Customer Reviews

In the Moon of Red Ponies: A Novel

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

With his recent mystery novel, Burke is back! The last book I read by this author was The Last Car to Elysian Fields, a Dave Robicheaux novel, which I found a disappointment, to say the least. I was afraid the author had fallen victim to his publisher's pressure to produce more novels than his talent could bear, as has happened with so many in this genre of late. I am happy to say that this talented writer has produced the kind of work that made me a fan in the first place. It's not so much the wild assortment of eccentric characters or the plot that so deftly layers complicated social issues, but the surety with which the author writes.

A good novelist tells a story, one that can inform and educate the reader on the vagaries of human nature. In this Montana-based suspense/mystery, filled with eccentric personalities, government drones and truly wicked people, Burke tackles the nature of good and evil. More specifically, the way the two intermingle in support of a cause, blurring the lines of what is acceptable behavior in achieving a goal, the age-old conundrum of whether the end justifies the means. Add in a liberal dose of the Patriot Act in law enforcement and the ubiquitous government agencies are involved in areas formerly restricted to them.

Burke constructs a folksy tale of honorable men versus miscreants in a setting as close to the primitive origins of the West as is possible to find today. Like the clever populist nursery rhymes of old England, political tracts in the guise of children's stories, Burke cloaks his morality play in the costumes of cowboys, FBI agents and mercenaries. When Billy Bob Holland, attorney and ex-Texas Ranger, undertakes the defense of a local Indian, Johnny American Horse, the case appears simple. But Detective Darrell McComb pushes the confrontation up another level, although Holland still believes the deal can be negotiated legally.

Circumstances are beset with ambiguity in the form of Wyatt Dixon, a nightmare from Holland's past; there is serious bad blood between the two men. As far as Holland is concerned, forgiveness is not an option. Unfortunately, Wyatt has been "saved", claiming he is a changed man on the path of righteousness. Knowing Wyatt's sociopathic nature, Holland can't digest the new image. Besides, Holland is fighting his own demons, coming to the realization that Johnny American Horse is the perfect fall guy for whatever nefarious activity is really going on. Strange bedfellows being what they are, Holland experiences considerable discomfort when Wyatt hovers on the sidelines, offering his help. Meanwhile the bodies pile up.

Burke is back in the saddle with this book and knows where he is going, never giving away too much information, but leaving breadcrumbs along the trail. Identifying all the players in this book may require a score card, but it is Burke's talent that pulls the novel together in an obscure but believable trek into the dark heart of the American wilderness, where greed eats away like acid at the last frontier. Luan Gaines/2004.

Billy Bob Holland is back, ghost partner and all, but now we also have Native American visions and presences. Maybe this worked better in In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead because bayou swamps are more conducive to visions than the clear air of the mountains. For avid Burke readers, this may mark an important artistic move by the author. He may be attempting the sort of shift into psychological probing of the character as happened in the Robicheaux series as in Mist, Dave became more than just a two fisted, alcoholic ex-New Orleans cop, and Burke showed us his own and his character's history and attachment to the culture of Louisiana. I did not really like that work, but looking back I see how Burke was making a shift from merely popular to what is a Faulknerian view. Although I cannot recall which novel has the line to the effect "When I hear that song [Jolie Blonde] I could cry for the culture that is disappearing," it certainly places that series in important company.

This is by way of excuse for a much lower opinion of Moon of Red Ponies. Now, I have read Burke's earlier work. Rifle toting, mountain loggers and cowboys. Out of work and out of Jail, or in. So I see he might be trying to develop his ex-Ranger hero along the lines of Dave Robicheaux; he hasn't done it yet. No sympathetic Alafair , no Baptiste, no colleagues with some understanding, just Billy Bob and his hot tempered wife against the world.

If you are reading this review to decide on spending the full retail, I say go ahead if you are an experienced Burke reader and want to understand his entire corpus. If you are just starting to read Burke, however, go back and get a copy of Jolie Blon's Bounce, Cadillac Jukebox or even Last Car to Elysian Fields or maybe White Doves, hold off on this one until you are a fan.

I am a huge Burke fan, having read virtually all that he has written. This book and the previous one for that matter are decided drop offs from previous work. The story, plot, his fascinating sentences are just not up to his previous works. I used to read his books slowly to just enjoy the dialogue and the fellings his stories evoke. I read this book just to be finished so I could go on to something else. Read his early books they are brilliant, some of the best books I've ever read.

James Lee Burke seems to have reached a new and much higher level with this book. Having read several of the Dave Robicheaux novels, I knew he could write scene descriptions, but to me his characters seemed one dimensional, and the level of gratuitous violence, destructiveness for the sake of "fun", bothered me a lot.

There almost is none of this in "Ponies". Burke's excellent descriptions of the natural world surrounding his characters is still there. New, to me, are a very welcome complexity and ambiguity in his characters. Most people here are not "all bad" or "all good". The good guys have some serious flaws. A few of the bad guys are unrelievedly bad, but a few others have some redeeming traits - or at least, traits which are almost redeeming. You can really empathize with some of the good guys, finding yourself hoping against hope that somehow they'll turn out intact by the end of the book.

The plot is complex and fast-moving, with lots of the twists and turns which any good thriller has. Burke is very skillfull at weaving several disparate plot threads, which come together in a single driving story line, making the book difficult to put down.

There's violence in this book too, but most is presented mostly by implication. Again, that's a welcome change from earlier Burke books.

This is by far the most enjoyable Burke book I've read so far. I was sorry to see it end - and I mean that as a sincere compliment to the book, and to Burke.

Bill Hansen

James Lee Burke is a master of scenic description with a novelist's grasp of the good and bad impulses that motivate people. Having read some of his early fiction about New Orleans detective Dave Robicheaux, I expected In the Moon of Red Ponies to be a satisfying excursion through the world of what might be called "Western Noir," as though this book were the progeny of a mating between "Farewell, My Lovely" and "Lonesome Dove."

I was half-right. The book is "Western Noir," but perhaps its most obvious literary antecedent is John Steinbeck's "East of Eden." Yes, that comparison puts Burke in fast company. On the whole, however, I can't recommend "In the Moon of Red Ponies," and would have to call it an ambitious failure.

The most significant problem with the book is its protagonist, Billy Bob Holland. Burke makes Holland a Texas Ranger turned Montana lawyer. He's as stubborn as you'd expect. He's also unrelentingly morose, which means he suffers in comparison to the other characters in the book. Psychotic rodeo clown Wyatt Dixon, for example, is painted as an extreme villain who had nearly killed Billy Bob's wife in a previous book. But Dixon -- in spite of the chemical cocktail he drinks on court orders to maintain a semblance of moral and social equilibrium -- proves better and wiser company than Holland.

When two men break into Dixon's rural home while he's having breakfast, he surprises them with a cheerful "howdy doodle, boys" before savaging them with the iron skillet in his hand. Holland, by contrast, broods his way through all 336 pages. In mayhem or in calm, he's more stoic and less accessible than his nemesis or "Johnny American Horse," the American Indian activist whose dreams give the book its title.

Midway through the story, Burke's sermons about the evils of corporations and the perfidy of the federal government begin to wear thin. We get them coming and going: from Billy Bob, from Johnny, and from a lonely cop.

The political angle colors an industrial burglary for which American Indian activists are prime suspects, but it struck me as more heavy-handed than it should have been. To push the book even further from literature and into "beach read" territory, agony aunt Billy Bob Holland crosses paths with a Foghorn Leghorn-type of United States Senator and his hot young blue-eyed daughter (the rebel dating "beneath her station").

Rule of thumb: When a cheerfully deranged psychopath and an activist who never says much make a better impression than the protagonist of your novel, a rewrite may be in order.

I can understand why some reviewers were not entirely pleased with this Burke book, as it is less stark in its depiction of the good guys vs. the bad guys. If you like your hero to be entirely noble and your bad guys to be all evil than you might wonder why that is not the case here. Billy Bob Holland (the protagonist) while a very good person, in this book, does some things which he is ashamed of, even condemning himself as a coward at one point. And the evil Dixon is also now more human than an embodiment of a pure devil on earth. What results, in my opinion, is a novel of more realistic human beings than the usual "good vs. evil" novel. And Burke's excellent, even poetic prose is still a wonder. A very good book.

There is no audio book out there any better than this. Period...........
Will Patton takes you into a world of real character where you feel you are actually hearing them speak. If there is a an Emmy, Academy Award, Whatever, for spoken word this is the pinnacle.
J. L. Burke has written a contemporary masterpiece with this crime thriller and has that rare ability to turn a novel into a lasting form of true literature. Well done guys. Best yet.

I found this book to be a pretty good read, if a bit unbelievable. The story is never fully tied together and the ending, well the ending... None the less, it was a pleasant time in reading and I was not disatisfied with having spent so, in the end, I think that's a fair assessment of a book - particularly one bought on the discount rack.

James Lee Burke is simply a master of his craft and a prolific one at that. In this tale, Billy Bob Holland, former Texas Ranger, and lawyer is living in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. Trouble arrives with release of Wyatt Dixon, a psychopath who had buried Holland's wife alive. Native Americans are active in their protests and Johnny American Horse, a client of Holland's, is the target of local law because of his environmentalism.

A few bodies start showing up here and there along with a reclusive billionaire, a U. S. Senator and some other interesting characters. Burke's characters are rich. No people popping in and out here just to keep the story moving: when Burke introduces someone, they play a part.

Burke's plotting is superb. The story moves smoothly without the need for invention to cover his tracks.

Burke is a read for any day of the week. He's pure pleasure and the only disappointing part is finishing the novel and wanting more.

Jerry

I agree with the comments by tobyheaton. Billy Bob, the protagonist, comes across as weak, moralizing and unctuous. I felt like I was reading serial short stories, each ending with an introspective, hoped for insightful fade out. There is an absence of any humor or lightness (unlike, e.g., Elmore Leonard or Robert Parker). The heavy tone unrelenting. The Robicheaux series is much better.