Jolie Blon’s Bounce

I often struggle with JLB, most times I feel like I waited entirely too long to become a fan and sometimes I wonder if I would have really appreciated and understood his style at any earlier age. Jolie Blon’s Bounce is the work that has really epitomized that internal dilemma.

In this book I realized that most of the Robicheaux series is constructed around a tight formula. Something occurs to set Dave into motion, and he of the eternal good heart bounces around off of the lives of the guilty and innocent alike, and irritating the sheriff in the process. His blunderbuss weapon of choice, Clete Purcell, wields mayhem and chaos while getting his heart broken by an unlikely cast of lovers. Dave and Clete take turns saving one another, and sometimes justice gets served to all. The thing is, I am ok with this formula. JLB writes the characters and the places so well, I want to experience them over and over again. JLB certainly delivers in this book.

In Jolie Blon’s Bounce, JLB seems to have made an important transition though. Where previously he seemed to flirt with the supernatural in the battle between good and true evil (setting aside In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead), this time JLB seems to have openly embraced those things that roam the darkness beyond site and consciousness, by giving them worldly shapes. An interesting observation for an aging character, living in the mind of an aging writer.

This novel in the series seems more down to earth. People you’d expect to live in that part of Louisiana. Helped by the first characters you meet, central to the plot, not being gangsters. They are people you can believe live In New Iberia. A nice change to the series. Dave’s Vietnam Nam past is hauntingly evident in his behavior. There is a surreal element. Was a person from his past real, or was there a force inside, or outside him, protecting him from himself.

While Dave Robicheaux has always had his surreal visions (most of which are alcohol induced) the hazy dry drunk days and images of confederate legions, along with the cool vintage Bayou Blues score, he has never ventured into John Connolly’s true war between supernatural armies of good and evil in his Charlie Parker series until now. Burke should really stick to what he knows–the music, the culture, the scenery and the complicated, layered struggle of Dave’s personal demons are worth the read. In Jolie Blon’s Bounce Burke contrives a literal angelic “deus ex machina” to battle an ancient demon (pulled right out of the pages of a Charlie Parker novel) and in time to pull Dave Robicheaux out of a supernatural jam. There are so many worthwhile and often tragic moments in these novels and Robicheaux is easy to root for. In Jolie Blon’s Bounce Burke seems to have lost his way and tried to possess another author’s character within a novel in which the horror of possession is more of a distraction than a worthwhile theme.

In this novel, the reader is taken down a mysterious, sometimes theological journey into the human psyche. Dave and Clete come face to face with what may be the incarnation of evil. The main plot is somewhat cluttered with subplots, minor characters and rambling descriptions of the horizon or landscape, but its still an intriguing adventure! Legion Guidry is not someone youll easily forget.

Last night I finished re-reading Jolie Blon’s Bounce and I think I loved it better this time than I did when I first read it five years ago. It is part of Burke’s terrific Dave Robicheaux series set in New Iberia, Louisiana and it seethes with atmosphere from alligators peering through Spanish moss hung trees to the ominous dark clouds laced with lightning hovering over the Gulf of Mexico but not coming ashore to relieve the relentless drought and heat. Dave Robicheaux may be one of the most interesting characters in American literature, a tormented cop with a history of addiction and bad luck with women. James Lee Burke may be one of the best writers in American literature with a gift for description, of both characters and settings, that is so finely-tuned you are rarely aware of the writing you get so lost in the story.

So the last few evenings I’ve been deep into New Iberia amid a cast of zydeco musicians, gangsters, Cajun fishermen, corrupt cops, good cops battling personal demons, and the offspring of plantation slaves. Two of the characters in particular, the relentlessly evil Cajun plantation overseer Legion Guidry and the mysterious Vietnam vet Sal Angelo, may not even be of this world. The ending is a little unsettling because we still aren’t quite sure what happened but for me, that’s good stuff. I’ve never been a fan of too-neat endings.

I am a reader who is very particular about the writing technique of the author. If an author’s style is so noticeable that it distracts from the story I have a hard time sticking with the story. When I read fiction I want to get lost, totally lost with no distracting reminder that this is a story written by someone who has some stylistic quirks. I never have to worry with James Lee Burke.

While I have a lot of respect for writers of contemporary gothic novels with lots of creepy creatures, like Anne Rice, Charlaine Harris and Stephanie Meyer, I can’t get enough of writers like Burke who can weave a spell that sucks me into a dark and mysterious world, dazzles my imagination, and leaves me a little unsure of what just happened.

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