The Burning and Other Stories

by Jack Cady

Book by Cady, Jack

157 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Winner of Nebula, Phillip K. Dick, World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards.

Obituaries:
in Seattle PI
in Peninsula Daily News
in Seattle Times
from Komo News

Reviews

[Andy Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I took a writing class from Jack Cady at the University of Washington shortly after this collection of short stories was published. Cady was larger than life, fresh from book publication and writing awards, he relished his blue collar persona on a decidedly non blue collar campus, his anti-authoritarian, screw you attitude towards faculty politics and establishment in general endeared him to his students. I read his stories at that time with admiration. The trucker in the title story was a hero who reflected Cady himself, just as Hemingway's protagonists reflected Hemingway's vision of himself. The trucker witnessed another trucker's fatal accident caused by two middle class co-eds, yet another trucker took steps to help the injured trucker out of his misery. The story's theme centered on truckers as individualists, part of a band of bothers on noble missions encumbered by society's denizens who can't meet their standards. The theme continued in "The Forest Ranger," where a Cadyesque character is caught up in a San Francisco white collar rat race including long bumper to bumper commutes over a bridge, the climax of the story is the hero turning his car on the bridge during a stalled commute to block both lanes, throwing the keys into the water below and happily walking away. In another story, the Cadyesque character and his beautiful Native American wife go to outdoor concerts where another beautiful Native American woman catches their eye. They tell stories about her reflecting their belief that she is another kindred soul but at a later concert they see her with a man that doesn't meet their standards, they stop to intervene, to keep her from being drug down by this unmet man.
Reading these stories 50 years later was different. The Cadyesque characters have chips on the soldiers, needing to tell themselves that they are better than everyone else. The trucker's screaming at the co-eds faulting them for killing his friend seems off. The commuter's heroic stand of adding to the traffic jam on the bridge and walking away from the ratrace now seems to be a horribly selfish act, the intervention with the Native American's first date is worse than any of the snobberies described in the book.
The exception to this was the story "Play Like I'm Sheriff." There, the male protagonist was at a low point, traveling with little money and contemplating a failed marriage. A woman, similarly lonely, introduces herself to him while he's window shopping, she later explains she approached him because he looked as lonely and sad as she. They eventually go to her house for dinner, she tells of her failed marriage and they agree to role play as if they were a happy, long married couple. The stories explores the boundaries between loneliness, depression, and mental illness with tenderness and understanding

[D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Cady's first collection of stories is filled with realistic characters living their normal lives and coming to terms with their individual situations and conditions. Their stories are told ambigously, with no sermonizing or commentary. As a result, they stick in the readers mind as you try to figure out their decisions, and what you might do in their place.

Cady's writing is very interesting -- he gives just enough detail, and just enough information, but never TOO much. If you can track this book down, and you want to read something compelling, do it.

[Stefanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

i just couldn't get into this collection of shorts.

[Daniel Hausman]

Read too long ago, need to re-read. Had the pleasure of meeting him when he visited the Iowa Writer's Workshop when this book came out.