Book Review: The Arsonist *

I can't imagine why I finished this book. I normally give a book 50 pages and if I'm not engaged by

that time I move on. I was intrigued enough with The Arsonist at 50 pages to keep going, believing something would actually happen. And I had just finished The Lake Shore Limited by Sue Miller, which I loved, so I really wanted to like this. So I kept reading, hoping for some action, some revelation, some reason to slog through all the excruciatingly boring and distracting details. 
But none of that is there. There's no tension, no real conflict, no payoff.
You don't even find out ***SPOILER ALERT*** who the arsonist is.
About halfway through I began skipping huge narrative passages that I didn't care about and didn't need to know. But still, I kept reading. And when I finished, I couldn't have been happier. To be finished.
One star out of five for The Arsonist, I'm sad to say.