Another James Lee Burke's Detective Dave Robicheau book bites the dust. This time it was Cadillac Jukebox, a tale of southern politics, the effects of segregation, and a sampling of murders, revenge and other dastardly deeds performed by seedy characters. (You know, reading the Robicheau books I'm beginning to be reminded of the chariot race in Ben Hur. Every time Charlton Heston and his nemesis—can't remember the character's name or the actor ((greypanther?))—would make it 'round the track, one of a row of fish would flop over. Each time when it happened, I'd mutter, "Four fish to go, three fish to go, etc.") As with all the Detective Dave novels, I ploughed through Burke's description to find a story, good enough to convince me to read another. And there were high spots:
1) At one point Burke made an interesting choice in writing. Detective Dave is being pursued by an old flame. One night he's sleeping in a hotel. He partially wakes up when a female enters his room, arouses him, climbs on top and inserts penis. He's expecting his wife to arrive during the night so he's happily going along with the seduction (rape?) until he opens his eyes, sees that it's the old flame and pushes her off. At that point the scene ends. The next morning he's having coffee with a fellow officer and describes what happened. Turns out the wife arrived when while the old flame was dressing. Now, I'm wondering why he didn't write the arrival scene. It sure would have been dramatic. I wonder if he wrote it, then decided skipping it was better, or if he instinctively knew the omission was the way to go. Whichever, it worked, and I'm certainly filing the technique away for use. (PS: I'm not talking about the technique when an author ends a scene mid-drama and jumps years ahead—see John Irving's The World According to Garp or Galveston by a Suzanne Morris. What impressed me here was jumping the dramatic scene entirely and having that work.)
2) Of course, sometimes the extra word can work—even when used by someone who habitually describes in too much detail. Here Dave encounters a man who's not particularly glad to see him. "'You again. Like bubble gum under the shoe,' Buford said." (page 243) IMHO, specifying bubble adds a necessay zing.
3) "Presidents who had never heard a shot fired in anger vicariously revised the inadequacy of their own lives by precipitating suffering in the lives of others, and they were lauded for it." (pages 288-289) It surprised me to see that the book's publication date, 1996, was pre-Bush. I just knew Lee was talking about Bush. Premonition?
4) "… I saw some Kit Carsons bind the wrists of captured Viet Cong and wrap towels around their faces and pour water onto the cloth a canteen at a time until they were willing to trade their own families for a teaspoon of air." (page 368) Isn't that, at a minimum, water-boarding lite? I didn't think anyone from the US did that until after 9-11.
Enough details. Summing up the whole book: six fish to go.
