The
Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke/373pp/PB/abstract by Barry Knight aka Lurleen Playfair
James Lee Burke has honed his craft so well that some readers may believe they''''re reading a true story of
New Orleans at the
time of Hurricane Katrina. It is not until Chapter Four that Burke mentions Clete Purcel, one of the ungoing main characters in his Dave Robicheaux series.
Most of New Iberia''''s tiny police force, for which Dave works as a detective, moves to New Orleans to help their fellow officers of the NOPD. In the midst of the ugly mess caused by Katrina, they have to confront some ugly people who see their chance for a big score.
Burke weaves scenes of Katrina''''s destruction into the tapestry of human violence he''''s creating and these scenes, whether real or fictional, strike us with the same sledgehammer force as any picture of that time seen on television or the Internet, or in a newspaper or magazine. The human detritus that blows through all of Burke''''s novels neatly parallels the Katrina-wrought detritus in this one. It is all mesmerizing.
J. L. Burke takes no prisoners when it comes to the Federal Government''''s efforts to help Louisiana. In effect, he says, they treated us(Burke lives half the year in Louisiana)more like a distant Third World country than like one of the states that make up this union they were elected to govern and succour in time of need. It is an indictment that comes up again and again as the horrors brought by Katrina are ignored or given Band-Aid solutions by Washington and the Bush Administration
In the chaos that is New Orleans after the hurricane, J. L. Burke''''s characters engage in a surreal dance through the city and the reader quickly realizes that the hunters and the hunted will inevitably meet and that this meeting will result in a horrid mirror image of the ghastliness sweeping the city.
At times this novel, set as it is against a background of grim reality, is almost too painful to read. This is not the most enjoyable of Burke novels . . . that honor, for me, still goes to "In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead" . . . but "The Tin Roof Blowdown" may be Mr.Burke''''s best.
A major aspect of this man''''s talent lies in his ability to appeal to our senses. The sights, sounds, and(especially in this story)the smells of a decaying, death-ridden city suggests a real rather than a fictional world.
Burke does not disappoint us with his cast of characters, either. The list includes four hundred pound men, three hundred pound prostitutes, gays, nuns, priests, FBI agents, dopers, shooters, sadists, smugglers, pimps, meth heads, pot heads, psychos, gamblers, rapists, looters, and dishonest cops. This is not a novel for the weak of stomach. The horrors inflicted by Hurricane Katrina barely outstrip those inflicted by the small and big time lowlifes created by the J. L. Burke.
The nasty brain behind much of the theft, torture, and killing belongs to one Sydney Kovick, a florist and one of New Orleans'''' crime bosses. He moves in and out of the novel like some dark puppet master. He is connected to the Mob, al Queda, and the "blood diamonds" that he has stolen and are stolen from him during the chaos. Kovick''''s attempts to get "his" prperty back drives much of the action and violence.
The climax will leave you in a cold sweat. For days after i read it, scenes from "The Tin Roof Blowdown" kep flitting across my mind. Don''''t miss this one!