The Burning - Hardcover

Norwood, Frank

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385313802 ISBN 13: 9780385313803

Publisher: The Dial Press, 1995

Synopsis

A rookie cop, a teenaged black mother, a pathological Vietnam veteran, a demoralized engineer, and a gang leader are swept up in an urban riot touched off by the death of an elderly black man guarded by the police. 35,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Untranslated street slang heightens the realism of Norwood's first novel, which focuses on moments of private terror during one night in the lives of ordinary people sucked into an inner-city riot. In an unnamed city, a bitterly sardonic white police veteran and his rookie partner attempt to safely abort an old black man's teetering tightrope walk across a clothesline strung above the heads of his cheering/jeering neighbors. Ignored, then enraged, the cop draws his gun just as the old man falls to his death. The crowd tears the cop apart and torches the police car as the rookie, disabled by an injured ankle, escapes to the suspect safety of an abandoned building. Media coverage spreads fear among the innocent and anarchy among the outraged. People act heroically and villainously at random: a savage gang leader spares a retarded 10-year-old white boy lost in the melee; the boy's beaten father is spirited to a hospital by a distraught black resident. A drug-addicted Vietnam vet hijacks a bus into the area and blows up a gas station, launching the riot into a major war; meanwhile, a 15-year-old black mother clings to her newfound religion and her baby while she talks the ungrateful rookie cop through the horrific night. As Norwood pins Asian merchants, white transients and black officials to the page without apology, blame or excuse, he yields insight into how such an event can come to pass without pretending to provide any answers. Though overwritten in patches, this is a powerful, memorable debut. Major ad/promo; author tour; British, translation, audio, electronic, performance rights: William Morris Agency.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The trend in books and movies recently seems to be a focus on the bleak, stark, ugly nightmarishness of life. First-time author Norwood hops on the bandwagon with a remarkable story guaranteed to shock, titillate, disgust, disturb--and keep the reader riveted from beginning to end. The scene is the inner city, where two cops provoke a massive riot when they try to break up a crowd of blacks watching an old man do tricks on a high wire. As fires burn uncontrollably and bombs explode across the city, Norwood's bleak and omniscient eye follows Larry, a weak, cowardly white cop; black teenager Arletha May, who has the voice of an angel; Ben, an out-of-work engineer with a retarded son; and J. D., a drug-dazed, burned-out Vietnam vet with a bizarre sense of humor. Norwood takes his benumbed readers on a horrifying tour through a city in ruins, forcing us to look within the dark recesses of his four characters' hearts and minds. This is not a book for readers who want fun, froth, and happy endings. But for those who aren't afraid to take a provocative and disturbing look at the people who live in modern urban America, talented newcomer Norwood offers a profound reading experience. Emily Melton

About this edition

• Publisher: The Dial Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0385313802
• ISBN 13: 9780385313803
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 293