Customer Reviews

Burning Valley (Radical Novel Reconsidered)

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This novel tells the story of a young working class boy's developing conscience as he lives life out in a steeltown. While Benedict's dilemmas sometimes seem a trifle precious and overwrought, the author brings the character off in a way that endears the reader to him even while finding him sometimes annoying. This title should be of interest to anyone who enjoyed Thomas Bell's Out of the Furnace. It also deserves an audience from those interested in liberation theology.

BONOSKY'S BURNING VALLEY,


Moving to a new city in my mid thirties, without a job, and not enrolled in college, my wife and I found it hard to meet people and make friends. Thank God for the Carnegie Library! It was there that I discovered Pittsburgh's great literary luminaries: August Wilson, Jan Beatty, Lester Goran, Thomas Bell, and Phillip Bonosky.

As part of the University of Illinois "The Radical Novel Reconsidered," Burning Valley, originally published in 1953, pulled me in right from the first few sentences: " `I will be a saint," Benedict said. `I will live humbly all my life. I will be poor."' Growing up Catholic, I felt a strong connection with the main protagonist Benedict Bulmanis, an aspiring young priest and saint, though he seemed a bit too pious at times. Set in the 1920s in "Honey Bee Honey Bee Hollow (Duquesne), the novel Chronicles Benedict's moral struggle over the wrongs he witnesses being done to the poor Lithuanian steel workers like his father by the rich mill owners, the bankers and the Catholic Church, and what he knows and feels in his heart to be right according to his faith, which in the end leads him to embrace Communism. More moving and immediate than Out of the Furnace, it seems a must read and I was saddened not to see it displayed on local bookstore shelves.

What's more, is the novel's relevance to what is happening today: the continued exploitation of the working poor, newer and harsher immigration laws, and the further white-washing of history. Burning Valley is a testament to the human spirit, as well as the unending struggle that so many people face in an attempt to live a meaningful, happy life.

Bonosky, who now lives in New York City, has had a very interesting career and life. He is one of those writers that young, aspiring writers can look up to, as a writer who did not compromise his beliefs nor integrity, a writer and a man who spoke out when he needed to. He is one of those writers who should be praised and read over and over again.

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