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A review by bjerz
Robicheaux by James Lee Burke
3.0
I have been reading the Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke for over 30 years and have noticed that they have become more and more disheartening as the years have gone by. His latest, Robicheaux, is the saddest of all. The main character, a recovering alcoholic detective living in a parish near New Orleans, is thrice widowed, his third wife having died recently in a car crash. But this is not the only thing that the character grieves about. He sees pain and sadness, corruption and violence everywhere he looks.
Burke seems to have had his world turned upside down by hurricane Katrina and the human carnage that occurred afterwards due to ineptitude, institutional racism and the feudal society that reigns in Louisiana. He has Dave Robicheaux describe the aftermath of the hurricane and the hell on earth that was the Superdome: "...the power and water supply failed; toilets and urinals over-flowed and layered the floors with feces. The food in the refrigerators rotted. The heat and humidity and stench caused television reporters to gag on-camera...Black people who tried to leave the area by crossing the Danziger Bridge were shot by police officers. One of those who dies was a mentally disable man."
I love Burke's amazing ability to make you feel that you are in hot, humid Louisiana: "The humidity was eye-watering and as bright as spun glass, as tangible as lines of insects crawling on your torso and thighs." But his characters are all self-destructive, evil or stupid, or any combination of the three, and rarely in Robicheaux did I feel uplifted and comforted. I guess now is not the time for either.
Burke seems to have had his world turned upside down by hurricane Katrina and the human carnage that occurred afterwards due to ineptitude, institutional racism and the feudal society that reigns in Louisiana. He has Dave Robicheaux describe the aftermath of the hurricane and the hell on earth that was the Superdome: "...the power and water supply failed; toilets and urinals over-flowed and layered the floors with feces. The food in the refrigerators rotted. The heat and humidity and stench caused television reporters to gag on-camera...Black people who tried to leave the area by crossing the Danziger Bridge were shot by police officers. One of those who dies was a mentally disable man."
I love Burke's amazing ability to make you feel that you are in hot, humid Louisiana: "The humidity was eye-watering and as bright as spun glass, as tangible as lines of insects crawling on your torso and thighs." But his characters are all self-destructive, evil or stupid, or any combination of the three, and rarely in Robicheaux did I feel uplifted and comforted. I guess now is not the time for either.