Ten Acceptable Acts of Arson

Ten Acceptable Acts Of Arson (and other very short stories) by Jack Remiel Cottrell is a collection of short stories holding a range of genres including, but not limited to, sci fi, dark comedy and a touch of the supernatural.

I am an avid reader of short fiction, so I started this book with excitement, expecting more of one of my favourite genres. When I began, however, I was surprised to find that instead of the several thousand word stories I had expected, this book held ones of only several hundred words. Under three hundred, to be precise. I was worried that with so few words, Jack Remiel Cottrell would struggle to create anything impactful, but he created a thoroughly enjoyable book, filled with humour and witty comments on our society.

One thing I really enjoyed was Cottrell’s ability to move between styles of writing so smoothly. The first story, titled ‘This Is A Public Service Announcement’ is written in the form of a list of safety precautions recommended by the government. It starts with regular suggestions, such as ‘Wear sunscreen’ or ‘Use sanitiser after every interaction’. Steadily over the piece, the suggestions become darker, until we reach ‘Maintain an interior fallout room’ and advice on how to deal with corpses, before ending on the innocent ‘Wash your hands’. The book then goes on to a manifesto by a teenager professing their innocence. It starts with the sentence ‘I’m not a terrorist, just bored.’ In a later story, we have a detailed routine for someone’s medication, including possible side effects. It was impressive seeing both Cottrell’s skill in slipping between styles, and also the breadth of his imagination.

While I think Cottrell did an admirable job within the genre, flash fiction has some limitations. One issue is that with so few words, there is no room for the plot or characters to evolve over time, and with each story over in under a minute, there is nothing to keep pulling you on. Every page is a new story in a new world with new people, so it is impossible to get fully invested in each one.

Another such problem is that very little suspense or intrigue can be created. This means that the majority of Cottrell’s stories were small but punchy comedy acts, lasting all of a few paragraphs. While the first one had me laughing, by the tenth—or even hundredth—you get more than a little bored. I think this is not a failing by Cottrell, but simply a fact of the genre; flash fiction simply isn’t designed to be put in an anthology and then read cover to cover, it is something to dip in and out of for a minute of entertainment and a moment of joy.

I found that at the end of a few of the stories, I would stare at the page and ask myself ‘is that it?’ This could have been that a reference went right over my head that otherwise would have tied the piece together, or just a very anti-climactic ending. There were not many of these, however.

I enjoyed how Cottrell tied the one hundred or so individual stories in this anthology together, but by the end of the book, I wasn’t convinced that it had fully worked. He split the book into seven sections, each named by a day of the week, and each one started with a brief description of what happened to the narrator on this day. These helped to give the book a feeling of wholeness, rather than just a disjointed mess of stories thrown in with each other. While it helped to hold it all together, it would have been nice to see a little more work in this area: for example, after each of the brief section introductions, the book continued with none of the subsequent stories feeling at all connected to the previous. This is not inherently a problem, it simply leans into the idea that this is something to duck in and out of, rather than a single cohesive whole.

In summary, I think Ten Acceptable Acts Of Arson by Jack Remiel Cottrell is a good fit for anyone who enjoys good humour, and doesn’t have much time on their hands, but not a good idea if you are looking for a long novel to get stuck into. To all the therapists out there, this would be a great addition to your waiting room.

- Mattie is 15 and lives in Nelson