Customer Reviews

Jolie Blon's Bounce: A Novel

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

To categorize this book as a mystery is like clumping Haagen-Daz in the same category as cheap sherbet. Sorry. Not the same thing. These characters are alive and fresh and memorable. The settings resonate with sights and sounds and smells. The beauty of Louisiana juxtapositioned with the evil of the criminal world is a heady mix. As always, I'm impressed by Burke's ability. I feel like I'm repeating myself: James Lee Burke is a master of imagery, be it violent and dark, or moving and poetic. I can't help myself. To read his work is to fall in love with the language. With this in mind, it's true that I tend to overlook his meandering plots and psychological side-trips. For me, they make his books much more real and down to earth than the general formulaic mysteries.

In this particular story, we see Dave Robicheaux dealing with his inner demons, as always--this time in the form of pills. But it's the same white worm eating at him and driving anger to the surface. As usual, his emotions boil over into his job and cause trouble. The difference this time is that Robicheaux is dealing with other demons than his own. He's dealing with Legion, an old man, hard as nails and full of darkness. The supernatural aspects that come into play, particularly at the conclusion were, for me, very satisfying and remarkably well handled. Other reviewers have derided these elements; I found them to be the original touch this series needed. Others complained of sexual situations that were unnecessary; I was moved to tears by Bootsie's tenderness to her man in need of assurance. Robicheaux, behind his tough exterior, is a man of flesh and blood and emotion. Thankfully, James Lee Burke is too. It's the reason I keep reading his stuff. After "Purple Cane Road," I'd rate this near the top of the series.

Burke's mix of local color and great plotting, served up with a style that is crisp and vivid, have made him a favorite of readers and fellow mystery novelists. And he keeps getting better, a dozen novels into a series. The new book presents us with two violent crimes against women. Serial killer? The prime suspect is a brilliant young musician, the man you want to be the killer is a rich white kid. Hovering in the background is Burke's sleaziest, nastiest villain in years.

Burke never deals in cliches, though his characters might. The second victim is the daughter of a Mafia hit man, and one of the most startling and engaging elements of the story is the humanization of the grieving father. When the crimes resolve into solutions, we lose some people we care about. And one villian gets justice in a form we can only shake our heads over.

Robicheaux suffers a disgusting humiliation in this book, and his family is rocked by the result. I listened to another mystery writer recently ascribe the appeal of his books to the fact that his hero is a nice normal guy with a nice normal family. Well, maybe so, but Burke has gotten tremendous mileage out of something a bit more challenging. Watching Alafair grow, seeing the strength of Bootsie's love for her scarred man, feeling their pain as they cope with the literal scars of her incurable illness, have made this series the best around for a decade. Let's hope for a few more.

"Jolie Blon's Bounce" is an intelligent and ambitious novel of intricate sub plots and complex characters. James Lee Burke's widely recognized talent for creating rich setting is in top form: the Louisiana gulf coast back woods and bars are easily visualized, the smells of the oil rigs and shrimp boats waft from the pages. The English language is Burke's toolbox - as a blunt object hammering the reader with raw brutality, or as a scalpel in unlayering the subtleties of race and social strata. Few villains have been created as foreboding and ominous as the mysterious "Legion", casting an aura of nearly biblical good vs. evil and an unexpected, almost "King-like" surrealism.

This latest in the Dave Robicheaux series is built around the rape and murder of a local teenage girl, followed by a string of apparently related homicides. But the story is virtually void of the usual crime scene forensics and criminal investigation. Instead, Burke introduces a full cast of deeply developed characters and settings, slowly building tension and mystery as not only the murders, but also a dark history, gradually unfold. Burke is clearly not in a hurry in getting to the punch line, winding through passages of time and place, connecting the past with the present and reality with a vague sense of the supernatural. But while Burke's prose meanders, it is not without purpose, as the reader is sucked deeper and deeper into the intrigue. The reward is not in reaching the climax, but the journey in getting there.

In summary, Burke is about as good as writer as there is today in American fiction, and "Jolie Blon's Bounce" displays his craft at its peak. This is a dark and brooding tale with a surreal twist that will linger long after the book is finished, leaving the reader anxious for Burke's next installment.

The good news is that James Lee Burke is still writing some of the most lyrically beautiful prose in fiction today. The bad news is that, at least with this Robicheaux outing, he seems to have lost a little of his focus as a storyteller. The middle section of the book has Robicheaux so self absorbed in his own problems I couldn't quite remember what crime he was supposed to be investigating. Far too many characters with hidden secrets and agendas of their own weave in and out of the tale with such regularity that it becomes a little difficult to keep them all straight. While each of these characters are equally compelling they tend to keep the narrative from running on an even keel.

As to Legion Guidry.... I'm still not quite sure what to make of him just yet. On the one hand he is indeed one of the most interesting and evil villains I've seen in a work of fiction for quite some time. On the other hand I kept thinking that maybe Dave should have rung up Buffy Summers and asked her and the rest of the gang to come to New Iberia and help him out with this one. The mixture of metaphysics and gritty crime story worked well for Burke with "In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead" but I'm still not decided on this one just yet.

In the end I have to say that if you are already a Burke fan, then by all means read this one. If you are new to Dave Robicheaux and his world I strongly suggest one of the earlier novels. I decided to give four stars to this one due to Burke's wonderful prose and his creation of such facsinating characters but I still think that the rambling mid section does not represent the author at his best.

When teenager Amanda Boudreau is murdered in New Iberia, Louisiana, the evidence points to Tee Bobby Hulin, a gifted musician but a crackhead and general ne'er-do-well. Detective Dave Robicheaux is not convinced, though. Then there is another murder, this time of the drug-addicted daughter of a local Mafia figure, and Tee Bobby is again implicated. Robicheaux still doubts the evidence and continues to investigate when he crosses paths with the mysterious and malevolent Legion Guidry, an elderly former plantation overseer. Robicheaux questions his own sanity when his instincts tell him that Legion is pure evil in human form.

Meanwhile, Robicheaux's sidekick, Clete Purcell, is having woman troubles, and competition in the person of cracker ex-con Bible salesman Marvin Oates. Even Robicheaux's own attorney, Perry LaSalle, is behaving strangely in the wake of the two murders. They all have secrets and present different faces to different people, and it's up to Robicheaux to navigate the labyrinthe, pick out the necessary pieces, and put it all together.

And who better than James Lee Burke to throw it all out there, knead it and meld it with his dark and menacing poetry, and then pull it all together with brilliant finesse. This may be Dave Robicheaux's darkest voyage yet but, boy, what a ride. The atmosphere, rife with human suffering and the nature of evil, is very intense and roiling with preternatural undercurrents, with an ending that is both shocking and just.

The plotting of this book is worth three stars; the quality of the writing (when it's on target) is worth four. When Burke's in peak form, he brings a lurid beauty to the inveitable violence and mayhem of the Robicheaux books. This book requires such an enormous suspension of disbelief that the reader would have to levitate to achieve it. There are several primary characters who suddenly speak in altered voices, who seem to be of another plane--possibly of the supernatural. One character like that (the odious Legion who is at the heart of Jolie Blon's Bounce) might fly; but several ... No. It doesn't work. What starts out as a compelling case of two murdered young women deteriorates into swampy soul-searching that becomes tiresome, as do a couple of overly graphic sexual scenes that are clearly intended to be cathartic for Robicheaux but are merely mechanical exercises of who is putting what where that might validate poor Dave's threatened manhood (after he's beaten to a pulp and kissed by old man Legion) but are not in the least uplifting for the reader.

While the narrative has a compelling drive, the plot is spread so thin, over so many characters that, in the end, it fails to satisfy. Dave's old sidekick Clete is, as always, in trouble of some sort or another--this time, it's women and it gets old fast. Some of the secondary characters are well-drawn but the book creaks; it doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. And that is a pity. There are, however, some exquisite examples of what Burke can do with language--the most notable being his description of hearing Tee Bobby Hulin perform his composition "Jolie Blon's Bounce." Rarely has anyone written about music with such a comprehensive and insightful feel for its effect.

The reader is expected to accept a lot of inexplicable behavior, too many satanic-type characters, and no actual resolution. The book ends on a philosophical note that doesn't ring true, given what the author has attempted to structure.
Not his best work.

Previous Burke audiobooks have been greatly enhanced by the reading of Will Patton who has established a distinctive audio identity for Dave Robicheaux, an authentic local narrative style as well as unique audio identities for the other characters. Although Burke's writing is as great as ever, the reading by Mark Hammer is not. Mark has just two voices, one white and one black, used for all characters, and he makes Dave sound as if he has aged twenty years between books. What a shame! I recommend reading, rather than listening, unless Will Patton returns.

One compensating feature is a preface read by James Lee Burke himself, together with the music for which the book is named.

This is the first book I've read by James Lee Burke and I can safely say it won't be the last. Aside from how he perfectly captures the atmosphere of southern Louisiana, that odd mix of elegance, decay, magnolias, sluggish bayous, history, and histrionics that is actually breathable down there, he captures that wonderfully rhythmic speech with all the colorful colloquialisms (my favorite is obvious, isn't it?) But don't mistake this writer's work for the Gone With the Wind variety of southern storytelling (a brand that I personally find leans a tad to the smarmy side). Burke's work is full of grit and the grotesque, while never relinquishing one iota of southern charm. Dave Robicheaux is a wonderfully complex human creature, and all of Burke's characters are fully fleshed with no one being either all good or all bad (yes, there was one split-second when even Legion Guidry seemed almost human!) as is the case with real people. Legion is too spooky for words, Tee Bobby is true to life, and Marvin Oates is a classic character. I had their voices in my head long after I finished the book. Plus, I've got the most awful crush on Clete Purcel now. The story is a classic good vs. evil tale, and is as intricate as only something so simple can be. I don't find anything meandering or pointless in this story. Every scene built a thin new layer of tortuous plot over the previous scene. Burke could have swamped us (pun!) with this dark story but the brief moments of unexpected hilarity are perfectly timed beginning at precisely the right place with the right characters and ending without ever actually interrupting the pace and flow of the plot and subplots. I think this book is just about perfect.

With each successive novel, James Lee Burke delves deeper into the human psyche, and more deeply into his main protaganist, Dave Robicheaux.
Jolie Blon's Bounce centers around Robicheaux trying to connect two seemingly unconnected murders, one a teenager from a farming family, the other a strung-out prostitute. Around this plot swirl a typical rogues gallery of characters that enter Robicheaux's sphere: Tee Bobby Hulin, a blues guitarist and singer who pens the song that becomes the book's title. Jimmy Dean Styles, an ex-boxer and current bar owner and music producer, Marvin Oates, a seemingly innocent bible salesman, Sal Angelo, a Viet Nam vet who may have been with Dave's unit, and one of the nastiest characters Burke has brought to life, the former plantation overseer known simply as "Legion." There is also a duo of lawyers, Perry LaSalle, whose grandfather owned a pepper plantation, and Barbara Shanahan, a beautiful but angry woman who gets involved with Dave's pal Clete Purcel. Throw in some drug dealers, crooked cops, New Orleans mafia and a woman with secrets and you have a dark tale that will have you turning page after page.
Burke's strengths continue in this book: Beautiful prose depicting the Louisiana landscape or gritty descriptions of those who inhabit this otherworldly place. The dialogue smacks you in the face. The characters show multiple dimensions and always have a surprise in store for Dave or the reader. The story works on multiple levels, with the murder mystery nearly secondary to the inner story as Dave uncovers the connection between Legion, LaSalle and Tee Bobby Hulin, and other connections.
My knocks would be that old Streak is getting very close to the edge of not being likable. He's a very flawed character, self-righteous to a fault, fighting off the constant urge to drink, but what bothers me is that he can't seem to have a conversation with a single person without insulting them, no matter how polite they are to him. What is it with this guy? Still, I root for him and there are some things that happen in this story that no one should have to endure.
Bring on Last Car to Elysian Fields!

This is the darkest of the Dave Robicheaux series to date---but also one of the most riveting. Dave's demons come back to haunt him---literally and figuratively---in this story of good vs. evil. No other author on earth can personify evil like Burke. The poetic, lyrical language of South Louisiana and Mr. Burke's lush descriptions of the Louisiana landscape are quintessential Burke. If you've enjoyed the other books in the Robicheaux series, you'll love this one...I highly recommend it!!