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.
