The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon

This review appeared in the San Francisco Examiner
 on July 26, 2019
 https://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainment/incendaries-a-gripping-tale-of-young-lost-souls/

R.O. Kwon’s gripping debut novel ‘The Incendiaries’ explores the psychic appeal of religious zealotry.  With acute insight and imaginative structure, the book explores the emotional fragility of two college students as they stumble into adulthood. 

Will Kendall and Phoebe Lin are California kids who meet at elite Edwards College in upstate New York. Both are burdened by prior personal crises that had altered the course of their lives. Soon after meeting, they start a relationship. By the story’s end, the police are interrogating Will about Phoebe’s involvement with a Christian cult responsible for bombing an abortion clinic. Five girls perished. Will narrates the story in a retrospective attempt to analyze his relationship with Phoebe and their harrowing first year at college. He writes to Phoebe, whose fate is unknown, “You once told me I hadn’t even tried to understand. So, here I am, trying.”  

When Will was in junior high, his mother had descended into depression.  He then became a Christian. Not just any Christian, but an evangelical Christian who proselytized for his faith at Fisherman’s Wharf. “I thought I was chosen by Christ. Hand-picked to preach His word.” But Will stopped believing, dropped out of his Bible College and transferred to Edwards. There, his life feels hollow. 

Phoebe had been born in Korea, but had moved to Los Angeles with her mother. She became a piano prodigy.  Despite rave reviews, she had quit. “I realized I’d rather have no talent than just enough to know how much I lacked.” She and her mother argued about her decision. One night Phoebe was driving and accidentally drifted into an oncoming truck. Her devoted mother died.  It was a shattering loss for Phoebe; guilt compounded her anguish.  At Edwards, she hides her suffering behind a cheerful façade. 

Both Phoebe and Will had zealously pursued passions that had consumed their life energy and given them meaning. But the absence of those passionate pursuits, the loss of parents and the hiding of secrets haunt them. Phoebe moves in with Will and they experience both comfort and conflict.  Later Phoebe drifts toward John Leal, a half-Korean Edwards College dropout and leader of a cult. Leal has a murky past. He brainwashes vulnerable students to become “radical for God.” The specific focus of his pathology is stopping abortions. 

Phoebe and Will are flailing as they mourn the crumbled remnants of their young lives.  They receive some solace from each other, but no adults are available to advise them. A grief counselor or family therapist might have comforted them and helped them find their way forward. Instead, that role is taken up by the cult.  Phoebe fills her emptiness by joining Leal and his followers. With him, she receives both the punishment and absolution she seems to be seeking. Will doesn’t join but fills his void by obsessing about Phoebe and popping pills. Having just extricated himself from his evangelical past, he feels betrayed by Phoebe’s involvement with Leal and his radical Christian cult. But, Will reveals that he too is capable of violence. 

Kwon’s bold prose, elliptical style and vivid characters make this novel engaging and provocative. Her language is evocative yet sparse. She clearly has empathy and compassion for those who are broken and damaged. 

What gives this novel power is Will’s piecing together the factors he believes led to Phoebe’s participation in the abortion bombing. He reflects to the best of his ability. It would have been interesting if Kwon had set this story later. With the benefit of time and deeper psychological reflection, would Will have an even more in-depth view of Phoebe? Would he feel greater remorse for his role in the tragedy? The incendiaries in this novel are the lost and damaged students who take fateful steps down a violent path.  We may not forgive them, but thanks to Kwon we better understand them. 

Katherine Read blogs at readsreading.blogspot.com