The topic is by no means extraordinary nor the social satire. In life is impossible to avoid conflict and regardless of the location of the planet where you live you will find it. So here the couple feel that their existence is boring and meaningless, but if we look closer the reason for their drama, it is never really brought to life by the author. It does not seem to me that she wants to denounce anything in particular about human experience in suburbia, or to open the mind of the reader to issues that somehow live hidden before our daily lives. The burning of the house is an empty act that leads nowhere. To some degree it was not even necessary for the development of the story. Nothing in the book rings true, and that is the problem, the book might be fun to read but it fails to move you or to provide any type of insight. As always the praises that we see from the critics are just part of a marketing show.