From a Burning House: The AIDS Project Los Angeles Writers Workshop Collection.(Brief Article)

Edited by Irene Borger. Washington Square, $14 (224p) ISBN 0-671-53517-X

This anthology of writing by people with AIDS has the sad distinction of having the most wrenching Contributors' Notes imaginable. Since the workshop began in 1990, 44 members have died. The writing here ranges from the extremely professional to short fragments that carry very little weight, but most of it settles in the middle, with specific and personal autobiography. There is a sense, however, that showing off skills is not the point. Alan Erenberg recalls how his father arranged a "secret signal" (humming loudly) to warn his young son when the boy was engaging in what his father saw as girlish …