SCOTLAND'S BURNING

by Nathaniel Burt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 14, 1953

A reflective, retrospective return to a year spent in a boys' school in Virginia brushes in the indistinct past and the undistinguished record of fourteen year old Tony Comstock. In this case, there are none of the quick intensities of Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, Comstock is lonely, solitary, self-conscious-""hesitantly unwanted"" and unable to compete with the physical superiority or sophistication of his roommate Lessiter Camp, of Sam- a fairly crass character, and of Breckenridge- socially unassailable and physically perfect. As fall gives way to the dreary monotony of winter, the rather negative discomforts of life at Dixon are broken by Tony's weekend in Baltimore and the meeting with Breckenridge's pretty sister; by the excitement of a prom; by the dubious activities in which Sam is engaged and which Tony does not fully understand; and finally by the fire which sweeps Dixon in which Breckenridge is killed.... A fragmentation of youth, which has an autobiographical accent and takes its sensitive imprint from its central character who portrays himself- and this particular point in time- with graceful precision.

Pub Date: Jan. 14, 1953

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1953

Categories: FICTION