Customer Reviews (17)

If You're Not Familiar with Burke, Don't Start Here
"The Lost Get-Back Boogie," (1986), was the fifth novel published by American author James Lee Burke, writer of The New York Times bestselling Dave Robicheaux series.It preceded The Neon Rain: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries), first published novel in the Robicheaux series of southern noir mysteries/police procedurals."The Lost Get-Back Boogie," a crime drama, was, according to the author's website, rejected 111 times over a period of nine years; upon finally being published by the Louisiana State University press, it was nominated for a hugely prestigious Pulitzer Prize.

The protagonist of "Lost Get-Back," is Iry Paret, who, like the detective Robicheaux, is of Cajun ancestry, and is still reliving the nightmare of his wartime service-- in Paret's case, in Korea. He too has a drinking problem, difficulty with authority figures, and a tendency to violence.There's no question but that he echoes J.P. Winfield, a country music guitarist, and Avery Broussard, an oil rig roustabout, both of whom have a weakness for drink, protagonists from Burke's earliest published work,Half of Paradise.There's even less question that he is more or less an early version of Robicheaux.Paret's arc within this book even encapsulates the Robicheaux series, which was initially set in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the American Gulf Coast; then moves to the mountainous state of Montana. In this novel, the protagonist's tale begins in Louisiana, Gulf Coast country; he then moves to Montana.Paret situates himself, in Montana, in the Bitterroot River valley, near the Swan Valley. (BothBitterrootand Swan Peak (Dave Robicheaux, No. 17) will turn up as titles in the later Robicheaux series.)

We meet the young cajun Paret, a country music guitarist, as he is being released from Angola, the notorious Louisiana state prison.And, more than anything else, it sometimes seems to me, in Burke's work, we'll enjoy some of the most beautiful, knowledgeable writing ever committed to paper about the flora, fauna, geography, and human occupants of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, now so much in the news.This area is more or less Burke's home turf: he was born in Houston, Texas in 1936, grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast, attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute; later received B. A. and M. A. degrees from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively.

However, a jailhouse friend of Iry's, the jazz musician Buddy Riordan, calls him to Montana, and there he goes.And I'd be the first to admit that Burke describes the flora, fauna, geography, and human occupants of Montana beautifully: his descriptions just lack the passion and power of his Gulf Coast work.At any rate, Buddy's father is the first of the old guy environmental nuts, pursuing their agendas without taking into account the jobs of their neighbors, whom we will meet in Burke's Montana work.Needless to say, it makes the Riordans locally unpopular, and from that bad things start to happen.

I found the lengthy descriptions of drinking and drugging a bit tedious after a while.The dated jazz hipster slang was even more so: endless descriptions of a person as a "cat," too much of "daddio;" and why oh why did Iry and Buddy call each other "Zeno?" Nevertheless, Burke gives us virile and vivid prose in this book, and unleashes a powerful sucker punch of an ending that I didn't see coming.

Over the years Burke worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, a 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 U. S. Job Corps. His work has twice been awarded an Edgar for Best Crime Novel of the Year. At least eight of his Robicheaux novels, including the more recent Jolie Blon's Bounce, Cadillac Jukebox (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries), and Purple Cane Road (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries) have been New York Times bestsellers.Truly, he's worth reading, tho "Lost Get-Back," Pulitzer nominee or not, may not be the place to start.

The Lost Get-Back Boogie
I was so happy to have found a James Lee Burke that I hadn't read yet and this is quite an early work of his.Absolutely excellent.A long-time fan, I cannot praise his work enough.None of the characters are ones who appear in later books, but those familiar with Burke will recognise traits and types. I was amazed to read that Burke had such difficulty in finding a publisher for this book originally.Those who have not read any of Burke's books yet, you will find this is a great start and I am certain this will not be your last!

Burke's Mainstream Masterpiece
James Lee Burke began his career writing mainstream fiction.The Lost Get-Back Boogie is (with To the Bright and Shining Sun) his mainstream masterpiece.Short-listed for the Pulitzer, it tells the story of Iry Paret, a Korean War vet with a string of (mostly self-induced) bad luck.Paroled from Angola, he travels from Louisiana to Montana to work for the family of an old prison pal, Buddy Riordan.Essentially, he leaves his own dysfunctional family and dysfunctional situation for Buddy's.In the course of the novel he must make choices which bring him to personal independence, adulthood and some measurable degree of happiness.The constituent elements of nearly every Burke novel are here: lush description, violence, the temptations of drink, the need for personal redemption.This is not crime fiction per se, but there is a great deal of crime here.Fans of Dave Robicheaux will see elements of Dave in Iry (and a few elements of Clete in Buddy).The book is strong in its constituent elements, but very subtle in its influences.Iry struggles throughout the book to complete his song ('The Lost Get-Back Boogie'), a personal memoir of the good life in Louisiana.He must bring his imaginative life into synch with his day-to-day emotional life and he cannot complete the song until he completes his own (painful, quietist) redemptive process.This is a beautiful book.Highly recommended.

Tone Poem
THE LOST GET-BACK BOOGIE by James Lee Burke was nominated for a Pulitzer prize for fiction. Fine literary prose writing in commercial fiction is a rare achievement that is Burke's forte.
Ex-convict Ivy Paret heads to Montana to find a new life for himself and his music. What he finds are complex relationships mixed with hatred, alcohol insanity, and betrayal.
New friends and old enemies keep pace with his efforts to regain his life and the music in his soul.
James Lee Burke is a fine read, who continues to deliver pleasure book after book.
Writing as a Small BusinessSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelUnder the Liberty Oak

It can stay lost
After pages and pages of descriptive phrases of the flora and fauna from Louisiana to Missoula, Montana we finally arrive.We arrive to endless cigarettes, Camels, Lucky Strikes, roll yer own and pot.This is mostly accompanied by many six packs of beer and booze of various brands.The stench of unwashed bodies and the nasty odors of jails prevails.Tiresome adjectives and adverbial phrases, which were interesting the first ten novels, are now old.You'd think an English professor could pick up some new ones from his students.Who cares about any of these shiftless characters.
I, for one, am putting down this book and taking a bath.
This not one of Burke's best.
... Read more

Product Description

Few writers in America today combine James Lee Burke's lush prose, cracking story lines, and tremendous sense of history and landscape. In Cimarron Rose, longtime fans of the Dave Robicheaux series found that the struggles of Texas defense attorney Billy Bob Holland show Burke at his best in exploring classic American themes -- the sometimes subtle, often violent strains between the haves and the have-nots; the collision of past and present; the inequities in the criminal justice system.

Heartwood is a kind of tree that grows in layers. And as Billy Bob's grandfather once told him, you do well in life by keeping the roots in a clear stream and not letting anyone taint the water for you. But in Holland's dusty little hometown of Deaf Smith, in the hill country north of Austin, local kingpin Earl Deitrich has made a fortune running roughshod and tainting anyone who stands in his way. Billy Bob has problems with Deitrich and his shamelessly callous demeanor, but can't shake the legacy of his passion for Deitrich's "heartbreak-beautiful" wife, Peggy Jean.

When Holland takes on the defense of Wilbur Pickett -- a man accused of stealing an heirloom and three hundred thousand dollars in bonds from Deitrich's office -- he finds himself up against not Earl's power and influence, but also a past Billy Bob can't will away. A wonderfully realized novel, rich in Texas atmosphere and lore, and a dazzling portrait of the deadly consequences of self-delusion, Heartwood could only have been written by James Lee Burke, a writer in expert command of his craft.Amazon.com Review
Actor Will Patton gives a quirky performance in James LeeBurke's intricately layered story. Following his earlier novel, Cimarron Rose, Burkereturns to Deaf Smith, Texas, offering his reluctant hero, defenseattorney Billy Bob Holland, another shot at redemption. Representing alocal loser caught in a web of lies, Holland faces Earl Dietrich, anunwelcome newcomer whose money, influence, and condescending attituderub the lawyer against the grain: "There was nothing directlyaggressive about Earl, but his conversation always had to do withhimself, or what he owned." Patton narrates wonderfully, using theslow scratch of his voice and expert pacing to unravel Burke'smodern-day mystery. Accentuated with musical transitions and subtlesound effects, the excellent narration and evocative writing renderHeartwood an intriguing and enjoyable listen. (Running time: 5hours, 4 cassettes) --George Laney ... Read more

Customer Reviews (48)

Heartwood
One can sometimes become so familiar with characters from earlier novels that it becomes difficult to seperate one from the other.One is not too sure what novel is currently being read.Adding to this dilemma is the plot, which seems to have a bit of a problem of seeming to parallel already used situations and experiences.

I wondered if Billy Bob Holland is more believable a character than Dave Robicheaux.Are the legal and personal involvements of Billy Bob realistic? Can any one character have so many challanges to face and survive them all? Does he have enough belief in his client's innocence that he would expose the railroading attempt by the husband of a woman he still loves? Can he overcome the grief he still experiences when he thinks of the friend he accidently killed? The plot thickens as he becomes more involved in betrayal, greed, love, and then murder.Billy Bob has more on his full plate than one can imagine.All in all I was left a little short of breath as I waded through all these machinations. Sorry to say, but a little tiring in the long run.

E.J. Walden, author of "Operation Snow Owl"

Intellectual Book Noir
If there is a better storyteller out there alive today other than JAMES LEE BURKE then he or she hasn't yet surfaced with enough buoyant validation to lay claim to the title.
BURKE shows us the dark side of life with everyday smiling monsters and offers up redemption and salvation through the efforts of struggling self-scarred saints. His evil characters are so gut-twisting frightening that you don't just lock your doors at night before you go to bed- you nail them shut! More than that BURKE is the poet as writer offering up short, brief descriptions that leave you reeling with thought long after the page has been turned. Amazingly he does it with good ol' boy characters whose perception and depth exceed any of our own surface level skimming into the faux intellectualism wading pools we sometimes wallow in.
I liked HEARTWOOD but then I like all of his books( including the westerns and the short story collections) which is why I give him a five star review. There is writing for entertainment and then there is writing as an art. BURKE somehow manages to accomplish both. Good for him but better for us.
So what's next, Jimmy L.?

I See A Movie Franchise Coming...
...Billy Bob Holland reminds me of the southern Sheriff played by Bill Paxton in "One False Move" or Chris Cooper as the Texas Ranger in "Lone Star". Or Gary Cooper in those 40's/50's westerns.

'Course, in Lee Burke's Texas, murders and the overall evil men do take on quite a different flavor. *Quite* a different flavor. A Latin gang member is murdered by a lethal drug which has been punched in his face during a so called friendly boxing spar. A wildcatter initally accused of taking bearer bonds--Billy Bob's client--finds his mother's body exhumed and in his pick-up truck out in a dark and dreary field; this is a threat from Big Earl Dietrich to comply with some kind of land development deal with a promise of big resources...he wants IN, but Deitrich would rather just muscle his way in. The wildcatter is married to a blind Indian spiritlifter, who murders an intruder to her home so efficiently and thoroughly it seems like it was done in a mode other thanself defense. The Big guy's son seems to have some scandalous problems with his sexuality and Billy Bob has somehow gotten a dose of a rare Asian jungle poison. Add to the mix some insane prison escapees, an able assistant, his son Lucas, and a lil fishing buddy and you have quite an intriging stage for mystery.

Billy Bob Holland himself keeps hearing voices, seeing visions inspired by his dead Rangers partner, LQ Navarro. Whoooo-boy! Would this be a wild movie for a director to take on!

My take on why Lee Burke goes to extremes on describing Deaf Smith and parts surrounding is that it makes his mystery more realistic and if he describes every iota of this countryside-- how it is hot on certain days, rainy on others, what kind of vegetation clings around, if there's a quicksandy, mildewy swamp around---maybe that can help rationalise why each character has his own strange way. An environment that varied and extreme is likely to harbor varied and extreme individuals.

Anyway, this is a great mystery with superb setting and mood. And its so intense and real you can feel the horseflies whizzing at the back of your neck.

San Antonio heat
Billy Bob Holland, attorney, is pitted against an apparently materialistic and immoral "entrepreneur," Earl,who happens to be married to the beautiful woman who deflowered Billy Bob, years prior.Earl's son by a previous liaison, Jeff, is a chip off the old block.Tagging alongside are two Chicano "gang bangers," actually more low riders than gang bangers, Ronnie Cruise (note how he anglicized his name, maybe that's a fad in San Antonio?) and a loco guy named Ramirez who gets boxed to death later in the book.In fact, of these four, only Ronnie remains standing, with Billy Bob, when the final bell rings.There are other women, including Esmeralda Ramirez, who is variously a college student, Jeff's wife, Ronnie's girlfriend, and the girlfriend of Billy Bob's son, not in that order, however.Then there's a corrupt, racist, fat sheriff (what would a Southern town be without one?), and various "white trash" figures who cross back and forth over the criminal line as forces carry them.Well, the result of all this, in my humble opinion, is a three-star book.As others on this website have pointed out, there's a lot to wade through for the action that's delivered, maybe a little too much attention to minor detail.But does this really differ much from Robert Parker describing what his private dick had for breakfast, lunch and dinner?Or from Robert Crais telling us what the sunset in Santa Clarita looked like as the police and FBI surround an upscale single family residence housing three kidnappers?Not really.So, there's something here, but you might have to wade through some of the slower parts, skim it or skip it.Billy Bob's encounter with his deceased crime partner, his ghost, that is, is actually rather interesting, because how often do you get anything even bordering on the metaphysical in this type of fiction?Diximus.

Come on James Lee, This is ridiculous!
I have never written a negative review about a book purchased in Amazon but I am now going to make an exception. The "Billy Bob" series is unbearably overwritten, cliched, and filled with gratitious violence, endless racist references, and chapters that seem always to end with a pompous striving for fine writing. I know Burke can write but these stories are just ridiculous. The female characters are impossibly remote, almost as if they were trapped in a Western novel, the characters speak to each other with mock formality ('sir' is used even when someone is being threatened with emasculation), and about every third chapter one finds a "food" interval: tubs of chicken are devoured, buffalo steaks with blueberry ice cream are washed down with iced tea on the front porch, and for lunch tacos with an iced mug of Lone Star are slopped up at the Mexican cafe on the square.These people must weigh 400 lbs.

It's almost as if Burke said to himself: this is the way to make me 'sum' real money: testosterone threat chapters, followed by by inconclusive encounters with the athletic female private investigator and former corrections officer or with a former high school conquest now married to a rich and corrupt oil man, and then the food feasts followed by riding around the Texas Hill Country on a horse, all three mixed in with random encounters with escaped convicts, cretins borne with severe birth defects, and failed evangelists, all of whom seem to be 'river baptized.'Oh, I forgot the bottomless corruption by knuckle-dragging law enforcement officers. Sprinkled throughout, just for effect,are interludes where Billy Bob, a convert to Catholicism and former Texas Ranger who executed drug mules in Mexico and boasts of it, every now and then drops into church with his youthful sidekick. As most drug mules in real life are poor women with heroin stuffed up their privates, Billy Bob must have been steely hard as a Ranger. Now he is a lawyer who is a graduate from a night law school, perhaps St. Mary's in 'San Antone.' Oh by the way: Who says San Antone but in novels like this or in bad songs?

I grew up in San Antonio and spent a lot of time in the Hill Country and I live in the southwest today; I am sure something like these people can be scrounged up here and there and indeed anywhere, but putting "nigger" or "porch monkeys" in the mouths of the bad guys so many times or clubbings with ballpeen hammers down in the basement seems calculated to draw readers in who secretly enjoy the guilty pleasure of reading this kind of stuff. This kind of fiction is to remind us that the South won the Civil War, especially the redneck, racist, and endlessly ignorant American South. And boy hidy, does it sell!

In Heartwood, you could actually take out a good deal of this ridiculous filler: tone down the racists references because the reader gets the point, take out the food chapters, let Billy Bob actually have a regular and steady sex life like most of the adult world, cut the 'Texas Chainsaw' style violence down to a minimum, quit trying to put Southernisms into everyone's mouth every third sentence, and edit out the dud literary flights, and the upshot would be a fairly decent and interesting plot and story about a failed rodeo rider and his lawyer. But then who would buy it, I suppose Burke would say.But I would ask Burke: is making scads of money so important that you write down to people like this? You are a far, far better writer than this. How about writing a serious novel about Texas today, capturing what is happening to San Antonio and Fredericksburg and the like, given the California (or Hollywood) invasion? Even then you can throw in some clubbings, and some scenes where people are burned to death by tires filled with gasoline dropped on their heads, while their relatives watch. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (60)

Garage sale buy
The first part of the book is very enjoyable to read with snappy dialogue and humor.It reads quickly.However, this trait is lost in the middle and end.I agree with the other reviews that talk about his writing being disjointed and does not flow at times.I'm glad I only paid 50 cents for it.This author has won several awards which I don't quite understand why.Am I missing something?At 600 pages, Tree of Smoke, was too long.I've come to the conclusion this author just likes to hear himself write.I met him at a book signing.He was nice enough to sign my books but he's definitely not someone I'd hang around with on a friendship basis.Nor am I likely to read another of his books.Maybe our personalities are just different.

A Delicious Wacky Noir Crime Story
Jimmy Luntz is sort of an antihero who seems to do everything wrong and have it turn out, well wrong. He sings in a barbershop quartet, is with his group in Bakersfield when he's confronted by a thug named Gambol who works for a bookie named Juarez. Seems like Jimmy has a gamboling problem, seems he has a problem paying on time too and Gambol is about to take Jimmy on that ride nobody wants to go on.

However, Jimmy gets lucky, shoots Gambol in the leg (which only made him mad), steals his Cadillac and heads for the hills, but before he gets there he meets hard drinking, Native American Anita who is an easy lay once she hits the hooch. This is good for mostly unlucky Jimmy, cuz no way would he ever get a babe like Anita in the sack otherwise.

Also, Anita is in big trouble. Seems her hubby stole two point three million dollars and framed Anita for the crime. She wants the money and what's more she wants to get even. She wants hubby and the crooked judge who sentenced her dead.

Meanwhile Gambol teams up with his boss's ex and is starting to fall for her, but that doesn't mean he doesn't still want Jimmy six feet under for shooting him and stealing his car. And there's a whole bunch more in this wacky novel. This is crime fiction at it's very best.

nobody move
am i the only one that thinks its a ripoff to buy a
a book that has no ending?it was written for playboy.did they just cancel his contract or what? stupid stupid stupid. dont waste your money. buy a complete book.

Great Summer Read!
As a longtime fan of Denis Johnson - I read "Angels" when it came out - I'm a bit surprised so many people knock this book. Personally, I think if you read "Nobody Move" for what it is - pulp - you can't help but appreciate a book like this. This highly visual novel has a strong and engaging plot that moves quickly and cinematically and the characters that inhabit it are suitably sleazy and full of contempt for mainstream society. Like Elmore Leonard always advised writers, Johnson leaves out the stuff a lot of readers often skip over. If you're a fan of Elmore Leonard I'd wager you'd appreciate "Nobody Move," for the simple fact that it tells a story and it tells it very, very well.

They move. We just don't care.
Nobody Move would work on the screen well enough, and I assume that was the intent.As written fiction, it is limited by its focus on the empirical -- how things look, how characters move, what they say, etc.All the noir tropes are in play but so much so that it seems you've read it before.Or rather, you've seen it before. Although I did like the bit about bikers having a rally in Bolinas, I suppose before all the dotcom dough moved in.
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Product Description

James Lee Burke's new novel finds Detective Robicheaux far from his New Iberia roots, attempting to relax in the untouched wilderness of rural Montana. He, his wife, and his buddy Clete Purcel have retreated to stay at an old friend's ranch, hoping to spend their days fishing and enjoying their distance from the harsh, gritty landscape of Louisiana post-Katrina.

But the serenity is quickly shattered when two college students are found brutally murdered in the hills behind where the Robicheauxs and Purcel are staying. Drawn into a twisted and dangerous mystery involving a wealthy, vicious oil tycoon, his deformed brother and beautiful wife, a sexually deviant minister, an escaped con and former country music star, and a vigilante Texas gunbull out for blood. At the center of the storm is Clete, who cannot shake the feeling that he is being haunted by ghosts from his past -- namely Sally Dio, the mob boss he'd sabotaged and killed years before.

In this expertly drawn, gripping story, Burke deftly weaves intricate, engaging plotlines and original, compelling characters with his uniquely graceful prose. He transcends genre yet again in the latest thrilling addition to his New York Times bestselling series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (97)

The Parallel Universe Bar & Grilled
I've just finished reading the entire series in order - from Neon Rain to Swan Peak.I had already read them as they came out, but decided that due to a dirth in reading material, I'd spend the late winter walking with Robicheaux into Spring.

WHEW!Man, I'm tired.Over the years, I've quoted Burke-via-Robicheaux at AA meetings, tacked up favorite Clete & Dave-isms in my office, and a friend of mine and I have discussed the books at length.I'm a fan - a very dedicated one - and have preordered The Glass Rainbow: A Dave Robicheaux Novel.When I lived in the middle of nowhere for several years, Burke's Robicheaux was my defacto AA Sponsor, whether he knew it or not.I read each new book with hunger, and many a long night was spent not drinking because Dave was showing me other ways to get through a day.He still does.Now, with all that in mind...

If you read them as I did, back to back non-stop, patterns begin to emerge that you (I) kind of glossed over when read the first time.To wit:

Dave hates Republicans, and distrusts any member of the clergy who isn't Catholic.He also assumes that everyone in an upper tax bracket either killed, owned, or abused people to get there.Several of them have crippled wives, cruel wives, or stupid ones.And don't get him started on the Federal Government, George Bush, prison gaurds, or prosecutors.In Dave's world, gangbangers have more morality and humanity.

I'm not suggesting that Burke Tivo's Chris Matthews and Keith Olberman, or spends his down time writing hate mail to Sarah Palin when he isn't throwing darts at pictures of the Bush family.However, as he marches his family of damaged humans through the putrid landfill of man's inhumanity to man, .45 at the ready, he does tilt hard against even social conservatives.For some reason, they are all either terribly misguided, morally bankrupt, or wantonly cruel to those who don't think as they do.Have a problem with Helen Soileau's bisexuality?You're a cretin, you express yourself as such, and you are in for an ass-whuppin'.

In short, Dave is guilty of everything he hates about his enemies.He's judgemental to the point of violence, and quick to stereotype your God-forsaken soul.If he doesn't have the stomach to take you down, he'll unleash Clete or one of your evil peers on you, and your undoing is as creative as it is crushing.His only real nod to acknowledging that even liberals can be - well - choking weeds in the otherwise beautiful human landscape - is when he dismantles the occasional pompous college professor or neighborhood do-gooder.

His attempts to rewrite history so that we can all better understand, say, the Confederacy, is depressing.It really was all about slavery, Dave.No one is saying there weren't good people otherwise on both sides of the North/South line, but being the apologist for those who felt they had the right to own slaves and would kill to keep it is a bit shallow, to be kind about it.

I love the stories and the characters overall, and always will.They kept a LOT of my own "snakes in their baskets" through the years.Burke's creations are head and shoulders above any mystery writer out there in many ways, and Dave is a good soul, if not a really harsh one.I'd have him and Clete for dinner with my family anytime, and if in the end Dave wanted to tell me that I was a disingenuos hypocrite, while Clete eyed me sadly because I voted against Obama, I'd apologize for not having fresh mint leaves for his Dr. Pepper, then I would tell him he was alright.

Bring Dave and Clete HOME
I love and I've read all of James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux mysteries...WHEN THEY ARE SET IN NEW IBERIA, LA.His descriptions of his surroundings are part of what I love about his books (even though, sometimes it IS hard to imagine these old guys fighting like young Steven Seagals).I just don't get it...Swan Peak was just like all the others except he's changed the scenery, but I just couldn't imagine Dave and Clete doing the things that they usually do, in Montana.If this book HAD been set in New Iberia, I suspect I would have given the book more of a chance, but I just can't get with this renegade Louisiana detective in Montana.I just want James Lee to bring Dave and Clete back HOME.

Better than "Moon for Red Ponies", but far from best
I give this 3 stars because it is still a cut-and-paste like his last book I read, but this one is a *little* better. If you have not read JLB books before, do NOT get this one. The series has been going on a long time, it makes not a lot of sense if not read in order, and the earlier ones are so so much better.
Why not 5 stars?
- The characters are old now and timeline make no sense. They were kids in the 1940s and evidently STILL have not recovered from serving in 'Nam. This book is set in 2007. Can you imagine a 70 year old +/- psychotic Nam vet and semi-rogue cop going into a biker bar, kicking as5, and walking out with the girl?
- In an earlier review, I wondered why Clete always ends up in bed with a bad-guy wife or girlfriend and the evil rich guy's wife is always ill or crippled. This book hardly gets going when Clete is in bed with the bad guy's wife, bur this time the evil guy is the crippled one ROFLMAO!
- Speaking of evil rich guys, you cannot be rich and not be evil in JLB's world.
- All the vastly overdone descriptions of the landscape are as overdone as ever.
- Characters STILL smell like testoserone like every other book.
- Troyce Nix, Iraq veteran and torturer at Abu Ghraib, somehow becomes a "founding officer" of a contract prison and proceeds to rape and brutalize inmates. This guy ends up being a good guy??? Say what?!?
- The dialogue can get really really bad when he tries to deal with people NOT born in the late 1930s. Double Puke-O ..........????

Good Read!
In this newest book the Louisiana crime fighters have moved to s new state.Clete Purcel and Dave Robicheaux now
call Montana home. They have plans to fish and relax in their new homw state. The state of Montana is shattered when two college students are found murdered. Clete and Dave become the target of a cunning and vicious oil tycoon. Ridley Wellstone and his goons keep coming into the picture and providing problems. They are always one step ahead of the law. Clete has always been a suspect in the plane crash that killed Sally Dio a hoodlum from Galveston. Mix into this story line Jimmy Dale Greenwood a former singer who has escaped from prison by cutting up Troyce Nix a part owner of the prison. Jimmy Dale's former singing partner is also in play. She was Jimmy Dale's love interest, Her name is Jamie Sue Wellstone who has married into the Welstone family. One question that sticks out is whether or not Sally Dio is dead or alive. All of this comes to a smashing conclusion. Be sure to read this book.

ANOTHER ONE TO RECOMMEND
Reading a J.L. Burke novel is like visiting old friends.The main characters are always solid and the author easily includes references to other books without becoming confusing.I am a true fan of Burke's writing even though the plots are similar - if not predictable.He incorporates poetry, philosophy, theology, and prison slang in a masterful way.These are books that I usually don't want to put down but also don't want to be over.After all the development, as is often the case in this genre, the climax and resolution occurs in a couple of paragraphs.Maybe life is like that.The epilogue was especially appreciated in weaving the loose ends. ... Read more

Product Description
On the Road chronicles Kerouac's years traveling the North American continent-from East Coast to West Coast to Mexico-with his friend Neal Cassady, "a sideburned hero of the snowy West."

Read by Will PattonAmazon.com Review
A 50th anniversary hardcover edition of Kerouac’s classic novel that defined a generation

Few novels have had as profound an impact on American culture as On the Road. Pulsating with the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, illicit drugs, and the mystery and promise of the open road, Kerouac's classic novel of freedom and longing defined what it meant to be "beat" and has inspired generations of writers, musicians, artists, poets, and seekers who cite their discovery of the book as the event that "set them free." Based on Kerouac's adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose four cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naïveté and wild abandon, and imbued with Kerouac's love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up. This hardcover edition commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of the novel in 1957 and will be a must-have for any literature lover.

Celebrating 50 Years of On the Road

In three weeks in a Manhattan apartment in April 1951, Jack Kerouac wrote his first satisfactory draft of On the Road as a single, 120-foot scroll. On the Road: The Original Scroll prints the text of this remarkable literary artifact in book form.

Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think): John Leland, author of Hip: A History, argues that On the Road still matters not for its youthful rebellion but because it is full of lessons about how to grow up.

From the back cover of On the Road: The Original Scroll: Jack Kerouac displaying one of his later scroll manuscripts, most likely The Dharma Bums

Kerouac's map of his first hitchhiking trip, July-October 1947 (click image to see the full map) Original New York Times review of On the Road (click image to see the full review)

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Customer Reviews (20)

narration is top-notch
Will Patton is riveting and wonderfully lyrical as he reads this great work. Definitely perfect for a long road trip.

Jack Kerouac writes like a drunken 13-year-old
This is the story of two guys guys on speed who take endless road trips back and forth across the country for some reason. Its rambling, repetitive, and pointless. The only reason its even this coherent is because it was heavily edited.

Driving down I-40 is not a mystical experience.

nice gift, wish i got it
i bought this as a gift for a friend.i have read on the road, and it was an amazing story, i didn't read this edition though.my friend thought it was super cool, and is now taking it with him this summer during hikes.

Great read.I got hooked on Kerouac when I read this book.
I first read On The Road about 10 or 12 years ago.Once I read this book I wanted to read them all.I have yet to get thru all of them but Im almost there.I can this book is one of his best that Ive read so far.He's a writer that likes to break the rules of writing and he doesnt seem to care either.Its a great read for anyone that's true rebel at heart.His search for the American Dream is unparalelled from anything else Ive read.

Reading this book also lead me to read the work of (Allen) Ginsberg,(Bill) Burroughs and (Neal) Cassady(who plays Dean in this story)to name a few.

Destination: Move
Author Jack Kerouac (in the character of Sal Paradise) narrates this love story about two brothers; well, not quite; it's about two sojourners, no,OK, see there's these two polar opposites who've fallen victim to "IT" (you know IT!IT!) . . - aw hell it's about a free spirit (real life Neal Cassidy in the character of Dean Moriarty) burning his life away searching for TrueExperience (a.k.a The American Dream?) and sucking the brotherly, devoted, and always forgiving Sal Paradise through that vortex with him.Crack the book, and join the frenetic and exuberant world of the "Beats"!Marginalized by the mainstream, and perpetually broke, members of this post WWII subculture lived in pursuit of spiritual, sensual, and intellectual enlightenment, their energies fueled by optimism, wanderlust, and, pretty much, a liberated joy of living.The story and the language, especially the language, tugs at us, and bends us toward that search ourselves, but we really can't go; our lives are too wrapped up in fluctuation avoiding conventionalities, or maybe we're just milquetoasts who retreat to live out our days at a safe distance, looking in, and never daring to leave our banal existence, leaving it up to Sal the narrator to tell us that "the things that were to come are too fantastic not to tell."We are the "they" in Dean's analysis of our problem: "But they need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiney, their souls really won't be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry . . ."Dean advises "The thing is to not get hung-up", and Sal clarifies the book's anthem, explaining that the main characters were "leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one and noble function of the time, move.And we moved!"Pre-historic man developed the wheel, industrial age man harnessed propulsive forces to spin the wheel, and twentieth century man laid continent spanning ribbons of concrete to enable his free spirited kinsmen (represented by Dean Moriarity and Sal Paradise) to exercise that "one and noble function."We can expect that the aspirations of future man will be no different.On The Road lays open and bare before our eyes the true hard-wiring at the core of our human self, and what we see is that glorious radioactive white light of irreverent individualism; and it's hard not to stare, despite the danger.When the control rods were passed out, they somehow missed Moriarity; "You spend a whole life of noninterference with the wishes of others . . . . What's your road, man? - holyboy road, madman road, rainbow road, guppy road, any road.It's an anywhere road for anybody anyhow."

On The Road is rich in other characters of the "Beat Generation", including for example William S. Burroughs in the character of Old Bull Lee and Allen Ginsberg as Carlo Marx, and the story doesn't wince from informing us of the roles played by personal relationships, drugs, and alcohol in the life fabric of the Beats.Actual American road trip experience in the jazz drenched era at the close of the 1940s inspired the stream of experiences painted onto the pages of this book.From a distance, we may view a life of continent hopping travel, unfettered with responsibility, as the magnetic stuff of myth, discovery, and "kicks."Under the microscope of Kerouac's pen, these charms happily survive, though somewhat bruised by the real human experiences and consequences of naiveté, dependence, relationships, self-doubt, hardship, and the need to forgive.

I received Penguin Audio's On The Road, skillfully narrated by Will Patton (and spanning nine CDs), from my daughter for Christmas."Something to do on your commute," she said.Yes, I did chew off a long commute when I moved here in 1981.Ninety minutes one-way.But somewhere in the first chapter, I found myself "completely in there with all the terms and jargon," and it was actually quite disappointing to run out of listening time at the end of the commute, chapter after chapter day after day.I'll confess to inhaling this story three times while "on the commute" over the following weeks.In the process I zeroed in on several dozen key passages--gems each.For example, there's Sal's unapologetic description of people who interested him, the only ones for him being "the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time," and the glimpse into Dean's frantic jumble of a brain with his statement that "We're really all of us bottomly broke.I haven't had time to work in weeks."I kept notes on these finds, and considered what it would take to create a sort of audio synopsis of the book - you know, some dialog backed with appropriate music.But nothing worked; not blues, not soul, especially not rock; not even jazz.And finally it hit me, as you could have told me from the beginning, that the language of this book is jazz - you can't back music with music: the book's dialect is its own soundtrack!I dismissed the whole idea - just go with the book or CDs as they are; they're perfect.

As I write this and consider today's tarnished economic landscape, I wonder about the American Dream; has it gone the way of the dinosaur? Kerouac may have come to that sullen conclusion over half a century ago.But he kept that thought to himself, and instead vocalized a glimmer of optimism for his friends, and for us, with his observation "Old Dean's gone, I thought, and out loud I said `He'll be all right.' "
... Read more

Product Description
“America’s best novelist” (The Denver Post ) brings back one of his most fascinating characters— Texas sheriff Hackberry Holland, cousin to lawman Billy Bob Holland—in this heart-pounding bestseller.

In a heat-cracked border town, the bodies of nine illegal aliens—women and girls, killed execution-style—are unearthed in a shallow grave. Haunted by a past he can’t shake and his own private demons, Hack attempts to untangle the grisly case, which may lead to more bloodshed. Damaged young Iraq vet Pete Flores, who saw too much before fleeing the crime scene, and his girlfriend, Vikki Gaddis, are running for their lives. Sorting through the lowlifes who are hunting down Pete, and with Preacher Jack Collins, a Godfearing serial killer for hire, in the mix, Hack is caught up in a terrifying race for survival—for Pete, Vikki, and himself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (111)

Just too much
I am a big fan of James Lee Burke's writing - beautiful, descriptive, introspective - and always feel his books are too short, leaving me wanting more. That is not the case with Rain Gods. While the writing is as terrific as ever, it's like eating too much dessert - just too much of everything - too long, too descriptive, too introspective. The story is compelling and the characters fully developed, but the book has more meaningful looks and silences that "speak for themselves" than a spaghetti western. The book is a satisfying read and is wonderfully performed, as always, by the terrific Will Patton who always brings the characters to life, but I beleive this is a rare occasion when I would have preferred the abridged version.

Rain Godsby James Lee Burke
Bought this book for my husband he loves James Lee Burke and his read all he can by him.

A bit different, but very very good
I've been a fan of James Lee Burke ever since he'd written about 2-3 Dave Robichaux novels. I never went back and read the early stuff, mostly because I don't like general fiction, as a rule, and what early tries I've read by favorite detective novelists have been disappointing in the past. I guess I may have to change my mind, and go back and read some of Burke's early stuff.

What's been interesting as I read Burke is how he's evolved as a writer. The prose is eloquent and descriptive, almost poetic, while the author has a way of constructing dialog that makes it clear that the people conversing are actually talking past one another. The violence, when he brings it into the story, is usually sharp and short and obviously terrifying for the participants. Of course his characters are usually wounded beasts, upset with the course of events around them and dogged by a deep-seated guilt about their pasts. Usually, there's some sort of racial element to the guilt, and of course a social aspect also. One other evolution: as the author has gotten more accepted, and tastes have changed, the books have gotten longer. The first couple of Robichaux novels were 250-300 pages; the current book is 650 pages in length.

So with this book the plot is rather derivative of Cormac McCarthy. I didn't read "No Country for Old Men", but I did see the movie, and didn't think much of it. The protagonist seemed essentially powerless in the face of the evil of the main villain, and the violence was to my mind essentially pointless. "Rain Gods" is similar, but takes a different path to deliver its punch. Instead of an older sheriff wandering around cleaning up after the bad guy, in this instance the protagonist is a sheriff in his early '70s who has been everywhere and seen a lot. Now he's got a crazed serial killer in his county, rampaging around with a Thompson submachinegun, first killing a bunch of illegal immigrant prostitutes, and then killing (or sparing) other people who cross his path. As the book progresses, Preacher Jack Collins (the villain) becomes more and more eccentric and crazed, while the protagonist Hackberry Holland, becomes more weary and at the same time determined to track down his nemesis. There are other villains and Hack has a sidekick (a younger woman who's in love with him) but these two characters more or less dominate the novel.

I really enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes this sort of book or writing.

GRITTY EXCITEMENT
Burke is one of my favorite authors and this book did not disappoint.In his excellent descriptive (and sometimes poetic) style, the reader is introduced to a hot, dusty part of Texas as the setting for an intriguing chase story.The initial scene fades into the background as the tale weaves together the lives of hero and villian.Read carefully as some of the important events that connect the characters are only briefly touched upon.Without them, it may be difficult to keep the reason for the plot straight.

As in other books, Burke adds a hefty dose of philosophy and morality.In this book, there is an underlying theme of redemption amongst sociopaths and pimps.The reader is confronted with the possibility of forgiveness of an escort service owner as he tries to rectify his life in order to save his family.The arch-villian is also treated with a peculiar mix of grace and hatred as he becomes the protector of the innocent - even if he uses twisted reasoning.The reader is challenged with the thought that the hero law-man and the hired killer are opposite sides of the same coin.This all makes for an exciting, interesting, and at times a book of complex conflict.It is worth the read.

Rain Gods
My husband and I were both quite disappointed in this repetitively plotted, rather dull book. We love this author so were doubly disappointed in this book....wait for the paperback if you must read this. ... Read more

Product Description
“When I was a boy, my pa dowsed to earn extra money when we had a lean year. And when he put the branch in my hands for the first time, I felt a burning inside me because I had the gift, too. Just be thankful I didn’t hand that gift down to you.”

Amos figured it was probably best not to tell his father that it was too late.
 
What would you do if you knew you had a special gift—a sixth sense—that was passed down from one generation to the next? A gift that could help people in times of need, but one your father often saw as a trap. Would you use that gift? 

This is the story of Amos Kincaid, the dowser’s son.  ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Epic Frontier Life Tale of the 1800s
Reason for Reading: I love frontier life western historical fiction and the dowsing aspect caught my eye.

It seems strange to call a book with just over 300 pages an epic story but that really is the best way to describe "The Water Seeker". It is the story of a family starting with the meeting of the mother and father and ending with their child married, with his own youngster. The main character is a boy who we meet at birth and he grows to manhood, but for the most part of the book he is a young teen and in a way this is his coming of age story. But even though the boy may be considered the protagonist, his father shares that position equally, plus the story is just as much about the adults who surround the boy and their lives that I often forgot I was reading a YA book. Which makes me recommend the book as much to adults as to teens.

Amos Kincaid's father, Jake, is a dowser but he hates the "gift" that was passed down to him from his father and only does it when times are hard. Otherwise he is a trapper and loves the life. Amos' mother died at his birth and he was sent to be raised by his Uncle and Aunt, with his father coming to visit each year for a few months when the trapping season is over. Eventually, the boy grows and the father comes back, with a wife, and they set off with a group going along the Oregon Trail. The story deals with very real life and death. Death much more so and Amos experiences guilt, jealousy, anger, joy, happiness and ultimately love before the journey west is complete.

I loved this book, one of the best I've read this month. All the characters are so real. Some are filled with the pioneer spirit and others are bitter over the hardships dealt them in this life. We see how tragedy can break a man to nothing but a shell of his former self and we see how the same tragedy can make another pick herself up and continue on because of her love for life. The book is filled with tragedies, heartbreak, illness and despair. Pioneer life was tough no matter how much spirit you had. But we follow a family made up of unique individuals who rise above each hardship creating a magnificent epic novel. I'd love to see "The Water Seeker" up for some awards this year; it's truly worthy. A great historical.

Great read
When I first picked this up, I thought, wow, the writing is too simple, but it might be good for my struggling readers. As I continued to read, I found I could not put the book down! I fell in love with the characters, the plot line was refreshing, and it dealt with realities rather than fantasies and the writing became more mature as the characters developed.
I highly recommend this for any one who likes a fast-paced read about historical fiction with a side of intensity.

Kimberly Willis Holt Does It Again!!!!
Kimberly Willis Holt's newest book, The Water Seeker, has a much harder edge to it than her previous books.In the 1830s living was a daily struggle for survival.The book is really in two parts.The first half tells the story of Amos Kincaid and his early years.Amos never knew his mother and his father was a miner, trapper, and water seeker (or dowser) so while Jake, the father, is off making a living Amos struggles with adjusting to new surroundings as he grows older.Modern medicine was unheard of and an illness could easily escalate into an epidemic.(Fair warning: there is some heartbreak here especially if you have the habit that I have of bonding with characters.)Jake's wife, Blue Owl (a full blood Shoshone), is the anchor in Amos' life and is a healer with an extensive knowledge of herbal remedies.She is the recipient of a good number of racial slurs and, when an epidemic hits,the mistrust between the local settlers and the Indians escalates.

In the second half of the book, Jake realizes that he can't make a living by mining and trapping and agrees to offer his services to a wagon train heading to Oregon.Amos and Blue Owl accompany him.The second half doesn't pull any punches when dealing with hardships on the trail as Amos and Jake try to get some settlers west.There are hard lessons here and some of the travelers learn quickly that when a mistake is made there is no second chance.

This book was a marvelous reading experience but be warned:it's for mature readers.

Wide-ranging adventure with a little romance mixed in
This sprawling adventure introduces the reader first to Jake (a dowser) and then Jake's son, Amos, who has the water-seeking gift as well.The story covers about 40 years and a lot of sadness and hardship mixed in with historical events, adventure and a romance or two.Set from 1833 to 1859, through the untamed lands from roughly Arkansas to Oregon, Ms. Holt's generous story follows several generations of family and neighbors as they are born, live their interesting lives, and die.I have very much enjoyed Ms. Holt's books for elementary and middle school readers - this is one I'd recommend to 8th or 9th grade readers looking for frontier adventure with depth and breadth and "relationships". ... Read more

Product Description

This is the gruesome reality Iberia Parish Sheriff's Detective Dave Robicheaux discovers when he is deployed to New Orleans. As James Lee Burke's new novel, The Tin Roof Blowdown, begins, Hurricane Katrina has left the commercial district and residential neighborhoods awash with looters and predators of every stripe. The power grid of the city has been destroyed and New Orleans reduced to the level of a medieval society. There is no law, no order, no sanctuary for the infirm, the helpless, and the innocent. Bodies float in the streets and lie impaled on the branches of flooded trees. In the midst of an apocalyptical nightmare, Robicheaux must find two serial rapists, a morphine-addicted priest, and a vigilante who may be more dangerous than the criminals looting the city.

In a singular style that defines the genre, James Lee Burke has created a hauntingly bleak picture of life in New Orleans after Katrina. Filled with complex characters and depictions of people at both their best and worst, The Tin Roof Blowdown is not only an action-packed crime thriller but a poignant story of courage and sacrifice that critics are already calling Burke's best work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (167)

after Katrina
good thriller well set in the after days of Katrina, the pleasure of reading a thriller plus the possibily to think a little further........

"Satan...may build a barrier about us, but he can never roof us in, so that we cannot look up." J. Hudson Taylor
Hurricane Katrina smashes into New Orleans with the "...explosive force several times that of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945."

The tidal surge undermines the levee system and devastates much of New Orleans. The hardest hit of all was the lower income, Ninth Ward.

People didn't know what to expect. They filled the roads in their automobiles and busses, attempting to escape the storm and authorities were telling those left behind to come to the Convention Center. However, there were no services there. Bodies were left outside, toilets didn't work and the suffering was extreme.

While some people were looting, others were organizing into vigilante groups to protect their homes.

This tremendous novel details the heartakes and devastation of New Orleans after the storm. The reader experiences the hunt for the remaining two thieves by those attempting to regain the lost valuables. The author follows the actions of various characters as the storm approaches, when it hits and in the aftermath.

When Dave Robicheaux becomes involved we see the sorrow he feels about his city. The action includes his daughter, Alafair and his friend Clete Purcell.

This is a can't put down novel where the story will enthrall and haunt the reader well into the future. I was captivated by the story, by the effect of the storm on the innocent as well as on the criminals.The author's description of how the storm damage made the law enforcement personnel feel compared to the loss of a loved one, a city that they grew up in, worked in and felt safe in.

Burke does a world class job
James Lee Burke writes with a gritty style, using characters, settings, and issues from the underbelly of southern Louisiana. In his latest book, Burke starts with the premise that Hurricane Katrina damaged New Orleans more than the bomb that struck Hiroshima. Burke manipulates the plot to include events before, during, and after Katrina. His words ring true.

Dave Robicheaux is a compassionate cop who is sucked into the vortex of a Katrina style "blowdown." Murders, drugs, in your face evil, graphic language, and down home characters - good and bad - confront readers with the historical, world class disaster we call Katrina. In this novel, Burke does a world class job.

The Tin Roof Blowdown--Katrina
I am from Louisiana. I spent lots of time in New Iberia and Lafayette. My cousins lived in New Orleans as did their children.I have read many of James Lee Burke's novels. I really enjoy all of them. I was disappointed by this one.
Here is Dave Robichaux and Clete Purcell going at it again. Mr Burke really slams the authorities. Good for him.
I have despised these jackasses for a very long time. The entire world witnessed the biggest screwups on our planet. People and beloved pets died by the thousands.

Instead of describing the effects of Katrina on our state and our people, he keeps his characters in New Iberia. What???
I was not interested in criminals and what mischief they were doing. I was thinking to myself, let me have a big gun and I will
go down there and blow their behinds to Cuba. This novel was frustrating to me. I was waiting for Katrina to emerge from the
narration.

To me, it seemed that Mr. Burke didn't really know what to say. Some of the narration seemed awkward and I wasn't really sure what the point was. Well, anyway, I still like you and wish you well!

Sara Howard, Author of Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Moonand
The Biggest Explosions in the Universe

Good, but why so violent?
I'm a long-time reader of Clete Purcell and Dave Robicheaux's adventures in enforcing the law, both that written in the law books and those of their own moral code. The major plot lines in this book center on Louisiana's lingering racial problems and its victims, particularly women; the devastating economical despair left in the wake of 2005's Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; and the relentless hold of legalized gambling in the Mississipi Delta.

As gambling continues to prosper, the Mob becomes more and more involved, including sadistic enforcers whose only joy comes from inflicting pain. If that weren't bad enough, Dave's beloved daughter, Alafair, is hanging with the wrong crowd as she seeks "realism" for her attempt at a novel

While I will always love Burke's brilliant writing, so skillful that by now I feel I've been in Louisiana many times, I can't help but feel that this is just another familiar plot, dressed up with riverboat gambling and killers for hire. Dave goes to bat for Justice, crosses the line, gets in trouble with his boss, et cetera. Furthermore, my imagination was sufficient to conjure up images of what the sadist does; I didn't need such gruesome detail.

P.S. I, too, am a recovering alcoholic (14 yrs.) and he has the AA experience spot on. ... Read more

Product Description
From the author of "Vox", this is a sexually explicit novel. The hero, Arno Strine, likes to stop time and take women's clothes off.Amazon.com Review
The Fermata is the most risky of Nicholson Baker'semotional histories. His narrator, Arno Strine, is a 35-year-oldoffice temp who is writing his autobiography. "It's harder than Ithought!" he admits. His "Fold-powers" are easier; hecan stop the world and use it as his own pleasure ground. Arno usesthis gift not for evil or material gain (he would feel guilty aboutstealing), though he does undress a good number of women andmomentarily place them in compromising positions--always, in his view,with respect and love. Anyone who can stop time and refer inself-delight to his "chronanisms" can't be all bad!LikeBaker's other books, The Fermata gains little fromsynopsis. The pleasure is literally in the text. What's memorable isless the sex and the sex toys (including the "Monasticon,"in the shape of a monk holding a vibrating manuscript) than Arno'swistful recollections of intimacy: the noise, for instance, of hisex-girlfriend's nail clipper, "which I listened to in bed as somelisten to real birdsong." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (61)

An honest view of an intellectual man's sexual appetites
This is a book you will read more than once.Over the years, I have.Make sure when you lend it to your friends, you get it back!I recently ordered a new copy because mine has disappeared again, among my women friends who poo-poo the subject but are nontheless fascinated by the read.

How does a man who stops time use his great gift? In pursuit of his own personal happiness which is directly tied to his physical appreciation of women. In The Fermata, the protagonist, Arno, absolutely loves women -- it comes across in every lust-imbued word -- women of all body types, skin textures and ages.He falls in love regularly, as he keenly observes them and attempts to touch them in more than a physical way; he attempts to imprint their psyches anonymously with his admiration for them.The good reader will remove herself from judgment of Arno's decision-action tandem, suspend questions of self-determination by all the women from which Arno removes those questions, and enjoy immersing her own imagination in the thoughts of this considerate, intellectual man whose sexual appetites are permitted free reign (within his own strict morality of sorts) to manifest themselves.So many moments in the book are equally profoundly philosophical and hilariously profane, like when he tests out a small sex toy on himself to see how it would feel on a woman so that the result is just right.Arno wants this stranger to have a hidden and secret pleasure and goes to great ends to see it occur, while at the same time showing great concern for her comfort through his anonymity.

Love it!

Boring! So Many Missed Opportunities to Have Made This a Great Novel!
The Fermata doesn't live up to its hype.Basically Arno Strine can pause time and get up to anything he wants as he's the only person who is awake in the paused world.The same as the Japanese character Hiro in the TV show Heroes, but Arno doesn't try to save the cheerleader, he just wants to look at what's underneath that cheerleading costume.Nothing wrong that, it's realistic. Any guy or woman would do exactly the same thing.Think back to your school days, when a good looking girl bent over and you got a glimpse of something for a few seconds you shouldn't be seeing you'd take a look, in fact you'd nudge you mates if they were beside you to enjoy a discreet look too.Women do exactly the same, if not more openly, they'll even yell out instructions to the "victim" when in groups, after especially a few drinks.Anyone who says they wouldn't take a curious look if given this superpower is lying.The thing is though you would get up to a lot of other stuff not involving naked women as well. Plus the problem is Arno goes beyond just taking a look or even a touch, he crosses the line into rape on occasion. Therefore he's not a likeable character.

Throw in the fact that Arno's a completely boring individual and narrator and you really get sick of following his exploits.Nothing else really happens in the plot, he doesn't give bullies or criminals their comeuppance, he doesn't have fun playing tricks on those who deserve it. For example maybe someone won't give up their seat to a pregnant woman on a train, he could place them on the wrong train so they would be late for work. He could have pulled the old fella out of the pants of a bully doing an important speech just before they step out from the podium, taken the food or something from say a biker's hand and put it in the hand of a bully walking behind, put the toilet seat up between women in a line using an office toilet, framed criminals with planted drugs or stolen money who had gotten away with serious crime due to witness or victim intimidation.Arno has a lot of opportunities he just never takes up except the odd (and there's some plot spoilers here so you may not want to read on) wrapping wire around muggers genitals so they castrate themselves trying to get him but these are very few and far between.There is the odd clever observation such as the discussion on textile x-ray glasses with a workmate at lunch explains you wouldn't actually see a woman/man nude as you would without clothes on but instead all squashed up due to how everything sits in the underwear.There is not much of this clever writing though.

Arno's morals as a character contradict themselves as well. He's upset when asking a security guard what he'd do with the same power and the simpleton simply just wants to rape women. Yet Arno did just that with a sex toy to a woman on a train early in the novel.Even outraged he does nothing with this anger, he could have when the guard was asleep put him naked in a maximum security prison shower for prisoners to discover or something so he would experience what the women would have then put the guard back in his bed so he'd think it was a nightmare and maybe change his attitude towards women.Like I said many missed opportunities for a great plot. Throw in the fact that this book has written on the cover that it is "the funniest book ever written" and there's no humorous dialogue or funny situations at all and you've got a pretty big disappointment.However this would be a good book for a book club or something as it certainly brings up many things to talk about, ie what would you do with these powers?

Good condition
The product was in good condition. It arrived within about 2 weeks. Nothing wrong with the book.

Wading through graphic sludge
Nicholson Baker immediately grabbed me with his "character can stop time" premise. Really immediate. Like Page One immediate. There aren't a lot of authors that can pull that off, so my hopes for "The Fermata" were high. My interest level remained high as he explored the premise in extreme detail. We all know what men would do with such a power, but how would things like light, sound, electricity, and photography be affected? Baker gives us these fun little details, but he quickly settles in to the book's real focus: hard core erotica. Because I hadn't read any reviews beforehand, it was not exactly what I was expecting.

The first half of the book is a mix of time-control curiosities and sexual titillation. The second half of the book abandons most of the science fiction element and keeps only the erotica. Main character Arno Strine fancies himself an amateur erotic author. Fine. This aspect of the book fills in character details and provides motivations. My objections come from (I'm not exaggerating here) _entire_chapters_ devoted to Arno's amateur porn. The book's premise becomes completely inverted...it's only purpose is to provide author Nicholson Baker with a respectable literary cloak for publishing porn.

The story line becomes so outlandish towards the end, the character dialogue and interactions so ridiculous, that I thought perhaps it would end by revealing that the narrator was simply delusional. If that's what the reader was meant to infer, Baker certainly made no effort to make it easy for them.

Baker's a good author in terms of style. He creates a very credible voice for his protagonist, but what he does with that voice was just too over the top for me. Given his talent and unique treatment of the whole time travel/control fantasy, this book could have been so much more. That's why it's ultimately so dissatisfying.

Erotic delight
Hidden in this wonderful book are some of the best erotic scenes Ive ever read and I both read and write erotica. Great book. Great pacing and plot. ... Read more

Product Description
In Streets of Laredo, McMurtry brought the story ahead, giving us Call in his old age. Now, in Dead Man's Walk, he takes us back to the days when Gus and Call were young Texas Rangers, first experiencing the wild frontier that will form their characters. We also meet Clara Forsythe, the unforgettable young woman whose effect on Gus McCrae is immediate and unshakable. Danger, sacrifice, comradeship, and love give them the strength and courage to survive against the almost insurmountable odds of the frontier.

In Dead Man's Walk, Gus and Call are not yet twenty, young men coming of age in the days when Texas was still an independent republic. Enlisting as Texas Rangers under a land pirate who wants to seize Santa Fe from the Mexicans, Gus and Call experience their first great adventure in the barren great plains landscape, in which arbitrary violence is the rule -- whether from nature, or from the Indians whose territory they must cross in order to reach New Mexico.

From the Indians defending their land with unrelenting savagery, to the Texans attempting to seize and "civilize" it, and the Mexicans threatened by both, the reckless men of the untamed frontier make this at once a riveting adventure story and a powerful work of literature.Amazon.com Review
In this prequel to McMurtry's 1986 Pulitzer Prize-winningLonesome Dove,Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call are invincible young bucks, Texas Rangers,full of youthful energy and, quite frankly, full of themselves. Thatis until they're utterly consumed by the vicious battlefield of theearly-19th-century Wild West. Their journey takes them across barrendeserts and raging rivers and through steep and snowy mountains, oftenon foot and with barely enough provisions and clothing to keep themfrom certain death. The constant threat of attack by Comanches keepsthem awake nights, fearing for their lives--and for goodreason. "Buffalo Hump reached down and grabbed the terrified boy byhis long black hair. He yanked his horse to a stop, lifted Zeke Moodyoff his feet, and slashed at his head with a knife, just above theboy's ears. Then he whirled and raced across the front of the huddledRangers, dragging Zeke by the hair. As the horse increased its speed,the scalp tore loose and Zeke fell free. Buffalo Hump had whirledagain, and held aloft the bloody scalp."

This bedraggled group of adventurers--on their foolhardy expedition toseize Santa Fe from the Mexicans (who also prove to be formidableenemies)--includes a salty assortment of cowboys, scouts, fortuneseekers, and a fat and sassy whore nicknamed "The Great Western."McMurtry's adept storytelling paints a portrait of the Wild West thatat times is palpable.One can almost smell the campfires, the bodyodors, and the long-awaited piece of meat after weeks without a propermeal. Dead Man's Walk will satisfy your craving for adventure,without having to put your life on the line. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (91)

Outrageously Bad
Wow... worst, most contrived, ridiculous story I've ever read. First 7/8 of the book were just plain silly and unbelievable. How many times does the author try the Gus is afraid of bears contrivance... The last 1/8 was...wow...just plain bizarre. Rescuing an English aristocrat in a leper colony... and then the just plain sick details of Indian torture. I really think the author is sick in the head. Has nothing to do with the real West, real Indians or real history.

Good Western for people who don't like Westerns
The first Western I've probably ever read (I don't think Little House on the Prairie counts). It was pretty good; I liked the characters. I might read more of the Lonesome Dove series if I come across them.

Good Story Despite the Writing
I am not a big McMurtry fan because of his writing. He switches POV all the time and I have yet to read one of his books that couldn't have benefited cut about 20,000 words or more.

Even with that Dead Man's Walk is a pretty solid read. It's episodic, like the other Gus and Woodrow novels I've read, full of violence and humor and pathos....these are his trademark and he does it pretty well, right down to the surrealistic ending.This is the book that purports to be the first in the series, even though it was written after Lonesome Dove. That's okay, the book is still fun (for the most part) and if you like the characters from the previous novels you will definitely like them here, too, as they begin their work for the Texas Rangers.

Not the best and not the worst I've read from McMurtry, but still memorable...and in a good way. Check it out.

This is not the same person that wrote "Lonesome Dove!"
I finished this book only because I had started it and somehow expected it to improve down the line. After reading "Lonesome Dove" I had expected a read at least approaching that of the original of the series.What a disappointment. The writing is almost amateurish. I do not believe L.M. wrote this book, but he obviously put his name on it.Buy at your own risk!

Dead Man's Walk, Reading Man's Hassle
This is the first episode in the lives of Call and Gus. It was intended to tell those who loved Lonesome Doves how the duo met, and what forged their friendship. That was the intent. What happens in this book, though, is that you exposed too much effort to explain things we already know from previously published books. There are just too many attempts to explain things that just popped up in the Lonesome Dove. I mean all that was missing was some attempt to include Laurie's parents. Well written, but very boring and tedious at points. ... Read more

Product Description
'As I stood there on my front porch that hot, breathless July day, leaning against the column with the six bullet holes, now worn and smooth, I could see Hack's whitewashed marker under the pin oaks in the Holland family cemetery... Four generations of my family were buried there.'

Hack Holland is a product of the South, both old and new. Hard-drinking ex-POW and wealthy, progressive Democrat, he stands in the long shadow cast by his ancestors. When Holland's candidacy for a congressional seat brings him increasingly into conflict with those around him, his almost unwitting involvement with a violent civil rights conflict forces him to reassess his future - and his past...Amazon.com Review

BACK IN PRINT AT LAST -- THE MUST-READ NOVEL THAT INTRODUCES JAMES LEE BURKE'S TEXAS SHERIFF HACK HOLLAND

The hero of James Lee Burke's recent bestseller Rain Gods, cousin to lawman Billy Bob Holland, and a genuine product of the South, both old and new, Hackberry Holland makes his first appearance in this early gem from "America's best novelist" (The Denver Post). Against the backdrop of growing civil rights turmoil in a sultry border town, the hard-drinking ex-POW attorney yields to the myriad urgings of his wife, his brother, and his so-called friends to make a bid for a congressional seat -- and finds himself embroiled in the seamy world of Texas powerbrokers. And when Hack attempts to overturn an old army buddy's conviction, and crosses paths with a beautiful union organizer who speaks to his heart in a way no one else has, he finds both a new love and a new purpose as he breaks free from the shackles of wealth and expectation to bring justice to the underserved.

Read the first chapter for Lay Down My Sword and Shield. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Weak and tedious
As with all other books by James Lee Burke, this is beautifully written. However, the hero(?), Hack Holland, never seems believable to me. To the extent he is, I utterly dislike him - he's a two-dimensional character who is an alcoholic and a womanizer. That I can take, but what I don't understand is why such a nogood would have the slightest interest in Mexican laborers, other that to get drunk a lot and often have sex with a beautiful Spanish woman.

It's as if an untalented writer wrote most of a book and, then, paid James Lee Burke to write the descriptive parts. I'll admit that, according to my Kindle download, I've read only 85% of the book. However, I doubt I'll read the rest because I really just have no interest in finding out what happens to Hack Holland, his girlfriend, wife or brother.

I'm going back to Dave Robicheaux.

Bobo
James Lee Burke's books are always well written, poignant. He is one of my favorite authors and never miss one of his if can help it.His writing I consider literature more than most best sellers.When reading his descriptions of locale, always seems to actually place one in the scene. One can feel the wind, feel the sun, hear the leaves in the trees; is actually like being there.

Different strokes for different folks
I appreciate that people have different tastes but this is the only suspense type book that I just could not bother finishing.I put it down three times and then a few days later decided to give it another try.Got about 2/3 through and decided I had much better things to do and books to read.The central figure is totally without virtue, as I'm sure the author intended.I'm also confident that if I finished the book, which I won't, I'd find some redeeming features shining through.So??I found it predictable and "hack-neyed".
Spend your time on some other book/author.

A Story of Transformation and Redemption

Lay Down My Sword And Shield by James Lee Burke

This book details the rebirth of Hackberry Holland. He returned from the Korean War, rebuilt his life and now he is recreating himself. The hard panned setting and historic family background contribute to his reassessment of his identity.

Describing the book doesn't really do justice to the story or it's fluidity. The author reminds me of Pat Conroy and his poetry like prose. The descriptions of the countryside and people are thorough and beautiful.Hack's experiences as a POW in Korea are horrific. His sublimation of both experience and emotions would fit quite well with PTSD victims in today's conflicts. His drinking appears to be fuel by displaced anger. Hack's reactions to his environment and his refusal to be what his family expects him to be as opposed to what he wants to be is a thumbnail of the book's plot.

We tend to forget how recent equal rights are. There are parts of the book that seem practically fantastic that are supported by facts and recollection of the times. I suspect younger readers may even find some of the incidents hard to believe. Burke's book was extraordinarily done.

I highly recommend the book.

Texas Two-Step
Bound: SunPost Weekly March 4, 2010
[..]
James Lee Burke Drinks Deep from the Heart of Texas
John Hood

Hackberry Holland pisses me off. As a matter of fact Hack pisses off a lot people, so I doubt seriously he's worried about some cat down in Miami. Hell, the Texas mouthpiece probably doesn't even notice just how pissed off he makes me. Why would he? He generally doesn't notice how pissed off he makes anybody else either. And that includes his close friends and his immediate family. Okay, so he does notice. But he sure doesn't seem to care a whit.

Then again, Hack's pretty pissed off his own damn self, so he probably figures he's got a right to piss off everybody else too. With his near dead drunkenness and his relentless disregard, the man almost reeks of entitlement.

Of course Hack being to the manor born and not wanting anything to do with it or its privileges has a lot to do with his foul disposition. And then there's that heavy haunting from his days as a North Korean P.O.W. But Hack's being groomed to inherit his rightful place among the powerful - in his case, as a U.S. Congressman representing the great state of Texas. And Hack's as excited about that as he about everything else in his guided life. In other words: he isn't.

But when a former fellow warrior gets in a jam and calls on his ol' pal, Hack Holland sees something to lash out against. When Hack gets lashed back - and good, he's got himself a cause.

If I write this implying Hack Holland is a real life anti-hero doing some strange and violent version of the Texas Two-Step, well, you'll have to blame James Lee Burke. See it was JLB who brought the brawling lone star to life in the best-selling Rain Gods. Little did many folks know though that Hack had appeared long beforehand, in a muddy and bloody book entitled Lay Down My Sword and Shield (Gallery Books $15). That was back in '71, and despite the good writer's hitlist status, it's been pretty much out of print since.

Now it's back on the racks. Anyone who's ever read anything by James Lee Burke will know his characters come fitted with torn flesh and broken bone so vivid you too often forget it's fiction. And if you know this, then you'll wanna know more, much more, about their origins - and their horrors.

The title to Hack's first showing is, I imagine, taken from the traditional spiritual "Down by the Riverside," a song that seems to be at once uplifting and soul crushing. If I get it straight, it's about the joy of surrender. And if I know anything about surrender; there is no joy in it whatsoever.

But that's another story, for scholars far more astute than I am. As for James Lee Burke's Sword and Shield, well, I can tell you this: those depths that you think you've descended to go a whole lot deeper than you thought. And down there, at the very bottom, where even a single breath has to be ripped from the earth; that's where redemption begins. To go there at all is a hell few can fathom. To come back though, kicking and screaming and clawing your way to a place where you can at last hold your head up and look yourself in the eye. That's heaven.

And here in this story the man who would become Grand Master showed the whole wild world he was already capable of going deep, real deep, and still reaching great heights. ... Read more

Product Description
Hemingway's classic novel about contraband, intrigue, and love

To Have and Have Not is the dramatic story of Harry Morgan, an honest man who is forced into running contraband between Cuba and Key West as a means of keeping his crumbling family financially afloat. His adventures lead him into the world of the wealthy and dissipated yachtsmen who throng the region, and involve him in a strange and unlikely love affair.

Harshly realistic, yet with one of the most subtle and moving relationships in the Hemingway oeuvre, To Have and Have Not is literary high adventure at its finest.Amazon.com Review
First things first: readers coming to To Have and HaveNot after seeing the Bogart/Bacall film should be forewarned thatabout the only thing the two have in common is the title. The movieconcerns a brave fishing-boat captain in World War II-era Martiniquewho aids the French Resistance, battles the Nazis, and gets the girlin the end. The novel concerns a broke fishing-boat captain who agreesto carry contraband between Cuba and Florida in order to feed his wifeand daughters. Of the two, the novel is by far the darker, morecomplex work.

The first time we meet Harry Morgan, he is sitting in a Havana barwatching a gun battle raging out in the street. After seeing a Cubanget his head blown off with a Luger, Morgan reacts with typicalHemingway understatement: "I took a quick one out of the first bottleI saw open and I couldn't tell you yet what it was. The whole thingmade me feel pretty bad." Still feeling bad, Harry heads out in hisboat on a charter fishing expedition for which he is later stiffed bythe client. With not even enough money to fill his gas tanks, he isforced to agree to smuggle some illegal Chinese for the mysteriousMr. Sing. From there it's just a small step to carrying liquor--adisastrous run that ends when Harry loses an arm and his boat. OnceHarry gets mixed up in the brewing Cuban revolution, however, eventhose losses seem small compared to what's at stake now: his verylife.

Hemingway tells most of this story in the third person, but,significantly, he brackets the whole with a section at the beginningtold from Harry's perspective and a short, heart-wrenching chapter atthe end narrated by his wife, Marie. In between there is adventure,danger, betrayal, and death, but this novel begins and ends with thetough and tender portrait of a man who plays the cards that are dealthim with courage and dignity, long after hope is gone. --AlixWilber ... Read more

Customer Reviews (87)

Least favorite so far
Summary

Harry Morgan is a policeman-turned-fisherman down on his luck like so many others in the Depression-struck Florida Keys. To make ends meet, Harry begins engaging in increasingly dangerous illegal activities in the waters between the Keys and Cuba.

The book opens on Harry and several Cuban revolutionaries who want to pay Harry an exorbitant fee to transport them to the United States. Harry refuses, preferring to use his boat for legal activities, and as the revolutionaries leave, they are gunned down in the street.

However, after being tricked by a customer who charters the boat for three weeks and then vanishes without settling his account, Harry agrees to smuggle Chinese immigrants from Cuba to the mainland. Next, Harry begins running alcohol between the two countries, and a confrontation with Cuban customs lost Harry his arm and his boat. Undeterred, he signs to the next scheme he runs across: stealing a boat and ferrying Cubans involved in a bank robbery back to their homeland.

As he descends ever-deeper into desperation, Harry meets old friends and new faces. He has little patience for those who have not remained as resilient to the times as himself, and he has no patience for outsiders. Tensions mount between this hardscrabble jack-of-all-trades and several tourists who frequent his local bars.

One pair of tourists take special prominence in the book: Arthur, an unexceptional writer, and his beautiful, unhappy wife. When Arthur comes home one day after sleeping with yet another woman, his wife decides to leave him for another man, an alcoholic who has been seen sloshing around the bars as well.

Meanwhile, you are given a peek into the intimate details of Harry's relationship with his wife, Marie. The quiet desperation with which they cling to each other is meant as a justification for Harry's illegal maritime activity. Unfortunately, Harry does not return home after his trip with the Cuban bank-robbers, and Marie becomes yet another Depression-era woman left wringing her apron in desperation and rage.

Analysis

I'll be the first to admit that I have a bit of a Hemingway obsession. One of my literary goals is to read all of his books, and I'm not too far from the finish line. However, To Have and Have Not is my least favorite Hemingway book so far. Though Hemingway attempts to dissect grand social issues, such as troubled economic times and the relationship that exists between husband and wife, the entangled sub-plots and the erratic activities of the characters serve to distract from whatever statement Hemingway is trying to make.

The unexpected changes in viewpoints are disorienting, and the stories of other characters either stop abruptly or trail off seemingly without resolution. Harry remains the driving force of the novel, if there is one, even when the narrative meanders through the viewpoints of those who interact with him. Though his motivations inspire pity, his actions encourage judgment. Ultimately, I felt indifference toward him.

One aspect of the novel that I did enjoy, however, was the marine setting. I liked the descriptions of Harry's boat and the protective feelings that he felt for her. However, if you want good writing by Hemingway about the nautical life, read The Old Man and the Sea. In fact, skip this book and read Old Man anyway.

TOO MANY AT SLOPPY JOE'S?
This is nowhere as good as Islands in the Stream. The story is in the first 123 pages. Racist labelings apart, the prose is quite gripping up to that point. Then the protagonist Cap'n Harry Morgan gets forgotten and some drunk and not very interesting characters squabble in the bar and in the bedroom, who really have very little to do with the plot, except to justify the title (these are the Have's). Harry Morgan is basically a good, hard-livin' guy who likes to drink and fish (like Hemingway), but it's as though the author ran out of steam with him. A deeper plot, with less time gaps and jumping about between characters might have made this a much better novel, but you'll find trademark H. understatement and great descriptions of the sea, especially of a marlin jumping out of the water.

Review posted on The Literate Man [...] June 30, 2010
To Have and Have Not is the kind of book that you can barely believe was penned by Ernest Hemingway. This literary giant wrote many a beautiful thing in his day and no matter what terrible things he may have written between his several masterpieces the triumph of his genius cannot be erased. But this book comes as close as any will.

To Have and Have Not was Hemingway's most ambitious literary endeavor by a long-shot. And he fails spectacularly. It's a story about a smuggler and his family in Key West, which attempts to dissect the socio-economic injustices of Depression-era United States. This is no easy subject for certain, and his legacy would have been the better for not having attempting the feat. And yet, there is something admirable in Hemingway's attempt even if it does make for a miserable read.

The story is disjointed in terms of both time and structure. It's more a sequence of vignettes that fail to add up to a whole with a string of dead-end tangents around every page. When Hemingway broaches the greater social issues of the `haves and have-nots' as the title suggests, there's little point or connection to the plot. The examination is superficial, boring, and in the end sheds very light on the real issues. On top of that, it might just be the most extensive collection of awful metaphors ever published. Hardly a paragraph goes by without a clunker of a metaphor jumping off the page to stab the reader in his or her brain.

The most interesting parts of the story are the colorful scenes at various Key West watering holes, which Hemingway paints to perfection. These are no doubt well-researched, first-hand accounts of the Key West bar scene and its many colorful characters, but they serve no real purpose in the story other than to offer a break from the tired language of the rest of the book.

Worst of all, it's impossible to like any of the characters. It's almost as if Hemingway went out of his way to make his characters unappealing. And his attempts to add dimension to these figures simply gives the reader more reasons not to like them.

When Hemingway is at his best, he is king. When he's at his worst, his writing makes L. Ron Hubbard look like Shakespeare. And after reading To Have and Have Not, even a TV Guide will look like breathtaking literature. In short, To Have and Have Not read this book, I'd much rather have not.

If you do give it a read, try and forget about it quickly. Dwell instead on A Farewell to Armsor The Sun Also Rises . This is the Hemingway that we know and love.

That's Life
The first thing I thought upon finishing this novel was, wow, I'm glad that's over. What a gritty and dismal story! Poor Harry Morgan and his bad choices. He gets gypped by a rich wannabe fisherman, and is suddenly in need of some cash. What does he do? He gets himself an illegal job, takes advantage of the situation, shocks the heck out of me, and it's all down hill from there. The N word was used quite a bit here, too, which was another shocking point. I suppose that has something to do with the era this book was written in, but shocked me nonetheless. I'm thinking maybe Mr. Hemingway was a crude and unsavory man. Could just be his writing, I don't know. I don't remember watching the movie based on this book, but I believe that it is quite different. So, if you like gritty, hardcore, manly books, you may like this one. It is interesting enough until the last few chapters, which is why I gave it a 3 instead of a 2. The description mentions something about a love affair. Not sure where that was supposed to have taken place. I just remember lots of violence and trash talking.

Life requires courage
Harry owns a boat and he hires himself out to sportsmen who want to catch big fish. He is cheated by a client and short of money. He agrees to run contraband. He goes home to his wife. She fears something will go wrong. They make love. She worries that Harry wants more than she can offer. He reassures her: she's a fine woman.

The next day Harry goes on his trip. A young unsuccessful writer sits in a cafe and sees a fat old woman in a badly fitting dress running towards the docks; he imagines her to be late for work at a processing factory or some such thing and begins a short story based on her pathetic life. She is in fact Harry's wife. She just got a call from the police. The writer will never know of the passion she felt the night before. Or Harry's story.

Easily one of Hemingway's most depressing books, this dark and complex story shows bad things happening to good people. Take it as a warning. Life requires courage, or as Hemingway described it, grace under pressure.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo ... Read more

Product Description
Dave Robicheaux is trying to put a life of violence and crime behind him, leaving homocide to run a boat-rental business in Louisiana's bayou country, but when a two-engine crashes in the Gulf, he is drawn into a chilling and terrifying investigation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

Outstanding Second Installment of the Robicheaux Series
"Heaven's Prisoners," (1988), is the second installment in the American author James Lee Burke's New York Times bestselling Dave Robicheaux series.Like the first of the series,The Neon Rain: A Dave Robicheaux Novel (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries), and most of the works to follow, the book, a Southern noir, police procedural/mystery, is set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, more or less home country for Burke, who was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936, and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast.

We first met detective Dave Robicheaux, previously briefly mentioned in Burke's first book, Half of Paradise, as a detective on the New Orleans police force; he lived on a houseboat in nearby Lake Pontchartrain.The detective is of Cajun ancestry, and is still reliving the nightmare of his service in Vietnam. He has a drinking problem, and a tendency to violence.His first wife had already left him for a Houston oilman.

In "Heaven's Prisoners," Robicheaux will be married to his second, Annie, a social worker, whom he met in "Neon Rain."In this second installment of the series, Robicheaux has quit his job with the New Orleans P.D., and moved back to his birthplace, New Iberia, the actual house in which he was born, in fact, where he owns and operates a boat rental and bait business.He is assisted in this enterprise by a black man, Batist, whom we also briefly met in "Half of Paradise." We will also see quite a bit - as we will throughout the series-- of his former partner on the N.O.P.D., Clete Purcell, an overweight, heavy-drinking, brawling, heavily-scarred survivor of the city's tough Irish Channel neighborhood.

We will also again meet some other characters we'll continue to see in the early Robicheaux books: his half-brother Jimmie, who has drifted into underworld associations; like Dave himself, he has in his black hair a skunk-like white streak (said to be a product of childhood malnutrition): Dave is known to some, in these early books, as "Streak.".We learn a lot about Dave's mother and father - we are told about "the collapsed and twisted wreckage of the offshore oil rig on which [his] father drowned over twenty years ago," a reference only too current in light of the summer, 2010, explosion of an offshore oil rig, and undersea gas leak into the Gulf of Mexico.

In this outing, a plane crash on the Gulf brings a young Hispanic girl, whom he will quietly and illegally adopt, into Robicheaux's life.Robicheaux will name her Alafair and thereby confuse generations of mystery readers familiar with the fact that Alafair Burke, James Lee Burke's real life daughter, now also writes mysteries.We're told in the book that Alafair is a Cajun name that runs in Robicheaux's family: apparently it also runs in Burke's.However, the plane crash also throws Robicheaux into harm's way in regard to local rings that smuggle drugs, and illegal immigrants.The detective will find himself up against Bubba Rocque, a brutal gangster he's known since childhood, and his beautiful, hungry Cajun wife Claudette; Toot, a sadistic former TontonMacoute from Haiti, and Eddie Keels, a hitman from Brooklyn.

More than anything else, seems to me, we'll enjoy some of the most beautiful, knowledgeable writing ever committed to paper about the flora, fauna, geography, and human occupants of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, now so much in the news.Just read the opening page of this book: what a treat it is.

Burke attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute; later received B. A. and M. A. degrees from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively. Over the years he worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, a 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 U. S. Job Corps. His work has twice been awarded an Edgar for Best Crime Novel of the Year. At least eight of his novels, including the more recentJolie Blon's Bounce,Purple Cane Road and Cadillac Jukebox (Dave Robicheaux Mysteries) have been New York Times bestsellers.The books of the Robicheaux series of course, stand independently, and you can happily begin it with this one, still, you might want to go back to the beginning with "Neon Rain."

Not as Good as Neon Rain, but Still Damn Good!!
I'm new to the Robicheaux series and plan to read them in order.This is #2 and it was another great read.I gave the first book 5 stars and this one 4, but this probably should be scored 4.5 stars. Burke is a damn fine writer and his main character is just about the perfect hero - he's human, clearly imperfect, is deep and absolutely likeable. You root for Robicheaux in all aspects of his life, his relationships and his investigations. Great story here, and a continuation of character development - Robicheaux as well as others.

Not my favorite in the series
I am a pretty big fan of the Dave Robicheaux series but this was my least favorite book so far. I understand that Dave has a "cowboy" personality and always wants to rebel against any kind of authority figure but it was way overdone in this book.

Also, I got pretty tired of young, really attra active women begging to sleep with Dave (a not-so-young alcoholic who has tons of issues and isn't particularly attractive). Once the third girl came after him, I was really rolling my eyes...

All of that said, I really do like the series and have enjoyed many of the other books. I won't give up on Dave Robicheaux yet.

Down on the Bayou
Wow!This turned out to be far better than I had expected.I had seen the movie and hadn't been terribly impressed but decided to pick this up after watching "In the Electric Mist".Tommy Lee Jones evoked such a great character that I wanted more.My only real qualm with this book was the sex scenes that always came across as awkward.What worked well for me was the speech patterns, the food, the descriptions of life in New Iberia, the descriptions of the bayou and the areas around Dave's house, the villains, and the very nature of Dave as a dried out alcoholic that still struggles to find what makes him tick.Well done!

love james lee burke
this is another j l burke, and is a terrific read. it, like all his books, deals with a new orleans area that i've not seen.
great service, cant ask for better. ... Read more

Product Description
This magnificent novel by one of America’s finest writers is the epic of one man’s remarkable journey, set in nineteenth-century America against the background of a vanishing people and a rich way of life.

At the age of twelve, under the Wind moon, Will is given a horse, a key, and a map, and sent alone into the Indian Nation to run a trading post as a bound boy. It is during this time that he grows into a man, learning, as he does, of the raw power it takes to create a life, to find a home. In a card game with a white Indian named Featherstone, Will wins – for a brief moment – a mysterious girl named Claire, and his passion and desire for her spans this novel. As Will’s destiny intertwines with the fate of the Cherokee Indians – including a Cherokee Chief named Bear – he learns how to fight and survive in the face of both nature and men, and eventually, under the Corn Tassel Moon, Will begins the fight against Washington City to preserve the Cherokee’s homeland and culture. And he will come to know the truth behind his belief that “only desire trumps time.”

Brilliantly imagined, written with great power and beauty by a master of American fiction, Thirteen Moons is a stunning novel about a man’s passion for a woman, and how loss, longing and love can shape a man’s destiny over the many moons of a life.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (193)

Totally agree
Yes, I like Cold Mountain", yadayada, but I found this the worst drag of reading I have experienced in a long time.I read 350 pages out of 400 and just closed it once and for all.There is totally nothing to this book other rambling and poor characterizations.The author rode his reputation into this book and ultimately damaged it in the end.

Historical Fiction at its Best
What a great read. I normally only read nonfiction history, but this book was so well researched and so vividly written that it hurt.
How someone can so fluidly mix imaginative storytelling with such historical accuracy, and tragedy with such a sharp sense of humor is beyond me. He makes it look so easy. I think a great aspect of his work is detailing the lives of people who fell victim to some of history's most unforgiving moments (the Cherokee removal, the south during the Civil War), and yet his characters don't beg for pity in words or actions, despite facing all-out defecation from some higher power.
Perfect storytelling. A great read for any enthusiast of historical fiction, American history, Native American or frontier culture.

Five five-legged pointy thingies.

Wonderful
If you enjoyed Cold Mountain, or enjoy historical 1800's fiction in general, you will enjoy this tale.Frazier's voice is perfect, as awe-inspiring as Faulkner's but not as dense and overblown.The hero, Will Cooper, is a bit of a Forrest Gump, meeting several famous figures such as Davy Crocket, Old Hickory & Charles Sumpter.His comments on life, death, and history are usually spot on, my favorite coming late in life when he observes the rapid changes technology brings, and states that we should not gouge such a deep rift in history that the things old men and women know are no longer worth passing on to their grandchildren.

Great Yarn, and Much More
Thirteen Moons is historical fiction at its best and most entertaining. A yarn, yes, but far more than that, as Frazier paints an elaborately peopled picture of the Appalachian Mountains (the author lives in Asheville, NC) as the Indians are being forced westward and the big animals are being hunted out, against the backdrop of Jackson, Crockett and the Civil War. The sadness of a lifelong love affair and the defeat of indigenous people are juxtaposed with the triumph of an orphan who was sold by his aunt and uncle to be a "bound boy", yet becomes the White Chief, Senator and Colonel, and the savior of his adopted Indian tribe. The prose is lyrical and poetic. I loved every page of this book.

Not Quite As Good As Cold Mountain, But Definitely Worth Reading
I thought I would like this book even more than Cold Mountain, since the subject matter is nearer to my heart. I am a descendant of a Cherokee who, like the main characters in Thirteen Moons, stayed in the Appalachian mountains rather than walking the Trail of Tears. I was looking forward to learning about Cherokee culture and the circumstances surrounding that famous event.

As it turned out, though, the book wasn't quite what I expected and although it was quite good, I do like Cold Mountain best.

The main reason was that it isn't really about either Cherokee culture or the Trail of Tears. (In fact, there is practically nothing about the experiences of the people who were forced to walk to Oklahoma on what is now known as the Trail of Tears.) It is about two men in particular, only one of whom is Cherokee by blood, and he lives a fairly white/assimilated lifestyle. The gist of the story is political, about the men's fight for legal land rights for those Cherokees who remained.

The love story was a bit of a letdown for me, too. Except perhaps for a short time period early on, and maybe not even then, Claire didn't really seem to be all that emotionally invested in Will. Which made his passion for her more like obsession than love, and his actions towards her something like stalking. I wanted him to let go of Claire and be able to love one of the good women he was involved with who did love him unreservedly and were casually mistreated by him.

It's still an interesting story, though, very evocative of the time and place, and based on a true story (at least the part about the land rights battle is, as is Charley's stand.) Will's story makes you realize the realities of that time, in which a 12-year-old boy could be left to make it (or not) on his own. And Claire is perhaps the most fascinating character of all, very complicated and mysterious. Perhaps too mysterious - more like downright murky. I wish that Frazier had brought her out more, so that we could understand her feelings and motivations.

So my bottom line is: Thirteen Moons isn't perfect, but it is definitely worth the time spent reading it. ... Read more

Product Description
James Lee Burke’s eagerly awaited new novel finds Detective Dave Robicheaux back in New Iberia, Louisiana, and embroiled in the most harrowing and dangerous case of his career. Seven young women in neighboring Jefferson Davis Parish have been brutally murdered. While the crimes have all the telltale signs of a serial killer, the death of Bernadette Latiolais, a high school honor student, doesn’t fit: she is not the kind of hapless and marginalized victim psychopaths usually prey upon. Robicheaux and his best friend, Clete Purcel, confront Herman Stanga, a notorious pimp and crack dealer whom both men despise. When Stanga turns up dead shortly after a fierce beating by Purcel, in front of numerous witnesses, the case takes a nasty turn, and Clete’s career and life are hanging by threads over the abyss.

Adding to Robicheaux’s troubles is the matter of his daughter, Alafair, on leave from Stanford Law to put the finishing touches on her novel. Her literary pursuit has led her into the arms of Kermit Abelard, celebrated novelist and scion of a once prominent Louisiana family whose fortunes are slowly sinking into the corruption of Louisiana’s subculture. Abelard’s association with bestselling ex-convict author Robert Weingart, a man who uses and discards people like Kleenex, causes Robicheaux to fear that Alafair might be destroyed by the man she loves. As his daughter seems to drift away from him, he wonders if he has become a victim of his own paranoia. But as usual, Robicheaux’s instincts are proven correct and he finds himself dealing with a level of evil that is greater than any enemy he has confronted in the past.

Set against the backdrop of an Edenic paradise threatened by pernicious forces, James Lee Burke’s The Glass Rainbow is already being hailed as perhaps the best novel in the Robicheaux series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (119)

Great Story and Fabulous Prose
I know of no other author that can turn a phrase, or describe a scene, as eloquently or as artfully as James Lee Burke. I have read all of his Dave Robicheaux novels and this one, like the others, is suspenseful and keeps you guessing right up to and through the surprise ending. Burke is a master artist and Robicheaux is his masterpiece.

Worst Jimmy Lee book ever
Been a big fan of Jimmy Lee for a long time. This is his worst ever.

I cannot recommend this book to anyone, even to long-time followers of the author. Go back and read "Lay Down My Sword and Shield" or "The Lost Get-Back Boogie." Better yet, "Neon Rain". Anything but this.

Can only guess that there was a contract to meet with the publisher - because this just doesn't measure up to JLB's previous works.

Cheated; that simple
The ending of The Glass Rainbow is callow nonsense. As you read the last pages, remember these are first-person narratives, and you will see that Burke cheats -- not one way but two. I'll leave the first for you to discover but the big cheat is that he uses the suddenly vogue scam of keeping back the conclusion, like a stripper carefully managing her fan, for the next volume. Well, I have firsts of all the Robicheauxes and even all the Hollands, and I won't be buying the next one new. When I buy a book, I expect a book, not half a book.

JLB using the same template much too often!
I've read each one of James Lee Burke's books a minimum of three times. Enjoyed them all! They stand up to re-reading quite well.

However, JLB has gone to the "cut & paste" routine much to often now. This latest..."The Glass Rainbow", is predicable, repetitious and a far cry from the Burke of old. Frankly, it's not worth the price of a new book. It should properly be priced as a "used' book......

I hope it's not to late to read an "original" Burke again!

Dave & Clete beat the bad guys
The story line was interesting enough and their was a lot of excitment.My complaint was that the author introduced too much superfluous information in various events.James Lee Burke obviously thought it enhanced the story. I disagree and I think the story could have been told in far less than 433 pages. I'll bet that this is not the best novel in the Robicheaux series.I must say that Clete Purcel is quite an interesting guy and he adds a lot to the story.Don't be surprised if he returns in the next novel as a reformed sobor slooth that has even given up his Luckies.Another reason credit should be given to Burke is that he challenges his readers with 50 cent words.Even a person who reads a lot has to refer to the dictionary upon reading to get the full meaning of the paragraph. I wouldn't say that Burke's novel was easy reading, but overall it wasn't bad; hense I gave 3 stars. ... Read more

Product Description
This heartrending story of the difference one man can make became the basis for the first film based on a Pat Conroy work, the much-loved Conrack.

The Water is Wide

Yamacraw Island is nearly deserted. No one has paid much attention to it, nor to the few poor black families that live there. But this beautiful, haunting slip of land across the water from South Carolina is home to them, and they've lived off the bounty from the sea for generations.

But now their very existence is challenged. Industrial waste, pouring into the water from which they pull their catches, threatens the only vocation they've known. Unless they can learn a new way of life, they will surely perish. The Water is Wide is the true story of a young white schoolteacher -- a man who gave a year of his life to give an island and a people renewed hope. He becomes the teacher to their children, and teaches the adults of Yamacraw Island extraordinary lessons they didn't even know they needed to learn.

With a moving performance by Will Patton, Pat Conroy teaches us all about the triumph of the human spirit in the most desolate of circumstances. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (76)

A POIGNANT YET JOYFUL LOOK AT OUR PAST

Following his acclaimed "The Great Santini" and "The Prince Of Tides" we have come to expect not only radiant prose but honesty and intriguing story telling from Pat Conroy.There is no disappointment whatsoever in his THE WATER IS WIDE, a memoir of the time he spent on a small South Carolina island attempting to teach the poorest of the poor who could neither read nor write.Making the task even more difficult was the fact that they spoke what is called Gullah, a type of Creole developed by the African American people living there.

On Yamacraw (a fictional name for the island where Conroy stayed) the living is credibly stark, tantamount perhaps to a third world country.The children have nothing - of course, no television, radio or anything.One might think of them as growing up in a cultural void.Yet they're hungry to learn, even almost hypnotized by Beethoven's Fifth symphony.

Upon arriving on the island Conroy is met by the school teacher, Mrs. Brown, a martinet if there ever was one.Her teaching methods consist primarily of striking the children or delivering verbal insults.Obviously, her methods havenot been successful, so Conroy tries a much different, more relaxed approach - chairs in a circle, walks together.Eventually, his methods win over not only the children but the island's residents as well.However, Mrs. Brown and school officials remains opposed to him.

Although in truth the island is much changed today THE WATER IS WIDE remains a heartwarming true story of what patience and understanding can accomplish.It is a poignant yet joyful look at our past.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

RIPPED OFF
I never received this book I ordered and paid for. The sender did not reply to my email informing him/her that I had not received it........what's up with that???

Interesting book
This is an interesting, well written book about the true story of a South Carolina teacher. It covers his joy of teaching, the obstacles he faced, and his thoughts about teaching. I recommend this book.
No Child Left Behind? The True Story of a Teacher's Quest

The Water is Wideis beautifully written. A distressing, yet inspiring memoir.
The Water Is Wide: A MemoirIn the book, Pat Conroy writes an honest, candid account of his year as a teacher at Yamacraw, based on Daufuskie Island, off the South Carolina coast.
Pat's early teaching position prepared him for yet another milestone in his courageous writing. From day one, at Yamacraw's school, Conroy seeks to reconcile years of disregard for every child's right: the right to a proper education. Conroy shares his shock, hopes and dreams for the children who are neglected and uneducated, which is sad, yet inspirational.
As with Conroy's, Prince of Tides, I was drawn immediately into the unique story. I was appalled at the lack of education on the island and even more so, at the men in control who bent to no man to assist Conroy in his efforts to alter the offensive school system. It would take more than Pat Conroy's unconventional teaching methods to deliver the tools required for the system to meet their children's needs.
The children on Yamacraw were part of our future; the island's school system investment let them down.

An Honest Writer
Pat Conroy is an honest writer.Throughout this powerful book, he blames himself--his ego, for getting in the way of educational success, or at least bringing about some minor changes on the Island.While he certainly was as good an enemy to himself as any other, that fact does not dilute the powerful evil of prejudice and fear that runs freely and daily through the Island's educational enterprise.

At times, Conroy reminded me of Yossarian inn Catch 22 or Leper in A Separate Peace--wild, chaotic, and bound to bring fear to those who didn't understand or appreciate him for what he was--a teacher, pure and simple.

While this did take place in the South, it could have been in any segregated school system.His tracing of segregation and desegregation is seering in its honesty, charitable in its perspective, and a sad testimony of this phase of American history.If we pay attention to this book, perhaps we will learn from it.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

Rhino Ranch
Classic McMurtry always leaves me wanting more. I will miss Duane Moore and his friends.

Its been a sweet ride. . . .
Its been a sweet ride with Duane, his family and friends. I really hated to finish the book.
Now I gotta ask, so when is the third movie of the "Texas Trilogy" comming out?

Good service
The book arrived in a timely manner, and was just what I ordered.Can't do any better than that.

Poorly written, hard to follow, silly
Maybe Larry McMurty felt compelled to write something, or maybe he was pushed. This exercise is as far from the artistry of Lonesome Dove as Mad Magazine from the Mona Lisa. A real disappointment. Could not finish.

Rhino Ranch
Another gem from McMurtry and another chapter in the Thalia series. McMurtry always writes a good book, with characters that seem real. People you could actually meet on the street. I find him very easy to read and hard to put down. I recommend it. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (120)

Like the Vietnam War, Tree of Smoke Has No Discernible Purpose
I was a field radioman with the Marines in Vietnam in 67-68 and have authored two novels about the country myself, so when I read that Tree of Smoke was one of the best novels about Vietnam I bought it immediately. After the first 50 pages I was lost. The characters were poorly drawn and there did not seem to be any plot. I kept plugging away through the novel just as I once hacked through dense jungle, hoping to discover the author's point. It never got better, but I made it all the way through anyway, not wanting to waste the purchase price.

Tree of Smoke is so awful a story that I cannot list everything that is wrong with it, and B.R. Myers of The Atlantic Monthly has already done so. The main objections I have are these: (1) I did not become attached to the characters, so I did not care what happened to them, (2) there was no real plot, and (3) it was even more depressing than actually experiencing the Vietnam War in the jungles and rice paddies. If people and life were as disgusting as Denis Johnson portrays them, there would be no point to living.

Disappointed
Very tough read in terms of holding the readers interest. Not really a war book.

Tree of Smoke
A deep and sad book about the American hallucinogenic involvement in Asia, specifically the Philippines and Vietnam. It's a novel but like all great novels is more real that any factual account can be. Other reviewers cover the plot and the characters; suffice it to to say the characters are helpless against the inevitability of tragedy. I served in Korea ( before the time of the novel which begins in 1963) and for me the tone of the prose is exact. I detected perhaps Graham Greene as an influence and also maybe John Dos Passos - this book is a great companion to the Dos Passos' masterful ( and neglected) "USA" written in the 30s.

Amazing work
I can understand it's not for everyone, because there is no more a cohesive story line than the Vietnam War itself had. That's the point, imo. It's a dark book about a dark time, and Johnson goes right to the dark hearts of his characters without any preamble -- they're not "cardboard" or "wooden" -- they're in a *war* and their best and most complex selves are not in evidence. Does war permit character development in actual soldiers and other operatives? It pares them down and destroys them more commonly, not only because one's best self is a burden in such weird and dangerous circumstances. People live and die, and kill, by sheer guesswork which is often wrong. They are saved, or killed, because of the mistakes of others, both intentional and careless. I think Johnson captures not only the folly of government actions, but the screwed up, alcoholic hearts of his characters, who are soldiers and soldier wannabes, failed soldiers and has-beens with real glory in their pasts. Instead of the typical "what happens" of a story, Johnson gives us insight into what these people are thinking. What is the thinking that propels the activities of war? There are a lot of big ideas in this book. Ideas about war, about different cultures, about government hubris and individual pride, stupidity, and need, about love and loss and religious faith and alcoholism. One thing about most of Johnson's work: if you have any curiosity about alcohol abuse or drug abuse, if you've ever wondered how addicts think, it's all there. The denial, the good intentions, the utter failure of the will, the cockeyed "planning" for the future, the misconceptions and bad judgment. He's a national treasure, and it's a big book. But, not for everyone. It benefits from at least a passing familiarity with the facts of the Vietnam War, which, sadly, not everyone has. Also, lots of people and things die in this book. If you don't like the dark, read something else. If you want another novel that takes a look at the CIA and its screwups, try The Company.

Blowing Smoke
After closely reading the first 250 pages of Denis Johnson's 624-page Vietnam War novel and skimming the rest, I returned it to the library in three pieces. The recently published $27 hardback was literally falling apart, thanks to a cheaply glued--not stitched--spine. The librarian said he devoted part of each day to repairing such shoddy new publications. Alas, the book's substance didn't hold together any better.

I'd seen "Tree of Smoke" praised to high heaven in a New York Times review and touted in dust-jacket blurbs by folks like Philip Roth, who should know better. Its wooden characters creaked, its plot failed to materialize after 75,000 words, and its imprecise and arrhythmic language tripped me up time and again, forcing me back to reread sentences in an attempt to figure out what the hell they meant. Boredom soon set in. And this is a novel nominated for the National Book Award, which raised my expectations. I should have known better, having suffered through leaden nominees of previous years.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (41)

Fun, flawed
A deeply flawed protagonist, some really bad bad guys and the rich setting of New Orleans -- what could go wrong? A couple of things like a weak love story and a not very mysterious mystery, but overall still a very good read. Looking forward to further books in the series.

Violent and stupid
The story is unrelentingly violent, and the protagonist is unrelentingly stupid.Other reviewers say the series gets better, but this was bad enough that I'm not going to give it the chance.Sorry about that.

A Very Strong Start to the Dave Robicheaux Series
"The Neon Rain," (1987), the American author James Lee Burke's seventh published novel, was to be the first in his immensely popular, New York Times bestselling Dave Robicheaux series.Like most of the series to follow, the book, a Southern noir, police procedural/mystery, was set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, more or less home country for Burke, who was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936, and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast. He attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute; later received B. A. and M. A. degrees from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively. Over the years he worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, a 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 U. S. Job Corps.

We meet Robicheaux, previously briefly mentioned in Burke's first book,Half of Paradise, as a detective on the New Orleans police force.He is of Cajun ancestry, and is still reliving the nightmare of his service in Vietnam. He has a drinking problem, and a tendency to violence.His first wife has already left him for a Houston oilman; in this book he will meet Annie, a social worker, whom we will meet again in Burke's later work.On the job, Robicheaux is partnered with Clete Purcell, whom we will meet many times again, an overweight, heavy-drinking, brawling, heavily-scarred survivor of the city's tough Irish Channel neighborhood.In this first book, Robicheaux will be drawn into the case of a young black prostitute whose body is found in a bayou near, but not in, the city of New Orleans, a location where he actually has no jurisdiction.But he feels a compulsion to investigate the young woman's death.And, in doing so, Robicheaux will find himself drawn into some of the darkest alleys and byways of New Orleans' famous French Quarter, thrown into a world of drug lord, pimps, gangsters, and arms smugglers.

We will meet some other characters we'll see over and over again in the early Robicheaux books: his half-brother Jimmie, who, like Dave himself, has a skunk-like white streak (said to be a product of childhood malnutrition) in his black hair: Dave is known, in these early books, as "Streak," to some.We learn a lot about his mother and father, who will also rather disappear from the later books. We see some characters who we'll meet again in many later books, under different names: Starkweather, a Southern, cornpone sadist who appears to suffer from some sexual confusion.General Abshire, rich, and arrogant, who pays no mind to the harm his profitable enterprises cause to others.We also learn about some things we'll continue to hear about in later, but still early, entries in the series: the World War II German submarine,whole families, and Robicheaux's own father, killed in an unfortunately only too resonant in current days, oil drilling rig explosion, all supposedly buried beneath the Gulf of Mexico.More than anything else, seems to me, we'll enjoy some of the most beautiful, knowledgeable writing ever committed to paper about the flora, fauna, geography, and human occupants of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, now so much in the news.To my mind, nobody has ever done it better.

Burke's work has twice been awarded an Edgar for Best Crime Novel of the Year. He has also been a recipient of a Breadloaf and Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA grant.His early novel The Lost Get-Back Boogie was rejected 111 times over a period of nine years, and upon publication by Louisiana State University press was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.At least eight of his novels have been New York Times bestsellers.If you are not familiar with his work, this is as good a place as any to start.

First Time Reading Robicheaux
Started at the beginning of this series and I'm glad I did. This book is simply outstanding. Burke introduces a strong, deep and complex character and surrounds him with a great story and a load of other folks that draw the reader's interest. I finished this one pretty quick and will jump right into the next in the series. This will have you hooked within the first couple of pages and it never slows down.

Dave Robicheaux Steps on Stage
THE NEON RAIN is James Lee Burke's introduction to the Dave Robicheaux hard boiled detective novels. Burke creates a fascinating character with a lyrical prose style of a literary novel.
This is crime fiction at its best and stories not to be missed in the world of south Louisiana as seen through the eyes of a master.
I'm a long time fan who will not miss a novel in any series by this fine author.
Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHERS. ... Read more