Customer Reviews

Half of Paradise (Paragon Softcover Large Print Books)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've read just about every book James Lee Burke has written -- from his Dave Robicheaux series to Cimmaron Rose and others. I've loved them all and eagerly await new ones. This is the first time I've read one of his books that I didn't like it. I couldn't connect with the characters, didn't bond with them, didn't find their situation to be compelling to read about. It took all I could do to finish it. It certainly wouldn't dissuade me from reading anything else he writes (although there isn't much left that I haven't read...) but this is not a great book, not up to his usual exploration of characters or his colorful description of surroundings. There was not a likeable character in the book, nor was I able to get a good visual for the surroundings. Skip it if you love Burke, you'll only be disappointed.

James Lee Burke's first novel does not have the fast paced, action packed movement as does his Dave Robicheaux novels, but he is clearly setting his penchant for detail and human suffering early in his career. Three stories combine to form the core of this novel - life is not all wine and roses. The book centers on the success and failures of three south Louisiana men who have a great deal of promise but ending up on life's darker side. Burke doesn't have a hero nor does he need one. One man driven to alcoholism by his desire to escape his father's shadow is consumed and fate has led him to prison, let him out and returned him in one foul stroke. Another man is a promising boxer who is set up by greed and sentenced to life in prison can only escape one way. A third man, poor but very talented, falls to the pressures and luxuries of stardom. His excesses leads him to the palace. These three stories are linked by prison and intoxicating substances. They are linked by one man who succombs to temptation and goes to prison. This is a great book, but it is unlike any of Burke's more famous novels. He does remain constant in his ability to capture the surroundings and the human spirit. A must read for any fan of Dave Robicheaux to catch the young wild pen of a man destined for fame.

"Half of Paradise,"published in 1965, was James Lee Burke's first published fictional effort. Not surprisingly, it shoots off many sparks that illuminate where he's later going to go as a writer. He gives us powerful descriptions of his home territory, around New Orleans, Louisiana; both the natural and manmade environments; for his first time out, he's pretty good on character development and dialogue, and he renders strong descriptions of people's everyday lives, jobs, and family histories.

The novel reads as, probably is, three discrete novellas packaged together. It tells the story of JP Winfield, a penniless, orphaned sharecropper who discovers a talent for playing a 12-string guitar; it leads him into some prosperity and public notice, but his weaknesses are always with him. It also gives us Toussant Boudreaux, a black New Orleans dockworker who moonlights as a prizefighter, seems to have a promising career in that direction, but then takes a crippling injury. Finally it introduces Avery Broussard, descended of the area's French-Spanish landowning families: but the land's long gone, he's working as a oil company roustabout, and he's got a crippling alcohol dependency. If you see a pattern here, there is one. All three men are overwhelmed by their weaknesses; you'd have to call the book a downer. And without giving away too much of the plot, readers may learn more about Louisiana jails than many might care to.

Burke's first novel introduces,in the Broussard segments, the character of black Ba'tiste, storied family servant, who will reappear in his later works. It further gives Broussard a wealthy high school girlfriend (a character that will also often reappear in his later works) the family name of Robichaux: that, of course, will later be the surname of his famous detective Dave Robichaux. It's pretty clear that Burke was going to write his way into an outstanding future once his world view got a little less depressing. How much you want to read this first effort probably depends on how much you like the later work.

The book lacks his eloquent language describing sense of place. There are a few great lines, but more simple sentence structure.
Interesting theme and plot. Gets more interesting after the first 25%.
Worth a read, just not his superb use of the English language evident in his later books. Good themes of poverty, choices made and effects, race, etc.

I got this at a garage sale, and there is no mystery why it ended up there. I held out hope that something -- anything -- would happen to either connect all the separate storylines or make me care about the characters, but I finally had to skim the last 100 pages when it became painfully obvious that the whole book would be a litany of sordid, horrible things happening to characters I didn't really care about. No one comes close to paradise in this book -- everyone starts miserable and goes downhill from there. Its only redeeming benefits are that it offers a window to race relations in the 60's and lets us see that James Lee Burke went through a Hemingway phase early in his career, either accidentally or on purpose.

I am a fan of James Lee Burke and even I thought this was horrible. It was so utterly boring it is hard to describe. Though some of his books are long winded, the plot and character development makes up for it. This story, however, was completely devoid of any suspense, the characters are silly and the whole thing was a total disappointment!

This is one of Burke's earlier books and Burke gets better with each effort. In my estimation, that makes all of Burke's vintage work wonderful reading while allowing me to lust for another new tale.