Any James Lee Burke Fans Here?

[BOSSHOG]

He has written several books about a alcoholic vietnam vet serving in law enforcement in and around New Orleans. A very sharp writer who develops stories and trajic characters out the wazoo. anyone keep up with Dave Robicheaux? He's the alcoholic cop.

[SmokingJacket]

1. I met him once.

Really, really nice, friendly but quiet guy. I love his short fiction, especially. There's one terrific story called, I think, "Texas City, 1947" about the oil refinery explosion that happened that year.

[Wetzelbill]

4. I should check out that story

I am a short fiction nut!

[BlueManDude]

7. It's good stuff - love his Robicheaux novels

[Richardo]

13. I'd like to read that.

Point of order, though: it was a shipload of ammonium nitrate that exploded.

Think Oklahoma city X 10,000.

[SmokingJacket]

14. Thnx for the correction; it's been a few years since I read it! nt

[Hobarticus]

2. Checking in!

Been reading Burke for years.

[BOSSHOG]

6. His imagery of New Orleans

is incredible and ole Clete is a hoot!

[Hobarticus]

15. Clete always has time for a po' boy, no matter what...

Doesn't care who wants his head on a platter. Ya gotta respect a man like that.

[Wetzelbill]

3. I read one of his books

Black Cherry Blues or something like that.

It was great. He's a MT writer too. Hung out around Missoula. We have some mutual friends, I just haven't ever met him or anything. Not yet, I suppose. Hopefully I'll get lucky and run into him sometime when I go home. Robicheaux is a fascinating character. I need to read more of his stuff.

[BOSSHOG]

5. I truly love his work

I've read every one of his robicheaux books. One of his books Heaven's Prisoners) was made into a movie with Alec Baldwin playing robicheaux. That was a stretch for me; but I do like the visualization of New Orleans. I hope he continues to write but robicheaux is getting on up there in years. I don't like his Texas lawyer character as much. Burke's daughter Alafair is also an author but she ain't quite as good as daddy.

[Wetzelbill]

9. I watched that film

I remember being excited because I knew who Dave R. was and I was hoping Black Cherry Blues would get made into a film. Burke uses my reservation (I'm Blackfeet) as the backdrop for the book. He is spooky accurate and describing Browning, MT. Dead on. The details are fantastic, I know some of the buildings he talks about.

The film was ok, disappointing I thought. I should read more of his stuff though. Just so many books to read I never can get to them all. :)

[central scrutinizer]

8. I think I've read them all.

Not just the Robicheaux ones, but the ones set in Montana with Billy Bob Holland as the hero. I find him a little repetitive - tough guys doing tough things and talking tough. Every one has some bad guy who is compared to a colostomy bag. Less tiresome than the Spenser novels, though. I do like his paean to New Orleans:

http://www.jamesleeburke.com/content/5

excerpt:

Two days after the city was flooded, the president stated, on television, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." The disingenuousness of the statement, or its disconnection from reality, is, to my mind, beyond comprehension.

I was on a seismograph drill barge during Hurricane Audrey in 1957 and, as a news reporter, I covered Hurricane Hilda when it hit Louisiana in 1964. But nothing I ever experienced compares with the suffering of the people in Orleans and St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes and southern Mississippi during recent weeks. That the elderly and the infirm could drown in retirement homes and hospitals in the U.S. has forced us into an introspection that I hope will lead people from dismay to anger.

For the rest of my life, however, I want to remember not only the faces of Katrina's victims but the images of the Coast Guard rescuers hanging from cables under helicopters; firefighters and cops who threaded boats through the darkness while being shot at; the medical personnel who used hand ventilators to keep their patients alive for six days; the soldiers and ministers and ordinary people who gave up all thought of themselves in service to their fellow human beings. In their anonymity, they glow with the aura of Byzantine saints.

New Orleans is an emblematic city. Its story is an ongoing one. Its culture will not change. But if we don't help New Orleans to rebuild, we'll not only lose a national treasure, we'll lose a big part of ourselves.

[WiltedFlowerChild]

10. James Lee Burke

is one of my favorites in that particular genre. What a seemingly rough, but honestly good and kind guy is Dave.

The only problem that I have with his works is that Robicheaux is always cooking up something yummy and it makes me hungry!

[BOSSHOG]

11. I think the food is

another reason to like rob-i-chocks. He is one hell of a tragic figure. And marrying a nun? I wonder whats next for ole Dave.

[abluelady]

18. I'm a Fan, too

But haven't read him in order. What happened to Bootsie?

[Nay]

12. Yes! I've read all Burke's Robicheaux books! Love the guy.

[bluescribbler]

16. Sunset Limited did it for me.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0440223989/ref=sib_dp_top_ex/104-1911553-2951113?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S00F#reader-link">The first sentence tells you that you are in the hands of a powerful writer.

[Killarney]

17. I picked up Purple Cane Road but haven't read it yet. eom.

[bikebloke]

19. Pegasus Descending

His next Robicheaux novel coming out this summer.

[Paladin]

20. My Favorite: "In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead"

Followed closely by "A Stained White Radiance."

But as I've said before, Burke novels are a lot like Cuban cigars and sex, as far as I'm concerned: The worst I've ever had was magnificent.....