Review: John Horne Burns' 'Galleria Umberto' Captures Naples 1944 Before War
This article reviews John Horne Burns' 1947 novel 'The Gallery' (newly translated into German as 'Galleria Umberto'), set in Allied-occupied Naples in August 1944. The novel depicts the Galleria Umberto shopping arcade as a microcosm of wartime life, filled with American soldiers, local women, children, and wounded. Burns portrays soldiers spending their last day in Naples before moving north to fight Germans, including a lieutenant refusing to hide, a sergeant treated for syphilis with penicillin, and a satire on military bureaucracy. The review highlights the polyphonic structure of 'Promenades' and 'Portraits', and notes the novel's initial critical success but commercial failure in Germany. The article uses the novel to explore themes of despair, love, and survival in a starving but vibrant city.
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