James Lee Burke
Most people will probably give a different answer to the question of why they read particular books.
I read fiction to experience places and feelings that I’m otherwise unlikely to encounter. That’s why I like foreign books and historical novels. I generally don’t read Australian novels unless they’re historical.
Sometimes I read to see how a writer interprets something I’m familiar with. Today though, I’m writing about James Lee Burke and he definitely fits into the first category of providing a travel experience.
His web site gives this condensed biography:
“James Lee Burke was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936 and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast. He attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute and later received a BA Degree in English and an MA from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively. Over the years he worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, pipeliner, land surveyor, newspaper reporter, college English professor, social worker on Skid Row in Los Angeles, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, and instructor in the US Job Corps.”
I’ve read six of his books so far and they’re all set in Louisiana, mainly around New Orleans and a place called New Iberia.
It’s possible I may visit there one day, but it’s unlikely. If I do get the chance I almost certainly won’t get to experience the unique French and Cajun culture in the intimate way that Burke enables me to.
He’s an evocative writer. I feel that he is the main character in his books and I presume they are at least semi-autobiographical.
I was introduced to his work through a positive review in The Age for his latest novel “White Doves at Morning”.
I’m pleased I started with this book rather than his detective series, because it showed me that Burke is a diverse and powerful writer, economic in prose, tantalising, descriptive and educative. He leaves an indelible impression without having to moralise.
These traits are evident in his crime novels, but sometimes a writer can be stereotyped according to genre. Burke is more than just a crime writer.
White Doves at Morning is a novel of the American Civil War. It tells the story of Burke’s ancestor, a Confederate soldier named Willie Burke.
Willie is a reluctant hero. He fights not to support the cause, but because he identifies with his state and people.
This book isn’t a history of the war. Great battles and generals rate only a passing mention. It’s people that Burke writes about: a half-caste slave woman Flower Jamison who learns to read, a Quaker abolitionist Abigail Dowling who has union sympathies, Willie’s noble gentleman friend Robert Perry, a corrupt landowner Ira Jamison and his henchmen.
All characters are brought to life in a sensitive and graphic way. While reading I believed that I was in 1860s Louisiana.
My enjoyment of this novel led me to try the Dave Robicheaux detective series. I’ve read four of these: Heaven’s Prisoners, Dixie City Jam, In the Mist with the Confederate Dead and Purple Cane Road. I’ve also read Burke’s first book “Half of Paradise”.
Robicheaux is a reforming alcoholic. His father was a knockabout Frenchman who enjoyed bars and brawls, but loved and protected his family. He died in an offshore rig disaster when Dave was young. Dave’s mother struggled to get by and, as he discovers in Purple Cane Road, was killed by dodgy police because she witnessed a murder.
Robicheaux works as a police officer in New Orleans. He escapes the city stress to run a boat hire business at New Iberia, but circumstances return him to law enforcement in his local backwater.
His first wife left him while he was drinking and his second wife was murdered. I haven’t yet read the book where he meets his third wife Bootsie.
I’ve just finished Heaven’s Prisoners. It’s the second in the series and I should have started there, or with the first book Neon Rain, which I haven’t yet read. Burke doesn’t have to be read chronologically, but it probably would help to do so.
In Heaven’s Prisoners, Robicheaux rescues a little Spanish-speaking girl Alafair from a plane wreck at sea. He adopts her and loves her as a real father.
Robicheaux lives on the edge of vice and crime. He doesn’t mind using strong methods to get results, but he has a sort of moral code that separates him from the scum he puts away.
A constant theme is how police in this environment can easily cross the line and become as bad as the lowlifes they’re dealing with. Robicheaux manages to retain honor and decency in the face of decadence. Heaven’s Prisoners is the only book I’ve read where he succumbs again to alcohol.
There is underlying humor in these books too. Robicheaux’s private detective friend Clete Purcel is a lot of fun. His running feud with an underworld figure finishes in Dixie City Jam with Purcel ripping a bulldozer through the man’s house.
In Heaven’s Prisoners I enjoyed the irony in which Robicheaux, needing love and support, finished up caring for a scared orphan and a hooker on the run.
Burke awakened me to southern Louisiana’s French heritage. I’ve read since that French was the dominant language there until after the Civil War and survives in dialect form today in rural areas.
Burke’s characters identify with this heritage. It comes across too that Robicheaux and Willie Burke have no empathy with the darker racist side of Southern society. They respect the colored people in their lives and earn respect in return.
These books took me inside the culture of Louisiana and inside the minds of the characters. I enjoyed the experience and I’ll be returning for more.
If this inspires anyone to read James Lee Burke I suggest starting with White Doves at Morning, or beginning the Robicheaux series in chronological order with Neon Rain or Heaven’s Prisoners.
Burke’s web site is at http://www.jamesleeburke.com/
I'm a 41-year-old father of four working as a newspaper editor at Mount Gambier in South Australia.
July 10th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
the kind of books that we read is a reflection of our personality. as they say, you are what you read. i think this holds some truth. our interests define us.
plots that are sort of psychological are the winner, for me. they intrigue and drive me to dig deeper into the story. i also like plots that are unpredictable. the kind that hide a lot of surprises at the end.
books that are about social issues too are interesting..am sure everybody’s familiar of the immortal piece of George Orwell, The Animal Farm..love this book..Lois Lowry’s The Giver is one excellent piece of literature..