I have a confession to make-- I'm not reading this right now. I finished a looong time ago, but I definitely forgot to write about it, and it is such a great summertime read, that I would be the worst book blogger if I neglected to mention it. The Flamethrowers garnered a considerable amount of hype last year when it was released, probably 80% of it deserved. It was hailed as some sort of watershed moment for young female authors, but in my opinion, anyone who forced that kind of symbolism and meaning on it hasn't been paying much attention to all the unbelievably talented young authoresses these days (Karen Russell, Tea Obrecht, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie {because I can't go a week without mentioning her name}, Nell Freudenberger, etc). But even so, it deserves a fair amount of hype for being a really superb novel.
The Flamethrowers is a bit about the American art scene in the 1970s, and also a bit about Italian motorcycles. Part of the reason I loved it was that it reminded me so much of my dad's stories about backpacking through Europe in college, and the difficulties he experienced getting around Italy when the entire workforce was on strike, and it delves a little into Italian revolutionary politics. There is a particular moment in the first part of the novel when the protagonist is riding a motorcycle through the Utah salt flats in an effort to break a land speed record for women, and I was really struck by how much I would like to see this scene in a movie adaptation. That rarely happens to me when I'm reading a book, so I was particularly delighted when I read that Jane Campion would be directing the film version of The Flamethrowers. After seeing what she accomplished with the New Zealand landscape in the miniseries 'Top of the Lake,' I cannot wait to see what she does with the gritty New York art scene of the 1970s, revolutionary Rome, and the Utah desert.