Burke on NOLA
James Lee Burke is interviewed about New Orleans/Katrina/his recent work at Critical Mass, the NBCC Blog. Here are some nice quotes:
The great wars of the twentieth century and the war we’ve been enmeshed in since 9/11 are about oil. If people wish to see the fate of this country under a petrochemical oligarchy, visit Louisiana. It’s not the past, it’s the future…The key to the novel is the epilogue. It’s not about the storm, it’s about the betrayal and abandonment of the people, the poorest of the poor. It’s about greed. And the same people wage war. People who never go themselves. They use the suffering they cause to validate their deeds. They are timeless.
August 3, 2007 2:36 pm 
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By Dr J, August 7, 2007 @ 12:53 pm
I picked up Burke’s Katrina novel, The Tin Roof Blowdown, on my maiden voyage to Wordsmith’s last week and read it while on vacation in the NC mountains. I was prepared to enjoy and get more out of it than any of the other Dave Robicheaux mysteries I’ve read, and I wasn’t a bit disappointed.
I don’t read terribly many books in this genre so I don’t have much to compare him to, but I can’t believe that anyone plays with and within the hardboiled cliches of mystery writing than Burke does. Sense of place is crucial in all of the great mystery writers that I’ve read, and I don’t know of anyone who has done it better than Burke has in evoking South Louisiana.
So the guy clearly knows the place, and the clusterfuck of Katrina–not so much the storm as the response–gave Burke an expansive canvas on which to paint this story of race, class, crime, inhumanity, care, murder, fun, art, and love. I guess that kind of sums it up. Dave and Clete got up to all of their usual hijinks, but the stakes seemed immensely higher in this one.
Anyway, Burke’s is an important voice, and I hope that people who might not otherwise think much about this man-made disaster will think more about it after reading this great book.
By Tim, August 7, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
Man, you’re more than halfway to an excellent post on the book. If only there were some sort of convenient venue…
I just finished it myself. You’re right on the money. Post coming soon.