Burning (Paperback)

~ Diane Johnson (Author) "The heat in September in Los Angeles turns everything brown except where people love and water their gardens at great expense..." (more)
Key Phrases: dangerous felon, sleep mask, Doctor Harris, Tinker Bell, Geoffrey Nichols (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Bel Air is a wealthy community nestled in the hills outside of Los Angeles. It is here, among the pastel stucco houses and palm trees, that Bingo Edwards, the New Age wife of an orthopedic surgeon, lives a sheltered and eccentric life raising chickens and box turtles. Her harmonious existence is disrupted when the local fire department arrives to remove the hazardous backyard privacy hedges which have protected her from the outside world. Uprooting the hedges exposes Bingo all too well to her neighbors, an unconventional Beverly Hills psychiatrist and his eccentric patients. She also finds herself in the company of strangers, particularly a magnificently handsome fireman who has made it his personal crusade to "service" many of the housewives on Bellagio Road. As the situation heats up for everyone, an enormous fire threatens to consume Bel Air and in the process, destroy Bingo's way of life.
Burning is part of a major Diane Johnson reissue program in Plume.
Diane Johnson's Le Divorce was a phenomenal success, topping national bestseller lists.
The thousands of new Diane Johnson fans gained with Le Divorce will eagerly receive this book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Plume (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452279836
• ISBN-13: 978-0452279834
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,518,324 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It's inspiring to see how far she's come since Burning., October 29, 1999

By	Victoria Pond (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Early Johnson, September 10, 2002

By	disco75 "disco75" (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Burning my drawers off with humor, April 19, 1999

By A Customer

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?