Q&A with Jim on THE GLASS RAINBOW

[pamala]

Author Q & A: James Lee Burke
Steve Lee / Big Issue In The North

Perhaps the finest American noir writer of this age, James Lee Burke’s work is both disturbing and redemptive. The Glass Rainbow, his 18th novel to feature the Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux, mixes moral quandaries, dark forces and gripping action in equal measure.

Although obviously fictional, there must be elements of yourself in the characters of Dave Robicheaux and his colourful cohort Clete Purcell.
Well, let’s say all their character defects are quite recognisable to anyone who knows me.

Specifically?
Take your choice! Dave and Clete are the equivalent of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza; one is the idealist who burns with this chivalric address to problems, the other is the trickster, the Sybarist, the sensualist. Yet their personalities are not that clear-cut – they’re really two forms of the same person. One’s incomplete without the other. These characters have their origins in Elizabethan and Ancient Greek drama.

Do you think that’s what makes your writing stand-out in the crowded crime fiction genre, this duality you give your characters?
I think you just went to the heart of it. It is the contradictions that give them their dynamic - you basically need strong character defects to provide humanity. Both men are on the side of justice and they try to do as well as they can with what they’ve got. And everyone knew a Clete at school – he’s really the man who gets even for the rest of us.

The demarcation between good and evil is often blurred in your work. As you experience life, do you think this becomes more apparent in the real world too?
As one grows older, one finds that defining human experience with exactitude is. . . put it this way: we’re often saved from ourselves by life’s fools and jesters and idiots. History is littered with clowns who have suddenly changed the world to a degree no one could ever have predicted.

Your love for the city of New Orleans, or what it once was, shines through in your fiction too. How has the place changed over the years?
For me it will never be the same again but, you know, I come out of a different era. The city, I believe, was killed three times. Once with the introduction of crack cocaine in the housing projects during the Reagan years, which had a devastating effect. Second, hurricane Katrina did enormous damage in 2005. But I believe the real death of the city took place when the central Washington government, after the floods, chose to ignore the problem. Generally speaking, what happened under the Bush administration took us across the wrong Rubicon. I don’t know if this country will ever get back from it.

So, past and present, who do you regard as true masters of the crime fiction genre?
The best, historically, is James M. Cain. Why he’s not read more today, I just don’t understand. And Mario Puzo too. For some reason he was rarely called a crime novelist but his entire career was based on his knowledge of the worst criminals known.

Finally, The Glass Rainbow leaves readers with a real cliff-hanger - will we be hearing from Dave Robicheaux and Cletus Purcell again?
Honestly, I’m not really sure. The way I write, I never think ahead more than two scenes as two scenes is how much I write each day. I’ve always subscribed to the notion that the story is written by a hand other than mine. I believe every artist knows the story is in the unconscious and the book, the song, the painting is put together by someone else. Creation is really a matter of incremental discovery, a gradual discovery of what already exists. In life itself, as in literature, it’s a terrible vanity, a terrible assumption to make plans. At a certain age, everyone arrives at that conclusion.

Steve Lee

[annweiss]

Beautiful answer, JLB. That is what makes your writing so poetic as well as so realistic. You are unlike any other writer in this genre....please keep writing.

Ann Rousseau Weiss

[Clavin]

Just finished this book and it is brilliant. And I am not a sycophant. Multi-layerd. Without the standard wrapping up of all the loose ends. Like a dream as much as reality. I am sending this one to a friend.

[gringogigante]

Viva la Dave y Cletus!

[gez]

I’ve always subscribed to the notion that the story is written by a hand other than mine. I believe every artist knows the story is in the unconscious and the book, the song, the painting is put together by someone else. Creation is really a matter of incremental discovery, a gradual discovery of what already exists. In life itself, as in literature, it’s a terrible vanity, a terrible assumption to make plans.

For some reason, JLB's reflections remind me of a Dennis Lehane interview I once read. Lehane was asked if he would feature Patrick Kenzie & Angela Gennaro, his two most memorable characters, in any future novels. (If you haven't read this series, you still might remember them from the Ben Affleck-directed film, Gone Baby Gone.) Lehane wasn't certain if he would. Although he could easily imagine calling Kenzie & Gennaro up one day for another adventure, Lehane had to admit that - considering how much brutality he'd subjected them to over the course of five novels - he would not be @ all surprised if they refused to answer the phone.

As it turns out, they must have taken his call: I stumbled across Lehane's new Kenzie/Gennaro novel, Moonlight Mile, just today @ my local library.

In any case, I really enjoyed reading the interview w/Mr Burke and this glimpse @ how he approaches his craft. Anymore where that came from? Usually, I'd rather not know the mechanics behind a magician's tricks but I'd sure love to see how JLB puts these masterful performances together. Cheers!

[stevelee101]

Hi Gez,
I'm glad you enjoyed the interview I did with Jim. To be honest, the vast majority of it went into the article Pamala re-printed on this thread - there's was very little that didn't make the cut!
As an apsiring novelist myself, JLB's certainly an inpsiration.
Take care,
Steve

[pamela1951]

I certainly hope to hear from Dave and Cletus again. As a James Lee Burke convert at a later age, (once I heard one audio book, read by Will Patton, I was hooked for life) I devoured every single book, and can't wait for another. I must say that Mr. Patton is my favorite reader--if anyone else is narrating, I buy the book and read it myself. The descriptions by Mr. Burke are so true to form--I can hear the rain falling, the leaves rustling, the bad guy slinking through the dark--and Mr. Patton gives me goose bumps--as an older widow, his voice is better than anything I have had in many years!

[Moegreen4]

I certainly hope to hear from Dave and Cletus again. As a James Lee Burke convert at a later age, (once I heard one audio book, read by Will Patton, I was hooked for life) I devoured every single book, and can't wait for another. I must say that Mr. Patton is my favorite reader--if anyone else is narrating, I buy the book and read it myself. The descriptions by Mr. Burke are so true to form--I can hear the rain falling, the leaves rustling, the bad guy slinking through the dark--and Mr. Patton gives me goose bumps--as an older widow, his voice is better than anything I have had in many years!

Everything you said Pamela is my experience exactly. I didn't really get into books until 2008 with Lincoln lawyer being the first book. I had no idea who was good and what books and authors were considered great. Long story short, I discovered "rain gods" in the summer of 2009 on audible.com and absolutely fell in love with burkes books. I then downloaded "Pegasus Descending" and was hooked. Im also like you in only being able to listen to Patton. I read them if he isn't the reader. Getting in late on Dave, I really hope him and clete aren't gone for good.