– James Connolly James Lee Burke has written a consummate love story. Set in America post Second World War, exploring the depths of greed, power and racism inherent in the American South, his two main characters wander through a changing landscape powered only by the love they have for each other. Burke is so incredibly clear with his language, articulating emotions that most readers cannot even imagine existing.
The power of his language diminishes the realities of hate and envy, focusing on the undaunted inner spirit of a man, Weldon Avery Holland, who clearly knows what is holy – his beautiful wife Rosita Lowenstein. Rosita is a survivor of the Nazi death camps, and both she and Weldon are caught in the mad rush for money that was the wildcatting days of the first Texas oil boom. James Lee Burke pays tribute to his undaunted respect for the history and legends of his country, weaving Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in and out of the developing plot.
He puts Bonnie and Clyde in the same legion as Thelma and Louise – American icons of a freedom the country may never know. It is magical. One of the difficulties of reading Burke, as the excerpts below hint at, is that the pages are full of warm, embracing thoughts and phrases.
His novels are extended prose poems and ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ is no exception. Burke honours the roots of his country, the traditions that made it strong, without ignoring the weaknesses of both man and democracy. Each of James Lee Burke’s nove.
