The Convict And Other Stories
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Product Description
Product Description
For fans of James Lee Burke and Dave Robicheaux, THE CONVICT AND OTHER STORIES is a superb collection of stories set in and around the American Deep South and its charismatic people. From New Orleans to Dallas, with excursions further afield in Korea and Vietnam, James Lee Burke's characters live out lives of laughter and tragedy, mystery and intrigue, finding the memorable in the commonplace and bringing vividly to life the heat and dust of Southern life.
About the Author
James Lee Burke is the author of many previous novels, including twelve featuring Detective Dave Robicheaux. He lives with his wife, Pearl, in Missoula, Montana and New Iberia, Louisiana.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although this collection is a recent publication it first saw print 25 years ago and so many of the tales within predate much of James Lee Burke's best-known work. So if you're considering this purchase because you've read a Dave Robicheaux novel then don't be unprepared: Dave, Clete and Tripod don't exist yet...
Instead 'The Convict and other stories' present snapshots of the society which is familiar from the Robicheaux series, meandering through the swampy mire which forms the history of the American South. Even the three war stories which aren't actually set in Louisiana are saturated in its influences. You can almost hear the pecans crunching: you can almost taste the hatred and fear as an apatheid society fractures and re-forms. JLB pulls in to a very tight focus, examining just how tiny actions on a personal level reflect the political changes of the time and perhaps the most compelling stories of this collection are the ones set in the mid-20th century. Although having said that, you would need a heart of stone to be unmoved by his tale of a young lad, fighting to the deeply bitter end in the Civil War.
Fans of Robicheaux will be able to see shared influences and aspects throughout all of these stories. Some of the tales blaze with the supressed anger that DR carries around with him, the righteous rage at unvarnished oppression and injustice.
The name of the collection is perhaps a little misleading (only one convict in the nine beautifully composed short stories). The reading group guide and Q&A with JLB at the back of my edition were a pleasant surprise.
Recommended. (And for more recent JLB short stories, try Jesus Out To Sea. Or if you fancy more Deep South stories but with a less aggressive tinge then Tin Gautreaux's Same Place, Same Things: Stories collection is superb also).
9/10
Instead 'The Convict and other stories' present snapshots of the society which is familiar from the Robicheaux series, meandering through the swampy mire which forms the history of the American South. Even the three war stories which aren't actually set in Louisiana are saturated in its influences. You can almost hear the pecans crunching: you can almost taste the hatred and fear as an apatheid society fractures and re-forms. JLB pulls in to a very tight focus, examining just how tiny actions on a personal level reflect the political changes of the time and perhaps the most compelling stories of this collection are the ones set in the mid-20th century. Although having said that, you would need a heart of stone to be unmoved by his tale of a young lad, fighting to the deeply bitter end in the Civil War.
Fans of Robicheaux will be able to see shared influences and aspects throughout all of these stories. Some of the tales blaze with the supressed anger that DR carries around with him, the righteous rage at unvarnished oppression and injustice.
The name of the collection is perhaps a little misleading (only one convict in the nine beautifully composed short stories). The reading group guide and Q&A with JLB at the back of my edition were a pleasant surprise.
Recommended. (And for more recent JLB short stories, try Jesus Out To Sea. Or if you fancy more Deep South stories but with a less aggressive tinge then Tin Gautreaux's Same Place, Same Things: Stories collection is superb also).
9/10
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Stunning.
19 Sep 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
If you've read James Lee Burke's novels, then you're in for a more than pleasant suprise with "The Convict". Because it's a book of short stories.
Mind you - it's just as well these stories are short. Each tale packs enough punch for a full blown novel. Comparing just one of these stories with any of Burke's novels is like comparing whisky with strong beer.
Each story is heady stuff - not only in the powerful way Burke takes a word and wrings all the blood out of it onto the page before setting it into place. The stories are of strong-headed, often wrong-headed men doing what they knew to be the best thing. They are tales of the American South, of the bijoux days, of the days of sweat and gunpowder and bowel-shaking fear.
These are tales Burke must have heard as a boy, tales that have been purified in the distillery of Burke's mind until all that's left is the gritty, sweaty essence.
And, at just a shade over six bucks, these are cheap thrills, indeed. But do be careful: each story packs enough of a wallop to put Mike Tyson on the canvas.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Should be required reading - everywhere!
24 Jan 2006
Format:Mass Market Paperback
But trust me on this, you start reading these stories and they won't FEEL like the "required" reading that too often turns out to be dull, pretentious tripe foisted off on us by brittle critics and coked-out marketing agents. Nope, these are terrific stories that happen to be beautifully written by a man I am becoming convinced (I'm less than half way through his existing oeuvre) is one of the greatest American writers of all time. The title story, 'The Convict,' easily, EASILY holds it own with Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Sometimes the characters in these stories aren't entirely likeable (though they are always charismatic) but Burke makes no bows to political correctness; but to justice and to age and to reason and to living life to its fullest, here he surely exceeds any human expectations of capturing the same within the confines of a short story.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
MOVING AND BRILLIANT
4 Aug 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Wether James Lee Burke is writing the Dave Robicheux novels or stories about other topis he always makes the characters very real and very human. The stories in the Convict are perfect examples of what a great writer of poeple Burke really is. Each one we get to know and learn things from through the course of their story. Some classify Burke as mystery writer, others as a southern writer, I dont care what you call him he darn good at what he does. No one who call themselves a fan of Burke`s should pass on the Convict.
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