Customer Reviews

Burning

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I loved Le Divorce, which I found absolutely compelling and gracefully written. So, like many others, I went and read some of Johnson's other works; I bought Burning to reward myself for completing my last final exam. What a gyp. The book is clumsy, disorganized, lacking in focus. The characters are poorly drawn and unconvincing (and worse, so forgettable that it's hard to keep track of who's who), and the plot just meanders pointlessly. But you should read it if you want to become a professional writer, because if you compare this to Le Divorce you have no choice but to conclude that even the most unpromising works can give way to later triumphs.

This early novel by Diane Johnson uses as its setting the California upper-class housing development; its characters are the eccentric post-hippies and pre-yuppies who migrated there in the 1970's. The story covers the events of one day in broad social comedy that still contains seeds of incisive insights into the dynamics of marital relationships. It examines in a sometimes successfully comic way the Kafka-esque bureaucracy of child welfare services, the madness of some medical practitioners, the alienation of suburbanites, the disaffection of the drug addicted. The book is not as refined, subtle, or enriching as "Le Divorce," but then "Burning" was a product of an author nearly 30 years younger. Probaby best for ardent fans of Johnson.

This is one of the funniest books I can recall reading. The pretentious snobs,bimbos and quacks that personify Bel Air neuroses would make most of us gag. But given Diane Johnson's gift for wit and humor-filled dialogue this makes for one enjoyable book. Can you imagine what Doctor Laura would say?

Ms. Johnson would have made a passable mid-70's TV situation comedy writer. She is not a serious comic novelist and it is a sad circumstance that people regard her as a real writer. Our culture is in shambles. Shambles I say. Shambles.