Book Review: The Day of the Burning by Barry N. Malzberg

 

The Day of the Burning by Barry N Malzberg

166 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October, 1974

I just read and reviewed a Malzberg book in the last month, so I will do a little bit of history and background as I normally do. I suppose you could be reading this review without having read my others so I am going to have to review some of that. If you are old school fan of the 60s and 70s new wave then I don’t need to tell you. It seems like the man published a thousand books so somebody was reading him.  

For a few years there Malzberg was falling out of the memory of the science fiction scene. As a lover of the weird and political SF, I didn’t hear his name until I was in a used book in Victoria Canada when I first heard of him. shout-out to the late great bookseller Robert Garfat who convinced me to buy Malzberg’s classic Beyond Apollo when I asked him if he had any Norman Spinrad.

Since that day in 2007, the amount of respect given to this incredible author has steadily increased. Anti-Oedipus Press has re-issued four of Malzberg’s classic novels and more are on the way. Author Laird Barron listed his story Transfer as one of his top ten horror stories of all time. Book Pilled the very popular Book-tubers has recently reviewed a few of Malzberg’s novels and called him one of his new favorite authors. In our small way, The Dickheads just recorded our third Malzberg episode, two of which are rare interviews this time, and we got him on Zoom! (watch-out for Dickheads on SoundCloud and YouTube for the new one.)

I don’t really think you pin down what a Malzberg book feels like to read. He was a surreal writer at times, who told us he would add rocket ships in his stories if they needed to sell. I would compare his writing to JG Ballard. The reason he is not as respected or considered high literature. It doesn’t hurt Ballard that Spielberg made a movie of his autobiography, and two major films based on his work. Malzberg has no Crash, Blade Runner or I Am Legend for the normies to say oh OK I know that.

The Day of Burning is not even as known in SF circles as Malzberg classics so I kinda chose it at random because it was short and I could digest it quickly before we had Barry on the Zoom call. It is not as biting as some of his novels like Beyond Apollo which is a scathing look at the space program and makes clear how insane the idea of going out into space is. Destruction of the Temple is a scathing look at American culture during the era when three major figures were assassinated in public. In contrast, The Day of the Burning is a funny book. It is not Douglas Adams funny, but it was certainly a comedy peppered with intense political messaging.

One of a couple of novels inspired by a few years working at a welfare office in New Jersey it is certainly a case of writing what you know. The main character is George who finds one of his co-workers Bowman just happens to be a Galactic Overlord. When he decides to reveal this they have a series of hilarious conversations.

“You mean in other words, you mean all along you’ve been an alien from another planet or universe on a mission of observation and now your going to come to the point and tell me what you’ve been after all along.”
“Don’t confuse planets and universes.”

Inspired by Barry’s day job making decisions on who got welfare benefits and not the Galactic Overlords sent Bowman to watch George and determine if the human race was worthy to live.  It all appears to come down to how he handles one family.

The absolute best part of the novel is the news reports from the “all-news stations” The rambling news reports say so much that I think that is the reason to read the book. Those chapters have a little prophecy going on even all-news network in 1974. I could three pages straight from 104-108 but let's just do this little tidbit because it is something we need to talk about.

 “The all-news station is nothing if not deeply involved with the human condition. They manifest human concern, a wide range of special interest stories competing with the Venus expedition for placement in the cycle of events. A panel has been convened in Oregon to discuss and evaluate the causes of rioting in the seven cities last month…”

The novel takes place in 1981 just seven years after it is published so no way anyone could foresee a future (even science fictional)  where our astronauts when be heading to Venus or Mars. I overthought it a bit – Is this a surreal alternate universe? I asked Barry and he shrugged and said, “I was adding rocket ships.” It is fine but it did take me out of the narrative just a little bit.
Even though he has the character in the first person narrative saying I know this is out of nowhere the very detailed sex scenes just really didn’t fit here.

The Day of the Burning is not the best Malzberg, but it is a fun and interesting read. Different and unique not the product you would read from anyone else. That said I don’t think it is one you should move heaven and earth to find. It would be a used copy and that doesn’t help Barry. So if you are wondering which Malzberg to read start with the titles published by Anti-Oedipus Press.