Books: Bohemia with Baedeker

THE BURNING MAN (428 pp.)—Stephen Longstreet—Random House ($4.95).

This latest specimen of "fictionalized biography," based on the yet unfinished life of Pablo Picasso, rattles along like a tourist train through the garrets and grandeurs of Bohemia. First stop, Spain: guitars, poverty, bullfighters, the inevitable gypsy temptress ("She kissed him. He kissed her. It was alive in him, and urgent"). Next stop, Paris: chimney pots against the sky, artist's life, nightlong arguments, more temptresses ("On the sixth day when Leah came to the studio he took her brutally in his arms. 'Damn you,' he shouted and gave her a long cruel kiss"). Last...