On 2007-05-26 Stephanie DePue, Carolina Beach, NC USA wrote: ´Half of Paradise,´published in 1965, was James Lee Burke´s first published fictional effort. Not surprisingly, it shoots off many sparks that illuminate where he´s later going to go as a writer. He gives us powerful descriptions of his home territory, around New Orleans, Louisiana; both the natural and manmade environments; for his first time out, he´s pretty good on character development and dialogue, and he renders strong descriptions of people´s everyday lives, jobs, and family histories.
The novel reads as, probably is, three discrete novellas packaged together. It tells the story of JP Winfield, a penniless, orphaned sharecropper who discovers a talent for playing a 12-string guitar; it leads him into some prosperity and public notice, but his weaknesses are always with him. It also gives us Toussant Boudreaux, a black New Orleans dockworker who moonlights as a prizefighter, seems to have a promising career in that direction, but then takes a crippling injury. Finally it introduces Avery Broussard, descended of the area´s French-Spanish landowning families: but the land´s long gone, he´s working as a oil company roustabout, and he´s got a crippling alcohol dependency. If you see a pattern here, there is one. All three men are overwhelmed by their weaknesses; you´d have to call the book a downer. And without giving away too much of the plot, readers may learn more about Louisiana jails than many might care to.
Burke´s first novel introduces,in the Broussard segments, the character of black Ba´tiste, storied family servant, who will reappear in his later works. It further gives Broussard a wealthy high school girlfriend (a character that will also often reappear in his later works) the family name of Robichaux: that, of course, will later be the surname of his famous detective Dave Robichaux. It´s pretty clear that Burke was going to write his way into an outstanding future once his world view got a little less depressing. How much you want to read this first effort probably depends on how much you like the later work.. And summed up by saying Burke´s First Published Novel Shoots Sparks. Currently Half of Paradise has an overall rating of 4 over 10.
Half of Paradise can also be found in the following searches:
Hyperion claimed In this intense, fascinating story, Burke follows the lives of three young Louisiana men, each of whom finds himself in desperate circumstances. There´s Avery Broussard, the last survivor of a family of once prosperous land owners, who has a weakness for alcohol; J.P. Winfield, a poor singer and guitar player who rises to fame as a country music star, only to be destroyed by drug addiction; and Toussaint Boudreaux, a black longshoreman who moonlights as a heavyweight boxer. The destinies of these men are tragically intertwined in this debut novel that showcases Burke´s masterful and now-familiar style.
Item that are similar to Half of Paradise can be found at: