The Gallery

Burns, John Horne. "The Gallery", NYRB Classics, 2004, A Book Set in Wartime Amos Lassen "The Gallery" is important in that it was one of the first publications to deal with gays in the military and this was in 1947 when John Horne Burns published it. But Burns was 36 when he died and "The Gallery" was neglected. It is set in Naples during the occupation and is named for an arcade, Galleria Umberto" that suffered bombings but even so it was a meeting place. When it first appeared it was highly acclaimed when it and Burns was regarded as a hot new talented war novelist. Set amidst ravaged Naples at the end of the war. It involves an average American Joe from North America coming into contact for the first time with the so older southern culture of the Mediterranean, and how it influenced him. Though the setting is seedy, our main character is transformed by his relationship with a local prostitute who sold her body to make ends meet. 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. It is supposed that the novel is semi-autobiographical but we will never know how much is real. This novel might be considered semi-autobiographical as John Horne Burns served during World War II and undoubtedly drew inspiration from his surroundings. 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 who went to Italy and the rest of Europe not knowing the languages. I would like to have known what was being said, though. "The Gallery is not a novel but a series of vignettes that are connected but the fact that they occurred in Naples during World War II. I suppose it could be classified as autobiographical fiction if there is such a category. Some of it is boring but what is good is very good.

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.)

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...

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.