The Convict and Other Stories [Paperback]

James Lee Burke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1990

This is a collection of stories set in locales along the Gulf coasts of Louisiana and Texas and on battlefields around the world. These nine stories explore themes familiar to Burke's writings - loss and hard-won courage, betrayal and friendship, violence and heroism and inevitable death.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Burke brings the reader inside the minds and emotions of his characters, in stories that strike to the heart. They each concern the search for a reason, a purpose behind the interminable battle between good and evil. "Uncle Sidney and the Mexicans" focuses on a maverick tomato picker, fired for petty reasons and deprived of a day's pay, who is hired by the narrator's uncle and enabled thereby both to revenge himself on his former boss and to teach a lesson about Mexicans to the local bigots. A younger narrator, in "Losses," is troubled in the confessional by his priest's reluctance to condemn. Only long afterward does he comprehend the arrogance youthful innocence that refuses to countenance human flaws. The closing sentence in "When It's Decoration Day," about a young Civil War soldier, elegantly epitomizes the subtle impact of Burke's storytelling: as a shell bursts, the boy "thought he felt a finger reach up and anoint him casually on the brow." November 24
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

James Lee Burke, a rare winner of two Edgar Awards, and named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, is the author of thirty previous novels and two collections of short stories, including such New York Times bestsellers as The Glass Rainbow, Swan Peak, The Tin Roof Blowdown, Last Car to Elysian Fields and Rain Gods.  He lives in Missoula, Montana. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 145 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (P) (November 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316117285
• ISBN-13: 978-0316117289
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,741,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Lee Burke, a rare winner of two Edgar Awards, is the author of twenty-three previous novels, including such New York Times bestsellers as Bitterroot, Purple Cane Road, Cimarron Rose, Jolie Blon's Bounce, and Dixie City Jam. He lives in Missoula, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stunning., September 18, 2000

By 

Allan - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Convict and the Other Stories (Mass Market Paperback)

If you've read James Lee Burke's novels, then you're in for a more than pleasant suprise with "The Convict". Because it's a book of short stories.

Mind you - it's just as well these stories are short. Each tale packs enough punch for a full blown novel. Comparing just one of these stories with any of Burke's novels is like comparing whisky with strong beer.

Each story is heady stuff - not only in the powerful way Burke takes a word and wrings all the blood out of it onto the page before setting it into place. The stories are of strong-headed, often wrong-headed men doing what they knew to be the best thing. They are tales of the American South, of the bijoux days, of the days of sweat and gunpowder and bowel-shaking fear.

These are tales Burke must have heard as a boy, tales that have been purified in the distillery of Burke's mind until all that's left is the gritty, sweaty essence.

And, at just a shade over six bucks, these are cheap thrills, indeed. But do be careful: each story packs enough of a wallop to put Mike Tyson on the canvas.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be required reading - everywhere!, January 23, 2006

By 

Naomi Johnson "beauvallet" (Columbus, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Convict and the Other Stories (Mass Market Paperback)

But trust me on this, you start reading these stories and they won't FEEL like the "required" reading that too often turns out to be dull, pretentious tripe foisted off on us by brittle critics and coked-out marketing agents. Nope, these are terrific stories that happen to be beautifully written by a man I am becoming convinced (I'm less than half way through his existing oeuvre) is one of the greatest American writers of all time. The title story, 'The Convict,' easily, EASILY holds it own with Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Sometimes the characters in these stories aren't entirely likeable (though they are always charismatic) but Burke makes no bows to political correctness; but to justice and to age and to reason and to living life to its fullest, here he surely exceeds any human expectations of capturing the same within the confines of a short story.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MOVING AND BRILLIANT, August 4, 2002

By 

J. Romeo (knoxville, tn USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Convict and the Other Stories (Mass Market Paperback)

Wether James Lee Burke is writing the Dave Robicheux novels or stories about other topis he always makes the characters very real and very human. The stories in the Convict are perfect examples of what a great writer of poeple Burke really is. Each one we get to know and learn things from through the course of their story. Some classify Burke as mystery writer, others as a southern writer, I dont care what you call him he darn good at what he does. No one who call themselves a fan of Burke`s should pass on the Convict.