Book Review: Burn Fortune by Brandi Homan

Burnt Stakes​

By Alex Carrigan

Recollecting one's teen years can be a complete mixed-bag. It's a lot of scattered events with almost no connection between any of them, it's marking the days with routines and vague aspirations, and it's about remembering how you spent those days obsessing or idolizing something odd in hindsight. That's not to say that everyone's teen years are a complete jumbled mess, but when looking back, it's the realization that some of the most important and developmental years of your lives were completely out of your control, and realizing that this is merely a sampling of your adult life. As someone who did virtually nothing with people his age, spent time working as a games attendant at a theme park, and was into reading Wikipedia articles for fun, it really dawns on how much that bizarre period of life has shaped me as an adult.

In her new novel, Burn Fortune, author Brandi Homan examines a series of events in the life of a girl named June. June is a small-town girl from somewhere in the 90's whose days are spent detasseling corn, practicing flag twirling, and just going through the motions of her everyday life. It's not until she begins to develop an interest in the work of actress Jean Seberg, particularly when she played Joan of Arc in the film Saint Joan, that her growth as a person really comes into play. Seeing an American woman who went overseas to star in movies, particularly one where she played such a revolutionary figure, makes the issues in June's life seem quite rote, from dealing with her boyfriend's issues to the general boredom and ennui of small-town living.

Homan's novel is composed in very short passages, described as a "novel-in-fragments" on the book's website. Each passage has a title, then describes a short event or some of June's thoughts. These fragments are broken into sections, particularly where June ruminates on a piece of Jean Seberg's work or the history of Joan of Arc. Homan's writing feels very authentic, as if we are reading scraps of a real-life diary. Some of these fragments are also recurring, dealing with dreams June has, as well as some changes in her life, such as when she ends a friendship or when her family goes through a crisis. 

It also helps to really show how much of the novel is about how June sees and reacts to the world. At times, we are merely to take June's word at face-value, but then we have to remember that this is entirely how she sees and views everyone. No one else is given a voice or a POV in this story, so while the novel isn't so much about whether or not June could be considered unreliable, it illustrates that her thoughts are entirely her own, and more importantly, read as the sort of thoughts and conclusions a teenager with a limited, but developing, worldview would have. Of course she'd have biases or skewed opinions, because to her, this is entirely within her reason of the world she knows.

Burn Fortune is a quick read, but it's quite an effective one. It's one of the most honest and developed narrative voices I've read in a long time, and Homan should be commended for how authentic she made her protagonist and her tale. As someone who has seen some of Jean Seberg's films and even visited her grave in Paris back in 2015, I can understand the obsession and passion that comes from identifying with a foreign cinema star and imagining how their life and their work can offer more to your own existence. For instance, I became so obsessed with Irene Jacob in Three Colors: Red that I use an image of her from that film in almost all of my social media branding. Much like June, that identification with a larger-than-life figure shaped my artistic self and my own identity, so it helps to make June feel more realized and relatable.

Burn Fortune is for anyone who ever tried to find that bridge out of their life through an artist. It takes the idea that someone who could be stuck in their boring existence and left to eventually burn out from its unchanging pit will find that theme, that idea, or that image that can help them break out. Much like June, it's for anyone who decided to be the one to start fires instead of burning in them, and from those ashes, something will hopefully emerge that changes everything.
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