Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 28, 1995                   TAG: 9505260077
SECTION: BOOK                    PAGE: G-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY CAMILLE WRIGHT MILLER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HORNIG LOOKS BACK AT THE UPHEAVAL OF THE '60S

This 42-page chapbook, White Eagle's first fiction publication, won the 1994 A.E. Coppard Prize for Fiction. Doug Hornig's story is set against the backdrop of Washington, D.C., burning as a statement of rage and pyre of grief following the assassination of "the preacher [who] walked out onto the balcony of his Memphis hotel room."

The narrator, Adrian, arrives at the house of friends to watch the burning on TV, a mechanism useful for diluting an experience too intense to watch in person. There, Adrian reconnects with Debra, a drug-addicted paranoid schizophrenic. After Debra nails her foot to the floor, Adrian follows her to the hospital, accepts her delusions as reality and undertakes to solve her problems.

Adrian's attempts to save Debra, his friend's girlfriend, are thwarted at every turn by Adrian's lack of power or knowledge. And, finally, he abandons her after being forced out of her institutionalized life.

In the end, Adrian writes, "I'd had some silly rescue fantasies. They died. Then there was a period of guilt, when I was convinced there were steps I could realistically have taken. This passed, too. I became resigned, accepting that I'd been hopelessly out of my depth. It was the only resolution I could live with. Slowly, the remaining feelings faded. My life began to revolve around other people."

His final meeting with Debra, who has had electric shock therapy and is now employed at a drug store, closes with Debra offering the '70s salute, "Have a nice day."

Although Hornig writes directly about Adrian and Debra and less directly about the political scene, for both subjects the writing is powerful, and demands that the reader be present and aware. We are moved from the assassination of the preacher, through the death of Bobby Kennedy, to the election of Richard Nixon. Hornig has trapped pieces of the '60s and given them back, carefully preserved.

Set in the era of protests and social movements, "The Wisconsin Avenue Waltz" serves as a thought-provoking metaphor for attempts to fix America or to fix others.

Camille Wright Miller is a sociologist who has taught courses in social movements.