Envious Shadows Read online



  Comments and reviews

  In Envious Shadows, R. P. Burnham has given us a full blooded novel, driven by plot, character and issues of racism, sexism, infidelity, the struggle to survive economically in a small Maine town and the overarching love that can redeem us from sorrow and loss. This is a book that will provoke thought, feeling and rage at hatred and inequity. Surely this is the most we can ask of any writer when we pick up his book.

  –Laurel Speer, poet and former columnist for Small Press Review

  R. P. Burnham demonstrates his knack for storytelling in his novel, Envious Shadows. He keeps the reader interested in the plotline while also managing to interweave a penumbra of moral lessons about love, prejudice,and judgment in a modern context. Envious Shadows is filled with a highwit and a talent for creating relatable and realistic characters. For those looking for a strong plot with an accompanying wisdom for modern life, Envious Shadows is a must-read.

  –Jesslyn Roebuck in identity theory.com web blog July 2006

  Envious Shadows is a deftly crafted, engrossing contemporary novel, one of those works that is not afraid to face the grim realities of life and the cruelties of society as well as the redeeming power of love... A beautiful work that depicts life in all its grim realities, Envious Shadows is a rewarding read.

  –Mayra Calvani, Bloomsbury Review

  Envious Shadows is a marvelous book. It is about a black and white relationship which has strength to resist the intermittent brutality of human nature. With the lightest of hands, the essence of your personality is present on every page, leading the reader forward toward an understanding of human nature as it should be. The book never lags for a instant, and it is full of realistic details on a wide framework of topics which range from dealing with the psychological integration of half-way house residents into society, the intricacies of the game of softball, the atmosphere of pubs, the challenges facing building contractors, the mindset of the KKK, to the correct planting of roses. There isn’t a pompous moment in it and it is loaded with quiet wit, with seriousness, with irony, and through it all there shines not only a knowledge of literature but a knowledge of life. … I was very taken by your last novel but I truly believe that Envious Shadows is even better, and that is as it should be. From Shelley’s poem on the first page to Millie’s soothing advice at the end, the book is truly a living work which encompasses modern dilemmas.

  –Susan Davey

  ENVIOUS SHADOWS

  by

  R.P. Burnham

  ******

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Envious Shadows

  copyright 2005 by R. P. Burnham

  Cover: Malevolence by William Blake

  #

  Who reigns? There was the Heaven and Earth at first

  And Light and Love;—then Saturn, from whose throne

  Time fell, an envious shadow ...

  Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, II, iv, 32-34

  *****

  Table of Contents

  Today and Tomorrow

  A Car, a Cottage, and the Persistence of Memory

  Dangerous Games

  Love and Hate

  A Gathering of Like-Minded Men

  Secrecy

  Refuge

  Live and Let Live

  Two Serious Conversations

  The Last to Know

  Meeting Secretly

  End of the Affair

  Snowbound

  Girls Night Out

  Losing the Way

  Roses

  Trapped

  The Fatal Shot

  It Doth Repent Me

  A note about the writer