The Hive

Burns%E2%80%99s oeuvre is frequently cited as %E2%80%9Cstrange,%E2%80%9D but that%E2%80%99s perhaps oversimplifying a world more thought-provokingly described as recognizably like our own, except for when it%E2%80%99s not%E2%80%94and it%E2%80%99s the difference between the two where Burns%E2%80%99s power to shine a light on the darker side of human nature lies. This is the second volume of a trilogy begun in X%E2%80%99ed Out, and as such has an unfinished feeling. We return to Doug, the protagonist, whose recounting of his relationship with a young woman shifts back and forth between the less surreal of the book%E2%80%99s two environments and another where his apparent alter ego works in a dreary factory/hospital providing books to its monster patients. Both scenarios occur in an eerie alternate reality whose visuals exude a sense of uncomfortable, riveting silence that fixes the reader%E2%80%99s attention to the tale%E2%80%99s odd events. Burns%E2%80%99s stark work operates on its own nightmare logic and as a result, flesh-crawling events spew forth in the most mundane of settings. Romance comics, misshapen mutants, reptile men, a nightmare of disembowelment that yields a fetal pig, photographic obsessions and more stake out their territory%E2%80%94the result will stick with readers long after being absorbed. (Oct.)