“Bust 'em or dust 'em, noble mon"
February 10, 2017 10:32 AM Subscribe
James Lee Burke has written about one book a year since 1986, for a current total of 37 including short-story collections. Twenty of these novels feature his Dave Robicheaux character, who has in turn inspired a literary festival in New Iberia, Louisiana, slated to happen again this year.
"For those who are coming late to the book group,
Burke has written twenty novels featuring Robicheaux, the sheriff’s deputy in New Iberia, Louisiana, who book to book manages to get caught up in various criminal enterprises. Just when you think it can’t get any worse for him, it gets worse; it’s a tragic spectacle, man’s inhumanity to man. Robicheaux can never quite win the day—wickedness may be stalled, but it’s never defeated. The man has lost a lot. But Robicheaux isn’t drawn from the legacy of Chandler, Hammett, or Spillane: Burke never read them. His P.I. arrives straight from medieval theater, the morality play Everyman, and the good Knight in The Canterbury Tales—in other words, all that stuff Burke studied in graduate school. Robicheaux is meant to be a tragic hero, a fearless man for whom a little fear might be a good thing."
Bayou Noir - The Catholic Mysteries of James Lee Burke:
Whereas the noir tradition typically gives the last word to pessimism and despair, Burke does not observe evil with nihilistic detachment. He responds to it with a confrontational fury rooted in a Catholic understanding of human nature. For anyone interested in the Church’s presence in the wider culture, Burke’s body of work, especially his so-called Robicheaux series, deserves a closer look.
These novels also feature Robicheaux's former NOPD partner Cletus "Clete" Purcel. Barbara Bogue, in James Lee Burke and the Soul of Dave Robicheaux: A Critical Study of the Crime Fiction Series, describes Purcel as:
[T]he flip side of Robicheaux and when he emulates his partner, his attempts usually fall flat, especially when he attempts to live a sober and healthier life. It is as though Purcel is maneuvering his way through tough circumstances a half beat off from the drummer's beat.
"For those who are coming late to the book group,
Burke has written twenty novels featuring Robicheaux, the sheriff’s deputy in New Iberia, Louisiana, who book to book manages to get caught up in various criminal enterprises. Just when you think it can’t get any worse for him, it gets worse; it’s a tragic spectacle, man’s inhumanity to man. Robicheaux can never quite win the day—wickedness may be stalled, but it’s never defeated. The man has lost a lot. But Robicheaux isn’t drawn from the legacy of Chandler, Hammett, or Spillane: Burke never read them. His P.I. arrives straight from medieval theater, the morality play Everyman, and the good Knight in The Canterbury Tales—in other words, all that stuff Burke studied in graduate school. Robicheaux is meant to be a tragic hero, a fearless man for whom a little fear might be a good thing."
Bayou Noir - The Catholic Mysteries of James Lee Burke:
Whereas the noir tradition typically gives the last word to pessimism and despair, Burke does not observe evil with nihilistic detachment. He responds to it with a confrontational fury rooted in a Catholic understanding of human nature. For anyone interested in the Church’s presence in the wider culture, Burke’s body of work, especially his so-called Robicheaux series, deserves a closer look.
These novels also feature Robicheaux's former NOPD partner Cletus "Clete" Purcel. Barbara Bogue, in James Lee Burke and the Soul of Dave Robicheaux: A Critical Study of the Crime Fiction Series, describes Purcel as:
[T]he flip side of Robicheaux and when he emulates his partner, his attempts usually fall flat, especially when he attempts to live a sober and healthier life. It is as though Purcel is maneuvering his way through tough circumstances a half beat off from the drummer's beat.
Everything copacetic, Streak?
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:07 AM on February 10, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:07 AM on February 10, 2017 [6 favorites]
There was a period of time where I would gobble up Dave Robicheaux novels like candy from used bookstores. I am really not sure why when I think back on it, considering I don't often go in for mystery novels. Still, I enjoyed the heck out of them at the time.
posted by Kitteh at 11:15 AM on February 10, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 11:15 AM on February 10, 2017 [3 favorites]
The Dave Robicheaux novels are beautifully, poetically written -- rare for genre fiction. There's such an incredible sense of place that you can sense the heat, humidity, the smells, hear the buzzing of the insects and sink in to the rhythm of the bayou as you read.
As each new book comes out, though, I can't help but wonder how long Dave, a Vietnam vet, will continue to be such a strong physical presence get shot and get the ever-loving shit kicked out of him without breaking a hip and needing a walker.
posted by rekrap at 11:43 AM on February 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
As each new book comes out, though, I can't help but wonder how long Dave, a Vietnam vet, will continue to be such a strong physical presence get shot and get the ever-loving shit kicked out of him without breaking a hip and needing a walker.
posted by rekrap at 11:43 AM on February 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
The Robicheaux books are so good. I love them. My only complaint is with the novels he wrote in the years following Katrina. His heartache and anger about what happened to New Orleans was so strong that the books felt a little too rant-y.
posted by not_the_water at 12:24 PM on February 10, 2017
posted by not_the_water at 12:24 PM on February 10, 2017
I read a few of his books, drawn in by the evocative titles like A Stained White Radiance.
posted by puddledork at 12:26 PM on February 10, 2017
posted by puddledork at 12:26 PM on February 10, 2017
I read the first few, but eventually drifted away. They have some beautiful, resonant prose, though.
posted by tavella at 1:23 PM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by tavella at 1:23 PM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
I love the Robicheaux novels, particularly in their incarnation as talking books read by Will Patton. Even the longest flight will melt painlessly away with one of these to listen to. And, yes, the uncanny sense of place JLB so beautifully evokes is a big part of the books' appeal.
There's no denying the plots are a touch formulaic, mind. After two or three, you do start to notice that every story takes exactly the same shape, right down to the creepy sadist who always pops up a quarter of the way through to the big set-piece shoot-out Dave and Cletus have with the bad guys at the end. Providing you don't try to read more than one a year, though, they remain enormously enjoyable.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:48 PM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
There's no denying the plots are a touch formulaic, mind. After two or three, you do start to notice that every story takes exactly the same shape, right down to the creepy sadist who always pops up a quarter of the way through to the big set-piece shoot-out Dave and Cletus have with the bad guys at the end. Providing you don't try to read more than one a year, though, they remain enormously enjoyable.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:48 PM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
His heartache and anger about what happened to New Orleans was so strong that the books felt a little too rant-y.
Yeah, they're pretty white hot, Tin Roof Blowdown in particular.
I came to the Dave Robicheaux novels via Black Cherry Blues, which was in the syllabus for a course I took in my first year of university called "Topics in Literature: Horror and Crime Fiction." It was neat because the prof lined that book up against an Elmore Leonard novel (I can't remember exactly which one we did, but it was definitely one of the ones set in Detroit). Leonard is a much more stripped-down writer than Burke. The comparison really highlighted Burke's power as a prose stylist. Not taking anything away from Leonard's stature in the genre or anything - speaking of setting, Leonard uses the local colour of Detroit with the same effectiveness that Burke does with New Iberia.
But Burke's prose is definitely richer and deeper.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:38 PM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yeah, they're pretty white hot, Tin Roof Blowdown in particular.
I came to the Dave Robicheaux novels via Black Cherry Blues, which was in the syllabus for a course I took in my first year of university called "Topics in Literature: Horror and Crime Fiction." It was neat because the prof lined that book up against an Elmore Leonard novel (I can't remember exactly which one we did, but it was definitely one of the ones set in Detroit). Leonard is a much more stripped-down writer than Burke. The comparison really highlighted Burke's power as a prose stylist. Not taking anything away from Leonard's stature in the genre or anything - speaking of setting, Leonard uses the local colour of Detroit with the same effectiveness that Burke does with New Iberia.
But Burke's prose is definitely richer and deeper.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:38 PM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
More on Leonard's depiction of Detroit here:
Leonard set almost as many of his novels in Florida, but not for nothing was he called the “Dickens of Detroit,” nor is the title an empty alliteration. There is something intensely Victorian about all the provincial details and historical ephemera that occupy Leonard’s writing. One can imagine his books being read a hundred years from now, in detailed annotated versions, offering a view of how people used to live in struggling manufacturing towns in the latter half of the 20th century. His novels are filled with Michigan in-jokes. People refer to soda as pop and eat Kowalski keilbasa from Hamtramck, the Polish city-within-a city where most peripheral characters go to work at the Chrysler Corporation Assembly Plant, “Dodge Main,” at least in his novels up to 1980, when the plant shutdown. In several books, a character complains about having to go to the creepy Belle Isle Bridge at night in order to dispose of a murder weapon in the river. City Primeval contains a nearly pastoral description of Vernor’s 1-Cal ginger ale, which for years was bottled in Detroit on Woodward Avenue. (“Ouuuuuu, it sure tickles your nose, but I like it.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:57 PM on February 10, 2017
Leonard set almost as many of his novels in Florida, but not for nothing was he called the “Dickens of Detroit,” nor is the title an empty alliteration. There is something intensely Victorian about all the provincial details and historical ephemera that occupy Leonard’s writing. One can imagine his books being read a hundred years from now, in detailed annotated versions, offering a view of how people used to live in struggling manufacturing towns in the latter half of the 20th century. His novels are filled with Michigan in-jokes. People refer to soda as pop and eat Kowalski keilbasa from Hamtramck, the Polish city-within-a city where most peripheral characters go to work at the Chrysler Corporation Assembly Plant, “Dodge Main,” at least in his novels up to 1980, when the plant shutdown. In several books, a character complains about having to go to the creepy Belle Isle Bridge at night in order to dispose of a murder weapon in the river. City Primeval contains a nearly pastoral description of Vernor’s 1-Cal ginger ale, which for years was bottled in Detroit on Woodward Avenue. (“Ouuuuuu, it sure tickles your nose, but I like it.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:57 PM on February 10, 2017
James Lee Burke has written about one book a year since 1986...
It took me more re-readings than I care to admit before I realized Burke isn't a very slow book critic...
posted by The Tensor at 3:06 PM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
It took me more re-readings than I care to admit before I realized Burke isn't a very slow book critic...
posted by The Tensor at 3:06 PM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
I love his writing. Yes, the plots are formulaic. Yes, Dave and Clete are far too old. But his prose is amazing. And, his dialog! After I get about 20 pages into one of his books, my inner dialog starts to take on the same cadence.
posted by qldaddy at 3:28 PM on February 10, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by qldaddy at 3:28 PM on February 10, 2017 [3 favorites]
I normally don't read mysteries, but I will give him a try. For those wondering where to begin.
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/james-lee-burke/
posted by Beholder at 8:07 PM on February 10, 2017
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/james-lee-burke/
posted by Beholder at 8:07 PM on February 10, 2017
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Incidentally, both are 80.
posted by Nanukthedog at 10:50 AM on February 10, 2017 [3 favorites]