motivated to read it.
ariereads's review
4.0
This makes me really, really want to read [b:Fahrenheit 451|4381|Fahrenheit 451|Ray Bradbury|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1351643740s/4381.jpg|1272463] again.
Also I know this is non-fiction, but my brain refused to take that into account the entire time of reading - the dry, humourous tone and constant shifts between realities sends the whole thing into a very surreal space.
Also I know this is non-fiction, but my brain refused to take that into account the entire time of reading - the dry, humourous tone and constant shifts between realities sends the whole thing into a very surreal space.
arirang's review
4.0
My homage to Fahrenheit 451 was going to be a searing feminist rewrite of Bradbury’s classic, like Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, only blonder.Megan Dunn’s first book, Tinderbox, is another excellent publication from Galley Beggar Press, one of the UK's most exciting small independent presses, best known for publishing [b:A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing|18218630|A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing|Eimear McBride|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1374386236s/18218630.jpg|25647879], but also responsible in 2017 for perhaps the most original book I read this year, [b:Forbidden Line|30256606|Forbidden Line|Paul Stanbridge|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1464002528s/30256606.jpg|50728464] and the wonderful King Lear take [b:We That Are Young|28800253|We That Are Young|Preti Taneja|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1497714658s/28800253.jpg|49012104], which recognised by the Republic of Consciousness Prize.
Tinderbox is a fascinating take on Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and the film of the book, on book selling, on the struggles of writing, and on Dunn’s life in general.
As she says on her website (http://www.megandunn.org/2017/09/17/tinderbox/
It is about the end of the Borders book chain, Julie Christie and me – but not necessarily in that order.After a seven-year stint with Borders UK, Dunn was still there in 2009 when the chain was put into voluntary administration, perhaps killed by the Kindle (although as Dunn later notes, rival chain Waterstones survives to this day):
It is also about Ray Bradbury, censorship and the end of the world – but not necessarily in that order.
It is also about Jeff intellectual, Bezos freedom, and Piggle Iggle – not in order but that necessarily.
I’d started thinking about Fahrenheit 451 during those last critical months when I was the sales manager at Borders Kingston-Upon Thames. In the wake of Amazon’s Kindle it seemed unlikely that books would ever be banned: instead books are commodified, turned into movies and TV series, rated and recommended in Goodreads, their individual sales histories quantified on Nielsen Bookdata and in the fathomless depths of the Amazon Sales Ranking system. Even the Kindle was named by a branding consultant who suggested the word to Amazon because it means to light a fire. The branding consultant thought that ‘kindle’ was an apt metaphor for reading and intellectual excitement.Returning to her native New Zealand, she joins in with National Novel Writing Month ('NaNoWriMo') and starts to write her first novel, intended to be a re-write of Fahrenheit 451.
She is inspired by the way that Truffaut’s film version cast the same actress as both the young teenager Clarisse (avoiding the Lolitaesque undertones of the original) and Montag’s wife Mildred:
Clarisse and Montag isn’t meant to be sexual, but she’s a teenager and he’s a married man. And she also twirls a dandelion under his chin and asks him if he’s happy. Then she tells him to taste the rain. I snorted. It was pretty forward stuff for the 1950s. I wouldn’t twirl a dandelion under a fireman’s chin now. Let alone ask a married man to open his mouth and let the rain in.And she tries to re-imagine the story from their perspectives. Excerpts of her proto-novel are included, in italics, in the text:
[…]
Truffaut had cast the actress Julie Christie as both Mildred and Clarisse. Christie was British. Bradbury was not happy about this decision because Clarisse was meant to be a schoolgirl. Not a blonde bombshell from the swinging sixties who was in her mid-twenties. The age change didn’t bother me. I liked Julie Christie. She looked especially hot as Montag’s wife, wearing a long silken wig with bangs.
I bet Clarisse had a crush on Montag. Crush. A short rush mounted by that high C.But she finds it hard to write against the tyranny of the daily wordcount monitor of the NaNoWriMo, and hard to move the narrative from her own experiences:
The rain fell systematically on the domed roof of the school, like data collating, reacting, endlessly responding.‘This used to be my high school. But it’s changed. When I was here the building was wooden. Of course we would never use the world’s natural resources so carelessly now. When I was your age I didn’t know what I wanted to be. So if some of you feel the same way, I sympathise.’
Seventy-two words. A school visit. Yes! What could be more fitting. In our last year of high school we were always being pestered with work experience opportunities. Wasn’t it entirely possible that Montag might have been sent to Clarisse’s high school to lecture the students on the joys of becoming a fireman? And wasn’t it even more possible that she thought he was hot? I imagined what kind of lecture Montag might give if he was recruiting teenagers for the fire department.
‘Paper burns at Fahrenheit 451,’ he told the class. ‘Flames curdle and blacken the pages till each book crumbles to ash. A library takes time to burn. The other firemen and I stand back and watch it together. We always know that we’ve done the right thing. We harvest the ash and use it as compost. In the fire brigade we value the future of this planet. Our creed is: we burn, so that you don’t have to. ’
Another seventy-eight words. My updated creed was a nice flourish. Bradbury was prescient but not quite so prescient as to predict global warming, recycling and the imminent extinction of the bumble bee.
I woke up at 6.30am and opened my MacBook Air. I’d been writing for nine days. Total word count: 6,762. By this time in 1950 Bradbury was reaching for the last dime in his bag of change. He spent $9.80 and produced a masterpiece. Why couldn’t I be a genius? The failure of my first novel hounded me. It wasn’t even worth $9.80. I couldn’t think of a plot. And I still wrote in disjointed fragments. My own life kept interrupting and changing the script. I wanted to get away from autobiography. I wanted to create with a capital C.What she ultimately ended up with instead is this book, a book about her failure to write her novel, and about her life to that point.
This is a book that, in other hands, might have become, or at least been taken for, auto-fiction, but Dunn is brutally honest, on the page, about her own failings (relationships, sexual, behavioural). For example:
One day I caught a rare glimpse of some customers browsing the sex section. A group of teenage boys flicked to a large graphic image and asked, ‘Have you done this?’And her Acknowledgements at the end begin:
I didn’t reply. But I had.
This is a work of non-fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are, sadly, not the products of my imagination.The book also provides a much more fascinating take on Fahrenheit 451 than I suspect a pure re-write would have done. Dunn is able to comment not just on the book, but also on the Sparknotes (rather appropriately) commentary on the novel, Truffaut’s film interpretation but also the making of his film, and Bradbury’s own life and writing of the novel. Bradbury’s introduction from the 50th anniversary edition and the DVD extras for the film are as much her source as the book and film themselves: in part, she admits, this was driven by issues with the Bradbury estate, but its makes for a very satisfying meta-fictional – or should that be meta-non-fictional – experience.
Dunn rather plays down her achievement. In one of the section of her pro-novel, at the point it has rather lost control, she writes, in the words of Sooty the bookseller, marketing an e-reader called The Tinderbox:
‘Everything’s got a bit messy,’ Sooty said. ‘There are so many different characters and stories colliding in this corridor I don’t know how to keep everything straight. I’m just glad that we finally managed to crowbar something from Hans Christian Andersen into the mix again, because frankly the reference to ‘The Tinderbox’ has really been bothering me.‘But in reality, this is a wonderful debut book and strongly recommended.
jackielaw's review
5.0
Tinderbox, by Megan Dunn, is a book about the author’s failure to write a book, and how this led to her writing this one. It provides a window into the creative process and much else besides.
In November 2013 Dunn set out to participate in NaNoWriMo. The premise for her novel was a rewrite of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 from the perspective of Clarisse McClellan, the teenager who befriends the fireman in Bradbury’s work. Dunn intended to produce a homage to the book, which she had studied in High School. Things didn’t quite go to plan.
Dunn decides to reread the novel but ends up taking much of her material from Sparks Notes (a study guide) and the 1966 film version of the book, featuring Julie Christie. Dunn admires how Christie dresses and looks. She is also fascinated by the film making process detailed in the DVD extras. She is easily distracted when writing which provides for entertaining asides.
By 2013 Dunn had left behind her career as a bookseller at Borders, a chain of bookshops that went into administration in the UK in 2009. She recounts episodes from her experiences in the various branches where she worked, and of being made redundant. Her recollections are honest and lacking the usual sentiment book lovers apply to booksellers. As an aspiring author she had hoped that inspiration would seep from the pages of the stock she handled but this wasn’t to be.
Dunn struggles to churn out the words required to meet the NaNoWriMo target. She ponders Bradbury’s creative process, how he wrote Fahrenheit 451 on a library typewriter hired by the hour, completing the first draft in nine days. Her own writing refuses to flow.
Dunn reflects on the books that sell well; on culture snobs and the popularity of reality TV; on the rise of Amazon and growth of on-line retail; on Kindles and other eReaders. She studies the future as imagined by Bradbury and observes the habits and technology of today.
The writing is sharp and contemporary. There is no shying away from such issues as the prevalence of downloading digital content illegally. Dunn admits to drug taking and reflects on the breakup of her marriage. She mentions the large number of creative writing courses she enrolled in over the years. It is refreshing to find an autobiographical account of failure that is unapologetic and makes no attempt to garner pity.
I haven’t read Fahrenheit 451 or watched the film referenced but this didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Dunn’s portrayal of book selling was of particular interest. The writing throughout is droll and pithy, the existence of this book an against the odds achievement. It should be recommended reading for aspiring authors everywhere.
In November 2013 Dunn set out to participate in NaNoWriMo. The premise for her novel was a rewrite of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 from the perspective of Clarisse McClellan, the teenager who befriends the fireman in Bradbury’s work. Dunn intended to produce a homage to the book, which she had studied in High School. Things didn’t quite go to plan.
Dunn decides to reread the novel but ends up taking much of her material from Sparks Notes (a study guide) and the 1966 film version of the book, featuring Julie Christie. Dunn admires how Christie dresses and looks. She is also fascinated by the film making process detailed in the DVD extras. She is easily distracted when writing which provides for entertaining asides.
By 2013 Dunn had left behind her career as a bookseller at Borders, a chain of bookshops that went into administration in the UK in 2009. She recounts episodes from her experiences in the various branches where she worked, and of being made redundant. Her recollections are honest and lacking the usual sentiment book lovers apply to booksellers. As an aspiring author she had hoped that inspiration would seep from the pages of the stock she handled but this wasn’t to be.
Dunn struggles to churn out the words required to meet the NaNoWriMo target. She ponders Bradbury’s creative process, how he wrote Fahrenheit 451 on a library typewriter hired by the hour, completing the first draft in nine days. Her own writing refuses to flow.
Dunn reflects on the books that sell well; on culture snobs and the popularity of reality TV; on the rise of Amazon and growth of on-line retail; on Kindles and other eReaders. She studies the future as imagined by Bradbury and observes the habits and technology of today.
The writing is sharp and contemporary. There is no shying away from such issues as the prevalence of downloading digital content illegally. Dunn admits to drug taking and reflects on the breakup of her marriage. She mentions the large number of creative writing courses she enrolled in over the years. It is refreshing to find an autobiographical account of failure that is unapologetic and makes no attempt to garner pity.
I haven’t read Fahrenheit 451 or watched the film referenced but this didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Dunn’s portrayal of book selling was of particular interest. The writing throughout is droll and pithy, the existence of this book an against the odds achievement. It should be recommended reading for aspiring authors everywhere.