Sunday, August 13, 2017

Interview With Mystery Writer James Lee Burke - Jesus Out To Sea

Interview with  House of The Rising Sun

James Lee Burke is one of my favorite mystery writers. I've long been a fan of his books, especially his Dave Robicheaux series.
You know relations are going great with a publisher's publicist when she sends you, unsolicted, two books by an author you greatly admire, Mr. Burke, without you even requesting it. I thanked her and asked if I can interview him and she said sure.
So this here is the result, two books, one interview, with a theme running through the books of Katrina and Rita.
He has twice received the Edgar Award for Best Novel, for Black Cherry Blues in 1990 and Cimarron Rose in 1998.
He has two new books coming out.
First out, this week in fact, is Jesus Out To Series, a collection of short stories. We talk more about that in the interview.
The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel will be published on July 17. It is the 16th in the series. If you have not read the series you need to read at least one of them.
There is something very, well, Southern about the books, and not just that they take place near New Orleans. The pacing seems more slow, but in a good way, and Burke tackles the racial issues that still are a major part of life down there, maybe more on the surface where up here in the North it's, I think, dealt with less directly, which can be a blessing or a curse depending on your perspective.
In The Tin Roof Blowdown Detective Robicheaux and his department are ordered to investigate the shooting of two looters in a rich neighborhood. The looters had ransacked New Orlean's most powerful mobster.
Robicheaux, has been portrayed in major motion pictures by Alec Baldwin, Heaven's Prisoners, 1996, and Tommy Lee Jones, In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead , 2007.
Before becoming a best-selling novelist he worked as a reporter, a social worker, among other jobs.
I do these interviews, when possible, in two parts. For the first part I ask general biographical-type questions about the author, his style, his opinions on writing, etc. Then I finish the book(s) and ask a second set of questions as well as including follow-up questions to anything that needed, well, following up on from the first part.
Here then is the first part.
Scott: How would you describe to your readers your two upcoming books, Jesus Out To Sea and Tin Roof Blowdown?
James: Jesus Out to Sea is a collection of stories based in one fashion or another on my experience growing up and spending a large part of my life on the southern rim of the United States. I feel blessed in the knowledge that I probably belong to the last generation that will remember what we call "traditional America."

Scott: I noticed that, at least based on the publicity materials for the two books, both deal in some way with Louisiana life during and after Katrina. Is that coincidence? Or are there issues you are trying to raise?
James: Two of the stories (the title story included) in the story collection deal with Katrina or its aftermath. The Tin Roof Blowdown also deals with both Rita and Katrina and their consequences.

Scott: Do you have any thoughts on how the government and media responded to Katrina?
James: In regard to the question about governmental response to Katrina, I think the facts probably speak for themselves. New Orleans was destroyed. The destruction of the city actually began in the first administration of Ronald Reagan and the shot behind the ear was delivered in '05. Others can come to their own conclusions. The United States Coast Guard performed heroically. I think Mr. Bush's attitudes and behavior belong in a category that has no name.
Scott: I understand your short story, "Jesus Out To Sea," received enormous response after it was published in Esquire. What was that like?
James: The short story "Jesus Out to Sea" appeared in Esquire and was received with such enthusiasm by the readership that the editors have decided to return to the regular publication of fiction in their magazine. This obviously makes one feel very proud. But I also need to add that the editors at Esquire have been a fine group to work with and they do a fine job with both editing and formatting a story.
Scott: What do you think is the appeal of mystery stories?
James: I think all good narration contains an element of mystery and suspense. If it didn't, if the storyline were predictable, we would have no interest in reading it. I think the "crime novel" has replaced the sociological novel of the 1930s. I think the progenitor of that tradition is James M. Cain, who in my view is the most neglected writer in American literature.
Scott: What's the best part and worst part about being a best-selling writer?
James: The actor Ben Johnson once said, "What's the worst thing about getting old? Getting old." The best thing about being a best-selling writer is being a best-selling writer. More seriously, today I can write full time and pay the bills. But I learned long ago that success, like fashion, is a fickle companion and can leave one in the wink of an eye.
The second part of this interview will be published in the next few weeks after I finish the two new books.
Thanks again to Mr. Burke for his help and kindness.

I interviewed him about his two new books. Jesus Out to Sea, a collection of his short stories, came out in early June.
The Tin Roof Blowdown: A Dave Robicheaux Novel will be published on July 17. It is the 16th in the series. If you have not read the series you need to read at least one of them.
Here is the second half of that interview.
Scott: Do you think your past work as a social worker affected your writing style and writing product?
James: As a social worker on skid row in Los Angeles and on the south and east sides of the city, I learned a bit of what Michael Harrington called "the other America" is like. We lived on the Southside and saw first hand how the poor were exploited by slumlords and underhanded merchants. What was most striking was the obvious disrespect with which they were treated. I've put many experiences from that period of my life into my fiction.
Scott: You write so convincingly about alcoholism that a professor asked that I ask you about it. (If you choose not to answer I'll just delete this question.) But you write about it so well that I have to wonder if you've had your own struggle with alcoholism.
James: On the subject of alcoholism, tell the professor to go to an open meeting sometime and check it out.
In the stories narrated by Dave Robicheaux, we learn something about the nature of alcoholism and its deleterious influences. I think the portrayal is an accurate one. Many people have written me and have said the books have helped them in their recovery. That to me is one of the greatest rewards I have received as a writer.
Scott: There are still a huge percentage of people I encounter up where I live in Maryland whose reaction to the people in Louisiana is, "Well, stop your whining and just move." As someone speaking - through your books - for some of those people, what is your reaction to that way of thinking?
James: When I hear people indicate a lack of sympathy for the storm victims in Louisiana, and I have heard many such comments, I have little doubt about whom they voted for in the last two national elections. What occurred in New Orleans is national disgrace.
Regarding the attitude of people who are unsympathetic toward the victims of Katrina or Rita, I believe these folks are a small minority in comparison to the huge numbers of volunteers who went to New Orleans and other Louisiana cities in the aftermath of the storm. Also, enormous amounts of money have been given by goodhearted people all over the country. Americans are still, in my view, the most charitable people on the planet.
Scott: In the short story, "Jesus Out To Sea," you write what seems the closest to a criticism of the president that I've seen in your fiction and wonder if you would elaborate on whether it matches your own thinking
A guy sitting on his chimney with Walkman ears on says the president of the United States flew over and looked down from his plane at us. Then he went on to Washington. I don't think the story is true, though. If the president was really in that plane, he would have landed and tried to find out what kind of shape we were in. He would have gone to the Superdome and the Convention Center and talked to the people there and told them the country was behind them.
James: The president's behavior before and after Katrina made landfall seems to speak for itself. I subscribe to the psychoanalytic view that there is no mystery to the human personality. People are what they do, not what they think, not what they say. Mr. Bush's behavior, to my mind, is in a category that has no name.
Scott: What do you aspire to that you have not yet accomplished?
James: In regard to the future, I hope to write short stories and essays and novels until I catch the bus. I would like to write more about the Holland family and their place in Texas history. I also know some pretty good stories set in the 1950s, and I'd like to have a shot at adapting the short story "The Night Johnny Ace Died" for the screen. The life of a writer can be a great life. Every day is different; every kind of story is still waiting to be written. It's a great drama to be a part of. I hope to be a player in it for a few more innings.
Scott: You mention more than once in these two books how many votes David Duke got in an election. To what do you account his popularity? Is it possible that it's peaked, because up here in MD I've not heard his name in a few years.
James: Regarding the mention of an ex-Klansman in a couple of my books, he is less important than the social aberration he represents. The worst in us comes out when we're afraid. The demagogue, the dictator, the despot, the leader of a lynch mob all have one goal only and that is to seize power by inculcating fear in as many people as they can. Men like these help us convince ourselves that someone else is responsible for our problems. We scapegoat our brothers and commit atrocious deeds under flags and religious icons of every kind, but ultimately we murder every virtue we possess. Men like the fellow you mention pass quickly into history, but they leave behind a dirty fingerprint on the soul.
Thanks for having me on your blog.
Keep the faith, noble mon,
Thanks again to Mr. Burke. This interview, especially his final remark is a honor.

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