Burns Books

Rope Burn is a great book for all ages. My daughter, Jennifer thought that it was true in the fact that most children relate to not wanting to write stories for their teachers. I like that he overcame a fear by practicing.

I loved this book, it was heartwarming, and everyone should read it. It was a "Texas Bluebonnet Award" Winner. It deserved every single qualifacation that you need to be a bluebonnet! You'll absolutely love it! A MUST READ!

A boy of about 12 keeps a journal as part of a writing assignment. In the process he explores events in his life such as a gym class test, death of an older neighbor, the divorce of his parents, and his attitude towards writing. The book reads right along and was enjoyed by my 11-yr-old son.He said, "I wanted to keep reading it because it was interesting." One annoying aspect is the publisher's choice to use a typewriter font on cheap-looking paper. It did not work to capture the idea of a student's journal and detracts from the appearance of the book.

What an excellent book for any young person! It is especially good for a young person experiencing divorce. As an adult child of divorce, I could relate to Richard's feelings about the break-up of his parents. And as a teacher, I can see how students could relate Richard's feelings about being at a new school, making new friends, etc. I especially loved the ending - it gave great closure to the story and left me with a strong message...finding your voice in writing (or just as a young person) can be so powerful. A great read for a child or adult!

This book is about a boy his parents are divorced and in school he has to use a proverb as a story. And in gym class he has to climb a rope but doesn't know how. But with a little help, he may not have to worry about it anymore but then again he may!

Burns has produced a fascinating book and demonstrated that alcohol, as well as Americans' ambivalent attitudes towards it, has been an important subtheme in American history. Breezy and energetic, the book is well organized and moves briskly through many good stories of temperance wars. A fascinating read and a reliable historical reference.

This book has a perfect balance between in depth reaserch and entertainment. It is like Barbara Holland's "Joy of Drinking" with more in depth research. Burns does an excellent job of illustrating the joys of American spirits throughout our country's history. I found the book very enteraining, especially the passages about the founding fathers and the way they used to drink. It was very helpful with the research I was doing as well. If anyone has an interest in the subject or is curious about the roll alcohol played in our country (its a lot larger than you'd guess), then they should defineitley chose this book over the others.

The spirit of america described the important facts about the social history of alcohol in america and it does it with a lot of humur. If yuo are interested in broadning your knoledge it is wonderful. But if you are intersted in a thorough history that will help schoallars and atudent of the field, you should read Drinking in America by Mark E. Lender and James K. Martin which is written in a more formal fashion (but also easy to read).

"The Spirits of America" covers alcohol use in the United States from roughly colonial times to the end of prohibition, with some coverage of latter developments, such as Mothers against drunk driving. I enjoyed Burn's writing style.
I was surprised at how much drinking people in colonial times did, and how early in life they began.
Burns devotes much attention to the several waves of temperance and prohibition movements that began in about the 1820s and eventually culminated in prohibition.

Eric Burns does an awesome job on Fox News Watch and now he does just as good a job in this book. His fascinating stories about people like Thomas Jefferson are really entertaining. Who would think that the Supreme Court Justices were drunks! Probably a lot of people based on their rulings! lol

This book goes from the beginnings of drinking in America to the endings. It focuses on the big players and even some no names who I'd never have heard of if not for this book.

Even though Eric Burns is no scholar, he weaves an interesting tale. And he certainly deserves another Emmy for this one.

Having worked for several years in refugee health, this book, along with "Where there is no doctor" were staples of our field health libraries. I was incredibly happy to see the book on the shelves in our clinics on the Thai-Burma border, and feel that it provides really thorough basic information for women's health programs. I think it is a really good teaching aid for rural health workers- my only wish is that there were glossy full page anatomy pictures- but alas. . .

Great book! Highly recommend it! I particularly like that it is written in simple, easy-to-understand terms with illustrations. It provides basic but key information about women's health care -- Dalay Lawrence

I thought this book was wonderful because it not only addresses women's health in the reproductive realm but it also addresses the realities of women's health in developing countries: injuries due to overwork, too many children, violence, malnutrition, and also addresses mental illnesses. It also has a great section on FGM, AIDS, Sexual Violence, and Commerical Sex Workers. It integrates gender issues with traditional women's health concerns. I am dying to know when it is coming out in Spanish so I can take it down to Guatemala with me.

Tonight I turned the television on and was distracted by a little blurb on CNN. They were discussing tuberculosis, andit got me thinking about how one would diagnose/treat it in the absence of our current health care systems.

I decided this would be a good test for one of my birthday gifts from my amazon wishlist - a copy of this book. This is supposed to be a practical reference guide for female-oriented health problems. I picked it up and thumbed through it, and was distracted again by just how well-organized and useful the book is. It's cross-referenced in dozens of ways, it's written in plain language, and there are thousands (according to the cover, and flipping through it I certainly believe it) of simple explanatory drawings.

I picked a subject about which I know a few things to really test it out: pieces of placentas left in the womb after childbirth. This was a big issue for us when I worked at a large horse farm - after a birth, the placenta is expelled from the body (doesn't matter if it's a cat, a horse, or a human for the basics). You're supposed to carefully check it to see if it appears to be complete, and then weigh it for even more certainty, and then check the 'patient' over the next few hours/days to really confirm. This book covered all of that correctly, and even provided tables such that you'd know what it's *supposed* to weigh, and an illustration to show how to check the membrane for completeness. The next section was on how to tell if pieces had been retained - and then how to remove them in the absence of a real doctor/hospital. There was a point at which I saw the disappointing "if X is happening, see a doctor immediately." But then next to that was a page number. Flipping to that page, I saw "if there is no doctor, follow these steps." Simple instructions, illustrations, courses of treatments. A+ instructions. I could reasonably see someone who had no knowledge whatsoever of some of the techniques being able to figure it out using this book.

There are also sections on common, useful drugs, as well as little 'cheat sheets' on each one (and a simplistic, scaled down Material Safety Data Sheets) and details on how to give different types of injections. Again, complete with useful illustrations. There are even brief sections on psychological problems and crisis counselling. There are color-coded indices.

I am really impressed. If you don't have one of these, I highly recommend you get one. It's no substitute for real medical care, but I think it's an extremely useful reference, and would be good to have for any non-Monday-through-Friday-9-to-5 health questions.

I brought this as a companion to "Where There is no Doctor" for a trip to Guatemala. Althought parts are very helpful, I tended to refer to the other book for concrete help. Excellent info of family planning, breast feeding which is a must for health care workers.

After I read the reviews for this book, I immediately checked it out of our local library. My son loves anything that has to do with math, and we are always looking for books about the subject. I have to say I was disappointed in the book, and my son was bored with it. It is rare that he is not glued to a math concept book, but this one just did not do it for him. The repetitve verse, "...I am Amanda Bean and I count everything..." started to grate on his nerves to the point he said, "why does she keep saying that?" I am not sure exactly how this introduces children to multiplication because you never actually see Amanda figure out a problem that shows how to compute that type of problem. It would have been nice if the author had shown at least one problem being solved using multiplication so that it tied her "concept" to real world math. Much better books on the subject are Math Curse by Jon Sciezska (I have reviewed that one as well) or books by Greg Teng. My advice is go to your library and get the book before you make the investment in your own copy. I just can't imagine a child wanting to read the story over and over again.

This is an excellent book. It is a wonderful way to introduce multiplication to children. As a 1st year teacher I used this book to introduce a lesson on multiplication with my 3rd grade class. They loved it and it was very interactive. We stopped to talk about and solve the various problems throughout the book. Every teacher needs a copy.

I try to teach my six year old daugher math through children's literature, and this book rates highly in that area. She loves the story and I love how it introduces multiplication in a fun and easy to understand manner. The explanation of a "fast way to count" really clicked with my daugher. She asks me to read this book over and over again.

This is one of a genre of books wherein the beauty and elegance of a mathematical concept is revealed to the main character in a dream (others notables inlude MATH CURSE by Jon Scieszka and THE NUMBER DEVIL by Hans Magnus Enzensberger). This book is a marvelous way to integrate literature with mathematics and I have found it useful to aid in the introduction of multiplication to students in my 3rd grade.

This is a book that demands a review because of its sheer greatness. That said, it is not a book for everybody and presents almost impossible problems in reading -- because it is so entirely surreal it is facially illogical, self-contradictory, and ultimately incomprehensible. These are intrinsic issues and have nothing to do with Michael Glenny's brilliant and vital translation.

Superficially it is about five artistic friends in Moscow, who all may be the same person, or who may be free or in jail. The ultimate incomprehensibility of the book is an attempt to mirror the absolute suffering of the human soul under Russia's Communist regime, even if one was not in the GULAG. This is a world where there is no such thing as freedom, and jail is merely a technical difference. Yet people dream and hope. Naturally. Always. And strive and create, and try to laugh and love. And it all fails without freedom. And it never resolves.

Yes, the text is numbingly full of sex and booze and profanity. And it all only increases the pain of the protagonists. This massive novel is set in a little piece of time remembered by those who lived through it as "the thaw." You see, it seemed for a moment that when Krushchev came to power, things were going to ease up a bit. Maybe especially for artists and writers. The literary periodical Novy Mir got positively daring; Solzhenitsyn's Ivan Denisovich was actually approved and published. Maybe jolly old Nikita was of a different stripe. Of course, most historians now do not even write of any "thaw." Because it never existed at all. It was a false alarm, born of pain and longing, the way GULAG prisoners in Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece imagine it is a great day if it is 20 below instead of 30. So it never really happened, yet it was registered in a lot of people's souls. So it was real, in a deeper sense. Aksyonov properly relabels it: not the "thaw" but the burn.

The book would be impossible for anyone to read but for the humor. It is wacky start to finish, wackier than the greatest silent comedy and much in that style. The hapless heroes are all working on masterpieces they will never finish, and wait for the next time their fabulous American playboy pal Patrick Thunderjet will whoosh into Moscow complete with the very latest stereo jazz recordings. There is not even a way to put the hilarity of these pages into words, but it hurts to laugh although you cannot stop laughing. This is the saddest damn thing I ever read in my life, and up there with the most profound. Doubtless, for those of us who have always had freedom, in spades, there are dimensions and dimensions of this book we will never get.

No, if you don't like this sort of thing, stay away. You are fairly warned. But do not feel chastized, either. Literature is a funny thing, not even masterpieces are necessarily for everybody. We are all made differently. And this is the deepest truth denied by the totalitarian system the characters are captured in -- and which Aksyonov shouts out against in all his raucous glory.

"The Burn" attempts to be an encompassing, surreal novel about life in Russia during the 60s and 70s, but instead, the book has a confusing narrative that muddles who is speaking. Characters that are one dimensional and are interested only in sex. Aksenov includes at least 10 graphic depictions of sex in this 528 page overblown novel. It earned 2 stars instead of one because parts were quite amusing, and told the truth, and I do give him credit for that, but I cannot give him more than that, because I did not enjoy reading this massive novel at all.

While few fictional books stand the weather of time (in this case, the Cold War, its thawing before then warming into something entirely new), Vasily Aksyonov's "The Burn" has manaaged to, and I expect will always, endure. The author, whose mother was the famous and very courageous Elena Ginsburg who wrote of her prison experiences ("Journey into the Whirlwind"), was trained as a medical doctor and had merged into literary circles, encountering virtually everyone from Steinbeck to the Metropol before being personally exiled by Brehznev. In short, he is a Giant, a prospective for the Nobel. This book long considered his magnus opus, chronicles a group of friends, their experiences in the former Soviet Union and combines jazz, science, politics and very large questions. Astonishingly, it has most often been compared to Pynchon's "V" and, as such, the author writes in a very western and post-modern manner; if Gogol had endured the Cold War and completed his "Dead Souls" series this might be something of what it would appear. This book soared as a bombshell upon its release (its own screaming across the sky heard far), and should be immediately acquired by anyone interested in Russian literature.

Thomas Pynchon is the first writer that springs to mind after reading the first few pages of The Burn. Then slowly you discover that this incredibly eclectic panoply resonates with Laurence Sterne, James Joyce, J.P.Donleavy, John Barth, Ken Kesey, Phillip Roth, Saul Bellow. The Burn is undoubtedly the first truly serious effort by a major contemporary Russian classic to transcend the constraints of culture topologies and hermeneutics pushing the translator's job into the realm of the impossible. Should it be "translation proper", or "transmutation", or "partial tranformation" or some symbiotic balance between the three? To what extent the attainment of this serendipity could be enhanced by total immersion and participant observation? A simple example. In the first chapter of The Master and Margarita thirsty Berlioz accompanied by the poet approach a kiosk and are offered a lukewarm fruit lemonade. So far so good. Then Bulgakov writes: suddenly both were overwhelmed by the smell of a barbershop(translation is mine). Images and associations of what barbershop does it invoke? Downtown Moscow beauty parlors and saloons today are redolent with Estee Lauder and Ralph Lauren, so what does the reference really connote, could it be just skipped as something of marginal significance or even complete irrelevance? Indeed, the barbershops with cheap cologne that smelled like fruit lemonade have long been gone, but I still remember the tonsorial establishments of the early fifties and that provides an olfactory input to supplement and augment the semantics. This builds a springboard for free association whose crazy kaleidoscope takes me on a journey down the memory lane, and bingo, here I am ensconced in a chair in a barbershop that smells like Bulgakov's lemonade. The Burn is undoubtedly, a colossal enterprise,it's cerebral, witty, hilarious, extraordinarily elegant and scandalously bawdy, a seminal book by all standards. I have yet to read its English translation by the impeccable Michael Glenny to compare notes, so to speak. However I have a strong suspicion that no matter how brilliant the translation, only a reader possessing the highest level of cross-cultural literacy could make a connection. Which brings me to another interesting point, Conrad and Nabokov both wrote in English. Nabokov once made an interesting comment in an interview, he said(this is not a quote, just a paraphrase) that he could write a perfect description of a sunset or a crawling insect, however the problems arose if he were to ask directions to the nearest convenience store. The proverbial barbershop again!

Don't get me wrong this book is a great read with all the right information taken from all four corners of the fitness world. However, this is also marketed as the first of two phases....the second of which is meant to carried out on www.liveitordiet.com where if you check (as I did) there is nothing.

In short, great book, good education as to the complexities of nutrition and the effects it could be having on you, although not so good follow through.

What a wonderful book. Such insight and wonderful information presented in a fun and easy to read format. Donna and Dr. Snyder really hit home with their diet program... especially their information regarding food allergies. This is a must read for anyone who wants to live a longer, livelier and healthy life.

Review for Burn Fat for Fuel Fat to Fabulous in Only 28Days

My husband and I are both "into" this book and its"Live It or Diet System." We are both over fifty, and aware thatwe need to eat right,watch our weight , get more exercise - and weneed inspiration.Donna.Michaels-Surface inspires us in her new book"Burn Fat for Fuel.

With her example, her stories,and her greatsense of humor( one of her chapters is called " `A Little Behindin a Big Hurry' Lower Body Routine"), she is able to communicate tous in simple terms complex information.

As a breast cancer survivorand one of the many perimenopausal women of today, I personallyappreciate her explanations of cellulite and what todo about it ( HereI was thinking it was hopeless!), estrogen,testosterone etc. She alsohas inspired meto lift those weights and offers great instruction andphotos of howto do those lunges and other exercises correctly.

Since I have read this book my life has changed. I have lost inches and gained energy and motvation. Donna has done a great service and I appreciate the understanding that comes across in the book. It is fuuny and tells my story alot. Finding the foods that don't work for me has been a great help and I am able to finally get a good nights sleep. I could go on and on but theres too much to be excited about. The book is a must have !!!

The cover says it all. Fashion is Business! very straightforward and interesting from page to page.

I not only learned alot from reading this book but actually enjoyed the reading considering it's a text book. As someone who's trying to get back into the fashion industry after a 20 year hiatus; I feel that I have the knowledge I need to head in the direction I want to go now. I really liked how they used real companies for examples and at the end of each chapter they have an explanation of a job in the industry with comments from people in those jobs. There's lots of charts, lists of important contacts, calendars of events, etc that will be important to anyone starting a fashion business or wanting to find a job in fashion. It's worth the money if you can't afford to go to school for this.

This book was to be purchased for my "Business of Fashion" class. What a great purchase. After the class was over I didn't turn it back in to get money for it. I kept it knowing that someday I may want a reference guide. It was a great investment!

Very informative - yet just not what I would have imagined. It would terrific it told you how to create your fashion business from scratch.

I should have looked more closely. Great book but now I have to order the CDs from somewhere else. Don't let it happen to you.

This book has 75 tunes, arranged in Jethro Burns' special style, a jazzy and upbeat bluegrass. Not only does the CD play about 35 of the tunes, but there is always an interesting commentary/dialog between Jethro and Ken explaining the nuances of the tune, some special technique, or just a bit about themselves. They also demonstrate techniques, licks, chord exercises, and all sorts of interesting tricks, for example "Split-String Technique", "Flying Fingers Exercise", "Around the Horn Exercise", "Special Pull-String Technique". The book has 233 pages, but the CD and dialogue end on page 87. Listening to the CD is a must because there are so many nuances in the style that cannot be described by writing. For example, Jethro does a triplet grace note pull-off, and also adds a swing to most songs, with jazzy pickup strums on longer notes. I wish the CD could have covered more of the book, but I suspect it was limited to the original cassette tape length that was included in the first editions. In any case, the 75 tunes and 46 exercises can last you a lifetime.

Some hope for the pinkie challenged is that Jethro believes that you only need to use 3 finger chords, which leaves the pinkie free to do some special trick or just rest. He said he got some flack for it, but then it doesn't bother him. And listening to his music, you would not miss them. He does teach 4 finger standard chords in the advanced section of the book. But the chord charts at the end are all 3 finger, and you can pretty much cover the repretoire with those. It steps you from easier beginner/intermediate tunes and techniques to high positions, 4 note chord progressions, and all of the jazzy blues rhythm that you can handle.

There is so much packed in this book that you'll be using it for a very long time. The photos of Jethro, Homer, Ken and funny comics interspersed throughout the book add to its charm. I love it!

Great content, but if you are slightly vision impaired as I am you may find the TTT (Teensy Tiny Tablature) very hard to read.

For the uninformed Jethro Burns was half of the country comedy team Homer & Jethro. More importantly he was the most inovative mandolin player of our times.

It is often difficult to write a critical reveiw of a biography of a man that you deeply admire. However, I must be honest in my assessment of this book. It is informative and paints an excellent picture of Father Damian. The misfortune is that John Farrow needed an editor to edit his work before it was published.

Farrow spends far too much time describing the scenary of Hawaii, which takes away from the story of Father Damian. In a book that was over 220 pages, it seemed that less than 80% was directly related to Father Damian. The author also wastes time exploring alleged "unclean acts" by Father Damian. To quote page 220, "... if the story were a thousand times true, can't you see you are a million times lower for daring to repeat it." This reflect my feeling on this discussion. If even the author does not believe it, why include it in the book?

I only became aware of the story of Father Damian by chance within the last year and have taken great interest in it. Farrow's biography puts in perspective a life which had chosen to be martyred for the suffering lepers. Not only did he choose to be with the lepers, but he built their secluded island to a more respectable state and lobbied politicians to better the way of life for them.

As the author worked in Hollywood, it amazes me that such a story could not inspire a movie. This is certainly a touching and important tale for a wider audience to know, without a focus on the scenary.

I have read this book five times and I fully expect to do so once again. It is the true story of a Priest from Belgium who, in the late 1800`s, cheerfully accepted, even demanded an assignment which would cause people of lesser intestinal fortitude to run away: Molokai, a leper colony in Hawaii. His description of the sorry state of the people is enough to make one ill. Yet, through his own unconditional love for his fellow man, took it upon himself, to feed them, cleanse their disgusting wounds, bury the dead with his own hands, cousel them, hear their confessions and prepare them to meet their maker after death. It is a moving tale of a man who totally abandoned himself in favour of his God and his bretheren. This healthy, athletic man knew that by associating with these human outcasts, he would likely fall victim to this dreaded disease and, in fact he did. It would be extremely difficult to imagine any person giving more of himself for the benefit of others. By anyone`s definition, Damien DeVeuster, `Damien The Leper` was a true saint. His story should be required reading for all because it would be sinful to allow the lessons to fade into obscurity. Bless his lily-white soul.

This book tells the story/history of Father Damien of Molokai, a most remarkable man whose indefatigable work in a notorious Hawaiian leper colony gave him the international status of the Mother Theresa of his time. It is well-written, lively, and most readable; but it is also terribly romanticized, Damien IS saintly. Perhaps he was. Readers should take minor note that the main text was published originally in 1937 (according to an older edition of this book that I own).

I have always considered Father Damien one of my heroes. This book details him as a flawed human being but a crusader for his fellow lepers. The Holy Father has bestowed on Father Damien the title of Blessed and will be made a Saint when miracles occur in his name. He was the miracle for his people and for us all. Candace Serviss

First off, this is NOT a novel. It ia a series of vignettes or "Promenades" as the author styles them, related only by the fact that they occur in Allied-occupied Naples during WWII. Most of the vignettes involve alter egos of Burns himself. From the onset of the first vignette, where the GI has the shakes so bad that he drops the first three glasses of vermouth before he can manage to gulp the fourth down and start to control his tremulousness, there is no mistaking the fact that Burns himself is the basis for most of the main characters.

No problem with this. Autobiographical fiction can be wonderful stuff. But this book just doesn't cut it, because the vignettes are so blasted BORING. Prime example,"The Leaf", where the reader plods on through over 50 pages and nothing happens save for the recounting of the petty tribulations of the mail censorship office. The one exception is a story where something tragic does occcur between two American clergy, one a Baptist one a Catholic. If all the stories were as psychologically acute as this one and as masterfully told, I would be giving this book 5 blazing stars. But they're not.

Essentially, Burns mines the old Henry James theme of Americans losing their sense of exceptionalism in Europe. I kept being reminded of James's The Ambassadors in slapdash form.

I think the only type of person who can probably fully appreciate this book are those, like William Zinsser, who wrote the intro to my copy of the book, who were there at the same place, same time and for whom it is "their" WWII.

Otherwise, it makes for crashing dull reading.

The definitive appraisal of Horne Burns must be that written by the magnificent and irreplaceable Brigid Brophy, herself taken from this life (in her case by MS) long before her time - the Recording Angel sometimes makes some strange decisions about mortality. Brophy's essay on Horne Burns is available in the volume "Reads", most recently re-published as a (UK) parperback in 1989. Brophy's volume also will remind you of the greatness of Jean Genet and Ronald Firbank, in whose company Horne Burns emphatically belongs. "The Gallery" is brilliant. As Brophy puts it, " The ultimate irony at the end of all the perspectives of Horne Burns's imaginative world is a kind of bisexuality not between homo- and hetero-sexuality but between sexuality at large and death". It cannot be emphasized too strongly - Horne Burns is essential reading...

The Galleria Umberto is an arcade of shops and cafés at the center of Naples, Italy. In 1944, after the Allies had taken control of the country, everyone managed to make his or her way to this galleria: the Neapolitans to watch and to take advantage of the Americans; the Americans to get drunk, to find a trick or to think.

In "The Gallery," the narrator takes us on a tour of the galleria, showing us the sights, sounds and people who frequent the area. Each of the 9 stories gives the reader a glimpse in to the social and sexual practices of the American GI in 1944: from a censorship office run by an egomaniac to an Italian girl finding love in an America officer's club to a gay bar. These portraits are linked by the narrator's own experiences from Casablanca to Naples and his realization of what love and the war mean to him.

This novel might be considered semi-autobiographical as John Horne Burns served during World War II and undoubtedly drew inspiration from his surroudings. For example, the portrait titled "The Leaf" takes place in a censorship office; Burns also served in a censorship office while in Italy. It is a wonderful book to read. My only gripe is that many of the characters speak Italian or French, and what they say is not translated. Perhaps this works to show what it may have been like for the American soldiers, most of whom went to Italy and the rest of Europe not knowing the languages. I would like to have known what was being said, though. (This last part may only reflect the copy I was reading. There may be translations in other copies.)

Burn's "The Gallery" was highly acclaimed when it appeared in 1946; reviewers thought they had found a superb new talent and "war novelist" to praise. "The Gallery" is set amidst ravaged, end-of-the-war Naples, and involves an average American Joe from North America coming into contact for the first time with the softer, older southern culture of the Mediterranean, and the influence it has on him. The action centers around the Gallery Umberto I in downtown Naples, a great,, glass-topped Victorian arcade where in the various run-down bars and darkened trattorias everything is for sale, from cigarettes to liquor and women. Though the setting is squalid, the transformation worked upon the main character by his location and his relationship with a local woman forced to sell her body because of the collapsed economy is both absorbing and moving. This book is much more than a "war novel," it is a great piece of lyrical literature well-worth searching out. If you like Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" or Gore Vidal's World War II novel, "Williwaw," or Kurt Vonnegutt's "Farehneheit 451," try "The Gallery," it is more lyrical (something in the style of Tennessee Williams) than any of those (good as they are).

Unfortunately Burns' next book, "Lucifer with a Book," was one of the most talked about novels of 1947 - because it dealt with the naughty goings-on at an all boys' prep school - not something America could handle in 1947. Burns was savagely attacked by the same critics who had praised him as a war novelist. Burns left for Europe and quickly drank himself to death, never taking his place along the Mailers, Vidals, Bellows and Capotes of his generation as he deserved. The detached, independant reader will find "The Gallery" a wonderful, surprise read.