Frederick's Reviews > The Gallery

I read this on a Kindle. I am convinced I pay attention better when I'm reading a bound book, but this is neither here nor there. I will only say I'd have rather had a book in my hand, with pages I could have turned. You don't get a sense of when a book will end when you're reading it on an e-reader. Even if the page number is at the bottom of the screen, that is not a good approximation of seeing your progress as you read a book made of paper. In any case, THE GALLERY, John Horne Burns's 1947 bestseller about American soldiers in a city they'd liberated three years before, is powerful. Paper or Kindle, it is worth reading.
It is not really a novel, but I have to say it is something more than a themed volume of stories. Its chapters about individuals are connected by general thoughts expressed by an anonymous American soldier. Most of the chapters about individuals are from the point of view of any given American soldier, but this is not always the case. One chapter is from the point of view of a middle-aged woman from Naples who survives by running a gay bar. Another is from the point of view of a young woman who winds up working behind a counter at a US army dance club. These stories are very straightforward while, at the same time, surprising. Taking place mostly in August, 1944, in the ruined yet surviving social center of Naples, Italy, the overarching tone is ironic sorrow. This was the turning point of the war in Europe. Paris was liberated at the same time as the action in THE GALLERY, and parts of Italy had thrown off the German yoke - a serious Italian Resistance had weakened the Nazis in Naples at the end of September, 1943, and the Allied occupation began on October 1st. But THE GALLERY does not go into this history. There is no need. It is clear that Naples is officially occupied by the Allies when the book takes place and the town is a ruin after the bombings it has suffered under the opposing forces. THE GALLERY describes US soldiers at what passes for leisure. They are stationed in a ravaged city.
But of great importance is the fact that war itself has not yet ended in August, 1944. The soldiers await other battles. Italy is not out of the war yet. Naples is under the Allies, but regions to the North are not. The stories in THE GALLERY need to be read in order. The meditative, connecting passages are designed to guide the reader toward the book's conclusion. Phrases from earlier stories are repeated to emotional effect in later stories. The one phrase which occurs throughout, and quite often is "in August, 1944."
Highly realistic novels about World War Two came out shortly after the war. Norman Mailer's THE NAKED AND THE DEAD came out in 1948; James Jones's FROM HERE TO ETERNITY in 1951. Mailer is famous for gritty detail. Jones is especially good at acute observation. But John Horne Burns, largely forgotten now, was briefly lionized before either Mailer or Jones. Not a combat soldier himself (unlike the other two authors, who had the whole hand-to-hand combat experience) he nevertheless managed to convey the abject horror of war. His soldiers see the conditions the citizens of Naples live in. The soldiers are not free of misery either. A chapter about a syphilis ward is only lightened by the fact that these are among the first people on earth to be treated with penicillin. It is significant that a crucial chapter takes place OUTSIDE of Naples. The outer world impinges.
One amazing thing about THE GALLERY is its frankness about gay soldiers. While there is a chapter set in a gay bar, there are gay characters throughout the book. Burns is more realistic about this than almost any writer of his time. The fact that he was gay himself does not explain his realistic attitude, though. Many gay writers of his generation wrote negatively about gay life. This is not to say that Burns was trying to cause the reader to be compassionate toward gay people. He ASSUMES the reader is compassionate toward everybody. This makes him different from almost any writer I've ever read.
There was one chapter I did not understand. It is about a petty tyrant in charge of censoring letters. I wasn't certain what Burns wanted me to make of him. Parts of this chapter were brilliant, but I didn't get it.
I am not of the opinion that Burns was deep. But THE GALLERY is honest. That is a virtue.