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| JESUS OUT TO SEA
- Excerpt - Reviews |
July, 2007
JESUS OUT TO SEA: Stories (Simon & Schuster, June 2007, $14.00) collects 11 of Burke’s short stories published over the last decade and makes a powerful case for the author’s versatility and depth. Like Burke’s beloved Dave Robicheaux novels, these stories are as varied in their complexity as they are poignant and haunting. Others are unremittingly bleak. While “Jesus Out to Sea” and “Mist” are piercing responses to Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war, other stories unfold in the 40s and 50s and draw from Burke’s experiences growing up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast. Running throughout are the themes that have defined Burke’s fiction over the last three decades: the confrontation of evil by ordinary folk, the juxtaposition of natural beauty and human violence, the poetic distillation of working class life in the American South.
The rundown:
Winter Light unfolds across a frozen Montana landscape, as an aging professor faces down trespassing hunters and his own obsolescence. A modern Western morality play.
The Village It’s business as usual as American black ops conduct a brutal raid in an unnamed South American country. In the story’s arresting final image, a moment of clarity pierces the violence.
The Night Johnny Ace Died A love triangle plays out among hard-luck musicians in the heady early days of rock ‘n’ roll.
Water People A rivalry between two oil barge workers spins out of control, in this moody evocation of gulf coast life in the 1950s.
Texas City, 1947 After their father disappears, the Sonnier kids take it upon themselves to get rid of their abusive stepmother.
Mist A recovering junkie struggles to remain sober after her husband dies in Iraq.
A Season of Regret contains an account of outlaw bikers an antique rifle and a good man’s rage yield surprising results.
The Molester kicks off a trio of stories featuring Charlie and his best friend Nick Hauser, two kids growing up in 1940s Houston. In this first entry, Nick is a Golden Gloves boxer who falls under the spell of an older man with ambiguous motives.
The Burning of the Flag Charlie and Nick again, this time as pre-adolescents. The boys find their friendship tested when their American flag is stolen.
Why Bugsy Siegel Was a Friend of Mine In this humorous but bittersweet fable about hero worship and self-reliance, Charlie and Nick meet the famous gangster and teach him yo-yo tricks. Complications ensue when they attempt to enlist Siegel in their campaign against the neighborhood bully.
Jesus Out to Sea The title story was Burke’s first published piece of fiction that responded to Hurricane Katrina. As two old junkie musicians float through the drowned city, they are overwhelmed by memories of their lives in “The Big Sleazy.” A plaintive valentine to the New Orleans of years past, and a heartrending portrait of those left behind after the storm.
Eschewing the genre trappings of the Robicheaux and Billy Bob Holland series, these are indelible stories of survival, loss, and memory. James Lee Burke’s JESUS OUT TO SEA reveals new dimensions of an American master.
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