Black Cherry Blues

Under the category of getting around to writers I have heard about but never read: James Lee Burke. Recently, I found a copy of BASS (Best American Short Stories) edited by Raymond Carver - from the mid-eighties, I think. In there was this tightly written, tense as hell short by Burke. Something twigged in my peripheral memory... I've heard of this guy.

Sure enough, after a few convos and a trip to wikipedia, I find that this guy has written a ton of books, and seems to sell a lot of them. I am still a neophyte in the whole mystery, crime fiction genre, and I think I still carry some stereotypes around these writers (though, that is changing because of people like Joe Lansdale and James Crumley). It looks like that I've found another writer that bursts the image of poorly written genre with plywood characters.

I am reading Black Cherry Blues - picked up at a used bookstore. The cover is damn cheesy, and I would never pick it up normally. But it turns out that Burke won an Edgar award for it, and I think the Guggenheim Award. For crime fiction....? Yeah, but not like any I have read. The writing is dense, vivid, thick with descriptions of the Louisiana landscape. The character of Dave Robicheaux is complex - and I have to keep looking back at that cover and going, "really?" Even the title is sort of stupid. But damn if the guy can't write.

I stand corrected on genre fiction... once again.