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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
One day at a time, easy does it, I told myself. Don't live in tomorrow's problems. Tomorrow has no more existence than yesterday, but you can always control now. We live in a series of nows. Think about now.
I have a couple of PI/detective series that I stay with and this series has been added to that list. I become easily bored with series' that rely solely on the case and much prefer a character study surrounded by a peripheral mystery. It's only the third entry but the writing has been great and Burke does a fantastic job of straddling the line between the character and the case. While Robicheaux isn't a PI, he once again is pulled into a case by a friend and after his adopted daughter is threatened he jumps in full force. The story moves between his hometown in Louisiana and some shady land deals in Montana.
His old partner Cletus shows up to add gas to flame, you remember Cletus right? Good cop gone bad, went crooked slow but sure, until he took ten grand to kill a possible government informer then split with all the money from the bank account he shared with his wife.
If you run into Lois, tell her I'm sorry for ripping her off. I left my toothbrush in the bathroom. I want her to have it.
And the whole time Dave is dealing with the heartbreak from the end of the previous book with Burke using a series of dreams/nightmares/hallucinations to work him over.
Good story, great character, great writing.
I'll end with this. Dave is thinking back on a favorite memory from his younger days.
I'll never forget that summer, though. It's the cathedral I sometimes visit when everything else fails, when the heart seems poisoned, the earth stricken, and dead leaves blow across the soul's windows like bits of dried parchment.
I have a couple of PI/detective series that I stay with and this series has been added to that list. I become easily bored with series' that rely solely on the case and much prefer a character study surrounded by a peripheral mystery. It's only the third entry but the writing has been great and Burke does a fantastic job of straddling the line between the character and the case. While Robicheaux isn't a PI, he once again is pulled into a case by a friend and after his adopted daughter is threatened he jumps in full force. The story moves between his hometown in Louisiana and some shady land deals in Montana.
His old partner Cletus shows up to add gas to flame, you remember Cletus right? Good cop gone bad, went crooked slow but sure, until he took ten grand to kill a possible government informer then split with all the money from the bank account he shared with his wife.
If you run into Lois, tell her I'm sorry for ripping her off. I left my toothbrush in the bathroom. I want her to have it.
And the whole time Dave is dealing with the heartbreak from the end of the previous book with Burke using a series of dreams/nightmares/hallucinations to work him over.
Good story, great character, great writing.
I'll end with this. Dave is thinking back on a favorite memory from his younger days.
I'll never forget that summer, though. It's the cathedral I sometimes visit when everything else fails, when the heart seems poisoned, the earth stricken, and dead leaves blow across the soul's windows like bits of dried parchment.
He's my favorite author. Read a Burke book and your in a dark theater by yourself surrounded and engulfed by his images. I've read them all but can only do so once every 3-4 months because in the end they are their message about the human condition is not hopeful.
It just seems to plod along. I guess I like a little more action. After Heaven's Prisoners I was expecting a good mystery, but this was tedious. Maybe the series gets better? Hope so.
It has been a long time since I read a book by James Lee Burke. I enjoyed this one - Dave Robicheaux is always a good guy - his style is not mine, but that is partly why I like him. Fun, light reading
Yup, that's why (even if I was late to the party, even if James Lee Burke appeared on my radar screen later than most) I keep reading these books. Sure, they're dark (noir?), brutal, depressing, disturbing, and ... periodically, graphically violent. But, at the same time, they're lyrical, almost elegiac, bordering on literary ... poetic (no, not necessarily), almost meditations. But most of all, they're compelling, riveting, addictive, and, ... I dunno, relentless.
For better or worse, when I pick one up, I want to keep on reading ... until I finish it.
At this point, I've read as much Dave Robicheaux as I have Hackberry Holland, the latter of which I originally found more appealing. But Dave has grown on me... I met Dave Robicheaux very late in the series (a much longer series than Hackberry has been granted) and was disappointed when I went back to the beginning to find that (duh, why should I have been surprised?) that Burke was not quite the master of his craft when he first introduced Dave Robicheaux to the reading public. A few books in, and it's pretty clear he hit his stride (many years ago).
Time will tell ... when I next return to James Lee Burke (which I will) ... whether I'll continue with Dave's saga or experiment with Billy Bob Holland. Either way, it's pretty clear that Burke will remain a fixture on my want-to-read list for the foreseeable future.
For better or worse, when I pick one up, I want to keep on reading ... until I finish it.
At this point, I've read as much Dave Robicheaux as I have Hackberry Holland, the latter of which I originally found more appealing. But Dave has grown on me... I met Dave Robicheaux very late in the series (a much longer series than Hackberry has been granted) and was disappointed when I went back to the beginning to find that (duh, why should I have been surprised?) that Burke was not quite the master of his craft when he first introduced Dave Robicheaux to the reading public. A few books in, and it's pretty clear he hit his stride (many years ago).
Time will tell ... when I next return to James Lee Burke (which I will) ... whether I'll continue with Dave's saga or experiment with Billy Bob Holland. Either way, it's pretty clear that Burke will remain a fixture on my want-to-read list for the foreseeable future.
Burke writes damaged people better than anyone, the flotsam and jetsam of humanity who nearly always have some redeeming feature. Not for Burke the black and white; only shades of gray. This, the third book in the series, introduces Dave's former partner, Clete Purcell, and a simply wonderful "loser" named Dixie Lee Pugh.
In this outing, Dave gets involved with the mob, oil lease scammers, Indian activists, a sociopath, and Clete's girlfriend, Darlene American Horse, and the story ranges from Bayou Teche to the Blackfoot Reservation in Montana.
In this outing, Dave gets involved with the mob, oil lease scammers, Indian activists, a sociopath, and Clete's girlfriend, Darlene American Horse, and the story ranges from Bayou Teche to the Blackfoot Reservation in Montana.
Sometimes I wonder if you can really like the Robicheaux series. It isn't easy witnessing a man struggle with his demons, both internal and external, to root for him and watch him both succeed and fail, sometimes in the same breath.
Dave isn't a simple person, which is one of the attractive aspects of him as centerpiece to a series. He knows his weaknesses, fights them and yet is unable to avoid following his pattern, like Sysiphus hauling the boulder again and again only to watch it roll downhill. He's been seeing a therapist since his wife died, and they have an oddly telling discussion:
"'Cut loose from the past. She wouldn't want you to carry a burden like this.'
'I can't. I don't want to.'
'Say it again.'
'I don't want to.'
He was bald and his rimless glasses were full of light. He turned his palms up toward me and was silent.'"
Beautiful.
Book three in the Dave Robicheaux series opens in a motel, Dave dreaming of the helpless night his wife Anne was murdered. Restless and haunted, he heads to an all-night diner and runs into Dixie Lee Pugh, former roommate, master blues singer, old-time rock-n-roller and dedicated drinker. They only spend a few minutes together, but shortly after, Dixie looks Dave up for help with a couple of thuggish business acquaintances. From there, Dixie's flailing, drunken attempts to stay out of Angola pull Dave into a world of hurt. As he asks a few questions on Dixie's behalf, he runs into his former partner Clete. Dave watches him drive away and wishes him a powerful blessing:
"Whatever you're operating on, I hope it's as pure and clean as white gas and bears you aloft over the places where the carrion birds clatter."
Dave almost breaks free of Dixie's situation when the thugs threaten Alafair; Dave's inner demons take over and he finds himself facing a murder charge. Freeing himself will mean digging deeper into Dixie's connections in Montana.
Burke weaves his trademark beautiful, evocative beginning, bringing the varied landscape of the deep south to life, from Louisiana to the edges of Texas. In fact, it's fair to say that the setting stands in for Dave Robicheaux's emotions, and it seems to be raining quite a bit in the bayou these days. Unfortunately, setting doesn't seem to work as well after they head up to Montana, the land of pines, mountainous geography and multi-colored streams. Memories of the south stand in instead.
There is just a touch of humor in this, the kind that makes me smile, albeit crookedly:
"But I had never bought very heavily into the psychiatric definitions of singularity and eccentricity in people. In fact, as I reviewed the friendships I had had over the years, I had to conclude that the most interesting ones involved the seriously impaired--the Moe Howard account, the drunken, the mind-smoked, those who began each day with a nervous breakdown, people who hung on to the sides of the planet with suction cups."
Once the story moved to Montana, I found Clete and Dixie rapidly took over the story with their extravagant personalities. I didn't mind, but if anyone is more flawed than Dave, it's Clete. Clete is no fool either, and is well aware he's Dave's stalking horse:
"'Why'd you keep partnering with me at the First District after you saw me bend a couple of guys out of shape?' He grinned at me. 'Maybe because I'd do the things you really wanted to. Just maybe. Think about it.'"
Character arcs and redemption go farther than I expected, and if the villain is a bit of a sociopath, he's a frustrated sociopath with resources and its no less frightening for it. Batist is well done and avoids both disrespect and pitfalls of the loyal support character. Alafair is written appropriately for a young child, and one of my favorite moments is when Dave acknowledges the foolishness of telling her to be brave: "She had experienced a degree of loss and violence in her short life that most people can only appreciate in their nightmares."
The first read was somewhat less than satisfying, perhaps because I was pushing the mood and the speed. Burke does not write thrillers, although they certainly have their share of violence and mayhem, and his stories are not conducive to skimming. Visual setting and childhood memories are as important as suspect interviews. The second time--largely accomplished on a comfy lounge chair in the sun--was far more successful and satisfying. I always want to visit the bayou after I'm finished with Dave Robicheaux.
Highly recommended. Note: it won Burke's first Edgar Award.
Four and a half, five stars.
Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/black-cherry-blues-by-james-lee-burke-or-blues-worth-singing/
Dave isn't a simple person, which is one of the attractive aspects of him as centerpiece to a series. He knows his weaknesses, fights them and yet is unable to avoid following his pattern, like Sysiphus hauling the boulder again and again only to watch it roll downhill. He's been seeing a therapist since his wife died, and they have an oddly telling discussion:
"'Cut loose from the past. She wouldn't want you to carry a burden like this.'
'I can't. I don't want to.'
'Say it again.'
'I don't want to.'
He was bald and his rimless glasses were full of light. He turned his palms up toward me and was silent.'"
Beautiful.
Book three in the Dave Robicheaux series opens in a motel, Dave dreaming of the helpless night his wife Anne was murdered. Restless and haunted, he heads to an all-night diner and runs into Dixie Lee Pugh, former roommate, master blues singer, old-time rock-n-roller and dedicated drinker. They only spend a few minutes together, but shortly after, Dixie looks Dave up for help with a couple of thuggish business acquaintances. From there, Dixie's flailing, drunken attempts to stay out of Angola pull Dave into a world of hurt. As he asks a few questions on Dixie's behalf, he runs into his former partner Clete. Dave watches him drive away and wishes him a powerful blessing:
"Whatever you're operating on, I hope it's as pure and clean as white gas and bears you aloft over the places where the carrion birds clatter."
Dave almost breaks free of Dixie's situation when the thugs threaten Alafair; Dave's inner demons take over and he finds himself facing a murder charge. Freeing himself will mean digging deeper into Dixie's connections in Montana.
Burke weaves his trademark beautiful, evocative beginning, bringing the varied landscape of the deep south to life, from Louisiana to the edges of Texas. In fact, it's fair to say that the setting stands in for Dave Robicheaux's emotions, and it seems to be raining quite a bit in the bayou these days. Unfortunately, setting doesn't seem to work as well after they head up to Montana, the land of pines, mountainous geography and multi-colored streams. Memories of the south stand in instead.
There is just a touch of humor in this, the kind that makes me smile, albeit crookedly:
"But I had never bought very heavily into the psychiatric definitions of singularity and eccentricity in people. In fact, as I reviewed the friendships I had had over the years, I had to conclude that the most interesting ones involved the seriously impaired--the Moe Howard account, the drunken, the mind-smoked, those who began each day with a nervous breakdown, people who hung on to the sides of the planet with suction cups."
Once the story moved to Montana, I found Clete and Dixie rapidly took over the story with their extravagant personalities. I didn't mind, but if anyone is more flawed than Dave, it's Clete. Clete is no fool either, and is well aware he's Dave's stalking horse:
"'Why'd you keep partnering with me at the First District after you saw me bend a couple of guys out of shape?' He grinned at me. 'Maybe because I'd do the things you really wanted to. Just maybe. Think about it.'"
Character arcs and redemption go farther than I expected, and if the villain is a bit of a sociopath, he's a frustrated sociopath with resources and its no less frightening for it. Batist is well done and avoids both disrespect and pitfalls of the loyal support character. Alafair is written appropriately for a young child, and one of my favorite moments is when Dave acknowledges the foolishness of telling her to be brave: "She had experienced a degree of loss and violence in her short life that most people can only appreciate in their nightmares."
The first read was somewhat less than satisfying, perhaps because I was pushing the mood and the speed. Burke does not write thrillers, although they certainly have their share of violence and mayhem, and his stories are not conducive to skimming. Visual setting and childhood memories are as important as suspect interviews. The second time--largely accomplished on a comfy lounge chair in the sun--was far more successful and satisfying. I always want to visit the bayou after I'm finished with Dave Robicheaux.
Highly recommended. Note: it won Burke's first Edgar Award.
Four and a half, five stars.
Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/black-cherry-blues-by-james-lee-burke-or-blues-worth-singing/