The Flamer

by Ben Rogers

Meet Oby Brooks, closet pyromaniac…
All boys tinker with fire. Oby Brooks holes up in a backyard shed to experiment with napalm recipes. He has a hand in burning down his own house, twice. He can’t help his very DNA seems made of TNT. Meanwhile, amidst the detonations, Oby’s sexuality is up for grabs. Parents, mountain men, chemistry teachers, neighbors, and arson inspectors all try in their own quirky ways to usher Oby into adulthood with his fingers and eyelashes intact. In the end, the question is whether Oby’s nature will be nurtured, or neutered. Oh, and, will he land a Nobel Prize?

Genres: Book Club

260 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 15, 2012

About the author

Rogers’ debut novel The Flamer was called “one of the wisest, funniest, strangest novels I’ve ever read” by Christopher Coake, and “diabolically funny” by Claire Vaye Watkins. He is also the author of The Daughters, The Heavy Side, and The Mayfly. His work has been published in The Rumpus, PANK, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Portland Review, Arroyo Literary Review, and Wag’s Revue, and has earned the Nevada Arts Council Fellowship. He is also the lead author of Nanotechnology: Understanding Small Systems, the first-ever comprehensive textbook on nanotechnology, and Nanotechnology: The Whole Story, both of which earned the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award from the American Library Association. He studied engineering and journalism in college and has worked as a business analyst, a newspaper reporter, a teacher, and a scientist at various labs, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is currently the Director of Engineering at NevadaNano. For more information, visit www.readrogers.com.

Reviews

[Hayden Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

i met ben rogers at a creative writing camp i attended in . . . 2012? (i remember very little from my high-school days; most of it has been pushed away in embarrassment.) what i do remember is that he gave some sort of talk and then signed our copies of the flamer, which were given as part of the camp. his inscription in the front reads, "to hayden—write on, sir." (good news: i followed his advice, and i'm, thankfully, a much better writer today than i was in 2012.)

i'm also a much more patient reader than i was in those days, and though reading this is hardly a slog, it opens with a plane crash (which, apparently, did not strike my 2012 fancy), so i never stuck it out and read it back when it was given to me. (side note: i'm using lots of parentheticals today. why?) (another side note: the cover of this book is so soft. it's one of those velvety-feeling types of paper. when i wasn't reading it, i was stroking its cover.)

i'm home for a few months and decided to read it while i was here. i'm very glad i decided to do so. oby (born "toby," but dubbed "oby" because his brother could not pronounce his Ts as a toddler) is a wonderful narrator, wholly-imagined and richly unique and funny and easy to empathize with.

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a terrific "Reno read". Great book about Oby, a tween, who likes to blow things up. Set in my little 'ol neighborhood, I loved reading about Oby and his family and how Oby grows into himself. Great snarky internal dialog makes this a terrific read for a reluctant boy reader too!

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great. I loved every character. A 4.5 read rounded up because the acknowledgments to Ben’s daughters and wife were so lovely.

[Rebekah A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

For much of my young life I wanted to be a writer. In high school, I shared a sophomore English class with Ben Rogers and I knew he would definitely be a writer. One assignment had us writing a short story and our teacher had Ben read his to the class. There are still snippets and moments from that story I remember even though it has been decades. What an incredible gift he has.

[William Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this coming-of-age novel, partly because it is set in Reno where I live, but mostly because it's well-written. The characters are vivid and people I'd enjoy meeting. I hope Ben Rogers has more novels up his sleeve.

[Matt Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oby could have narrated a story about peeling oranges and I would have turned pages in a blur. This book proved to be a vehicle of aching nostalgia and savage love for my home.

[Ksandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 Stars

This is the story of Oby- a pyromaniac teenager trying to find where he fits in. His story takes place over the course of a year.

Though I wasn't sure how I'd enjoy a coming of age story from a boy's perspective, I ended up liking it. Oby is the kid that most people either knew or were from their childhood. He found an outlet of fire and explosives that sadly caused a misfortune. But once he got some direction with the help of a teacher, he had a clear goal for where he wanted his life to go.

There was the acclimation to Ben Rogers not using quotation marks to designate when people are speaking. It did make it a little hard to read, but at the same time it made sense since this story is Oby reflecting on that year.

Overall, I thought this was a beautiful story of growing up. Granted, there were some moments I needed to take a step back from. But ultimately I enjoyed this story and how Oby's life grew over a summer.

Disclaimer: I received a review copy through NetGalley

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

a quippy, hilarious book. it captures such an awkward phase of life well, particularly the way people can play an important role at these pivotal times in our lives. i also appreciated the casual queer inclusion. as a queer person, it’s awesome to have that included AND not be the center of attention. i think often a story is either straight or queer, rather than a mixture. the truth is that queerness is casual daily life and the scene that happens in this book DOES happen. these scenes are often not discussed or overdramatized. last, this book was a thrill to read as someone born and raised in reno. as the author stated in the intro, nothing ever takes place in reno. it was awesome to see my hometown represented in this book by someone who actually knows the ins and outs of the city.

[Cari · Rating 4 out of 5]

So really for me this was a 3* "It's ok", but I feel bad and unfair rating it that way, and I'll tell you why. It was written superbly and was a true tribute to a young boy growing up into a man. It was interesting, but no real drama after the beginning. I don't particularly like this genre and I thought I was getting more pyro than a growing up story, but that isn't the author's fault. Therefore, although it was not my cup of tea, I liked it and the writing was good, characters likeable and realistic, and overall a decent read.

[Crystal Palmisano-Dillard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should have been a boring read. I don't care about explosions, or really a boy's coming of age, but it was engaging.

Oby is all about explosions and aim to win a Nobel prize. Along the way toward this dream he starts accidental fires, literal and figurative, in the lives of those around him.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

great read into the mind of a young pyro nerd. the story is vividly told

[Melanie Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Flamer: mostly about explosions and science and less about sexuality, although the title might lead you to think that. The Flamer: really, it’s thirteen-year-old “Oby” Brooks lost in his newly teenaged body being directed by adults who shape his fascinations.

Oby represents everyone who was a regular pubescent teenager: completely lost emotionally, growing hair in new places, and trying to separate himself from his parents. He describes his soul as “a hermit crab inhabiting a loner bowling shoe.” Oby’s thought process fits so well with teenage mentality that I wonder how Ben Rogers did it. When watching a movie, Oby’s mother fast-forwards through sex scenes, but Oby wonders, “...how could we respect the characters anymore, having witnessed their naked spasm sandwich?”

Getting into Oby’s psyche was a bit of an adventure for me, as I haven’t read many books where boys seem accurately represented in a way that fits what I remember of them from my time as a girl and what I know of youths today. While playing “crapple” baseball, Oby’s neighbor wrestles him to the ground, and Oby is kissed. This is the “flamer” part of the novel, but it’s really small. Oby is then plagued by questions that common with young teens, except Oby’s first kiss has been ‘tainted’--“I was 100 percent, USDA Choice homo until I made out with a girl, at which point I’d be 50/50 and the review panel would have to take into account new variables: duration of encounter, willingness of participants, tongue, et cetera.” Rogers takes those teenage questions we all panic over and adds humor to Oby, and I really grew to love this boy. He’s beyond stereotype or easy labeling, and I never knew where he was going; I eagerly followed his unconventional aspirations, which take us to the quarry.

Oby’s internship boss is ‘Teri’ (short for vegetarian), a woman who “...didn’t seem to take orders from anyone in particular, from anyone at all, really....People came to her with problems. She put out fires. She wore Old Spice.” What I love most about the novel are the surprises in character development. I want to assume Teri is a “butch lesbian,” but really, she’s a woman with a history who carries her own and makes it among the beefiest of men. She is young; she was someone’s girlfriend once. You’ll grow to love the shit out of her and the role Oby plays in shaping Teri’s past into a potentially beautiful future. Watching Rogers’s characters change is like watching a sculptor take a lump of clay and shape it into something organic to the human spirit.

[Jenny Shank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical Pyromania: a coming-of-age story of a Nevada pyromaniac

http://www.hcn.org/issues/44.13/pract...

The Flamer
Ben Rogers
257 pages, softcover: $14.
Aqueous Books, 2012.

Ben Rogers' engaging first novel, The Flamer, is the coming-of-age story of a young Nevada pyromaniac named Oby Brooks. Oby discovers his love for conflagrations when his father donates the family's dilapidated house to the Reno Fire Department to burn "for training purposes." The boy watches the fire, riveted: "A dragon was eating my house and I couldn't tear my eyes away."

The trajectory of Oby's life becomes even clearer once he steals some pure sodium from Mr. Weisgard, a scientist visiting his class. He smuggles it home, where it ignites his fireworks-packed closet. "That closet of yours," his dad fumes during the chaos, "it's like a munitions locker."

But there's no evil intent behind Oby's obsession -- he just likes to blow stuff up. Weisgard sentences Oby to kitchen duty while he tutors him in chemistry; Oby even wins several Boy Scout merit badges. As the boy's probation ends, Mr. Weisgard encourages him to nurture his interest in science and explosions. "Nevada's full of things that need blowing up," Mr. Weisgard observes, and helps Oby find a summer internship at a quarry. The author's talent for humor and characterization reach their height in the novel's quarry section, where a whole cast of colorful yet believable characters welcome Oby and initiate him into the secrets of their peculiar world.

Oby embodies the spirit of Nevada, given the state's tendency to ignite in spectacular forest fires, weapons tests and mining quarry blasts. And he has a strong, defiant affection for his home: "The prospect of ever moving away from Reno hit me like a body punch. … Maybe I was a high-altitude recipe. I might not rise anywhere else. Too much pressure."

Rogers writes with crisp precision about subjects as varied as science, the complex matters of the heart, and the Great Basin landscape. "The hills around Reno yellowed. The air turned hot and dry. Afternoon thunderstorms sent more lightning to the ground than rain. Brushfires flared up, blackening mountainsides. Atoms that had been sagebrush and pine trees were reincarnated as smoke."

The Flamer is a highly original and delightful debut by a writer who captures the quirks of this region with genuine love but without sentimental pieties.

[Brooke Santina · Rating 5 out of 5]

About much more than a boy who plays with fire and later questions his sexuality, "The Flamer" speaks to relationships between peers, parent/child, even touches on what an important role a great teacher can play in a child's life. It will make you think of your youth, your experiences and the many momentous firsts that come with growing up. Remember making a big mistake, the first day of your first job, your very first kiss? This book took me home; to a time when I was young and made some poor choices, and learned to live with the consequences. No matter where you grew up, or during what era, Oby is a universal character who has a unique ability to force readers back into their memory banks to fondly reminisce over their own childhood firsts. Enjoy the ride!

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love coming-of-age stories, so I was interested in this book club choice as soon as I got that vibe from it. I enjoyed my time with Oby despite the novel's off center feel, as if the climax of the story was in the first third or so and the rising action was just getting going toward the end. I would have liked it if Terry were more of a fleshed out character instead of a device in Oby's story, but since it is set up as Oby's story, that's more of a quibble.

[David Slater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had the good fortune to land next to the author at a signing table last weekend and was intrigued by Flamer, which turns out to be the captivating coming-of-age story of Oby Brooks, budding pyromaniac. Ben Rogers finds pretty much the perfect metaphor for the volatility of male adolence and the carefully-guided interior excavations necessary to come out of it in one piece. Memorable characters and finely drawn details abound. Highly recommended!

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is extremely well written; intelligence and humor all wrapped up in one wonderful story about a very complicated boy! Being from Northern Nevada made this book all the more close to my heart, as I could picture every scene! I'm not sure what the cover is made from, but I loved that too!

[Rich W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved Ben's book! I loved wandering through Reno with Oby and company. The story was interesting and fun to read. I have recommended the book, given as gifts, and passed along my copy. Go...read...enjoy.

[Brian Rowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful coming-of-age novel. Funny and moving, The Flamer is a must-read. Check it out!