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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The darkest chapter yet...,
By
This review is from: Dead and Gone: A Burke Novel (Burke Novels) (Hardcover)
Andrew Vachss' novels about the character known only as Burke are as tough and painful - and as deeply resonant and powerful - as any books ever written. DEAD AND GONE, this new Burke novel, takes the main character - and the reader - to new depths of pain, compassion, and vengeance.From the beginning, you know this one is going to be very different. Burke, who lives in the gray frontier between law and lawlessness, has confronted the worst of human monsters in his previous books, people who prey upon children, who commit the unforgivable crime of murdering innocence. Burke's crusade to obliterate such creatures (which mirrors that of attorney/children's right advocate Vachss) has earned him the enmity of a great many people, and one of them has planned Burke's death. The plot nearly succeeds, and by the end of the first dozen pages, one of Burke's closest friends lies dead, and Burke himself is nearly killed, losing the sight in one eye. His goal now is revenge, not only for himself, but for the loss of the one living creature closest to him. In effect, Burke becomes "dead and gone," vanishing even beneath the radar of the underground's whisper-stream, in order to track down those responsible. The motives for the attack, however, turn out to be more than just a desire for Burke's death, which he learns with the assistance of Gem, a young Cambodian woman who becomes one of Burke's aides and more, and Burke's old friend Lune, who has developed a system of drawing order and patterns from seeming chaos. The novel is filled with rich and enigmatic characters, dark and gritty settings, and terse, ice-cold prose. What sets it apart from the other books, however, is the change that occurs in Burke, not just physically, but psychologically. There is a spiritual death and rebirth here, a learning process with lessons so hard that I doubt if anyone with less rigor than Burke could survive them. But survive them he does, and comes out on the other side changed, and for the better. We are in the presence of a different Burke by the book's end, no less intense, no less dedicated to his goals, no less devoted to his chosen family, but a Burke who has learned other ways of dealing with his enemies and with his fears, and perhaps a Burke who is, at long last, loved, and who has learned to accept and give love in return. The Burke saga is no literary franchise, but a series written with depth and passion. Unlike most series characters, Burke grows, develops, and changes, and Vachss has chronicled these changes with dark brilliance. DEAD AND GONE is a defining chapter and an enlightening moment of transition in the long, hard story of Burke. At the same time, it is a stark, compassionate, and strangely different novel by one of the most original and ferocious voices in American fiction. I cannot recommend it too highly.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Burke saga continues,
By
This review is from: Dead and Gone: A Burke Novel (Burke Novels) (Hardcover)
From Merriam-Webster OnLine (http://www.m-w.com) Main Entry: burke Etymology: from burke to suffocate, from William Burke died 1829 Irish criminal executed for smothering victims to sell their bodies for dissection Date: 1840It is no accident that Burke (Vachss character) was named after a silent killer. "Dead and Gone" is beyond a doubt the darkest Vachss novel yet. As with all of Vachss's books, they are too fast-paced to skim; I need to read each one twice before I get the full tale -- and even then I'll need to reread it. I don't know if that's because I'm simply not smart enough, or if the fault lies in the writer. (it's probably me.) While Andrew Vachss remains one of my absolute favorite authors, I become increasingly annoyed that I can't "get" his books first time round. It is only for that reason that I am giving this book four stars instead of five. Someone brighter than I may be able to glean from its pages a better description than I'm giving you now. "Dead and Gone" removes a key player from Burke's family. When loyal readers think that Burke's soul can't get any darker than, say, "Sacrifice" and the following "Down In the Zero," we have NO idea what Vachss is about to spring on us in "Dead and Gone." I have no shame in telling you that my heart broke. This book also introduces a new location and new players, including Gem. Gem is worth noting because she is Burke's first slender woman, and I am interested in seeing how that will play in future books. I also wonder whether the new location is a one-shot deal, as in "Blossom," or if Burke is moving across the country as the writer has. The new characters are three-dimensional and very complex, but it will take some time and some more writing for them to become as lovable to me as Michelle and Terry and the Prof and, well, you know them all. In a nutshell: Great subject matter, exceptional writing, VERY complex. Highly recommended. p.s. while I have your attention: all those out-of-print Burke books that I spent forever searching for, crawling on my hands and knees in dusty used-book stores, have come back into print and are available on amazon.com. I strongly urge new fans to go back to the roots.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Burke's back in shape, folks.,
By
This review is from: Dead and Gone: A Burke Novel (Burke Novels) (Hardcover)
With "Dead and Gone," Burke undergoes an intense rebirth. After surviving a set-up, he's back to the ground-zero tension that fuels Vachss' best work. The last 50 pages present a whole lot of Burke's backstory. His closest partner, Pansy, goes out stone loyal. Much as it hurt to read Pansy's death, "Dead and Gone" breathes new life into the franchise.The "Who wants Burke dead?" search is complicated, but the payoff is a genuine surprise. Turns out our antihero didn't have this person pegged as accurately as he thought. The bad guys are trying to found a pedophile's paradise. Burke wants to keep Burke alive, and this leads him back to the crusade that defines him - fighting dirty for the Children of the Secret. As in "Sacrifice," Burke has to deal with...well, "performance" issues. Given the loss and grief endemic to Burke (especially in this book), it's a more realistic and interesting approach than the "no woman can satisfy him" school of detective fiction. Plus, it sets the stage for Gem to be the heroine. She brings hope and even some humor to the whole thing. You can pretty much nail down Burke's age this time - he was nineteen during the 1969 Biafra genocide. Now he's on the West Coast. Ripe new territory for a vengeful con-man who's legally dead...
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