David Margolick

I read this biography of John Horne Burns because I just read his most successful novel, THE GALLERY, which was considered the best novel of World War 2 or at least until Norman Mailer and Joseph Heller produced their tomes on the war. Burns' life was a sad one. He seemed to be mostly unfulfilled. He wrote one great novel that is still in print but the rest were either unpublishable or trash. He was a homosexual during a period when that was considered inappropriate. His homosexuality takes up much of this book. What I didn't like about the book was that it was a stringing together of his comments, letters and writings which doesn't make for a great story. Nonetheless I did finish the book which says something.… (mehr)