THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN: A DAVE ROBICHEAUX NOVEL, by James Lee Burke, Simon and Schuster, 373 pages, $26
In a love letter to New Orleans, noted crime writer James Lee Burke begins his latest novel, "The Tin Roof Blowdown," with the ravages of war. He then writes:
"But that was before Katrina. That was before a storm with greater impact than the bomb blast that struck Hiroshima peeled the face off southern Louisiana. That was before one of the most beautiful cities in the Western Hemisphere was killed three times, and not just by the forces of nature."
The hero in his story is Jude LeBlanc, who smiles a lot and always exhibits self-confidence. Like a lot of other people in Burke's book, LeBlanc is a "sojourner in the Garden of Gethsemane," a childhood friend of Detective Robicheaux.
LeBlanc is a priest who is also a morphine addict, and his Lower Ninth Ward congregation is hit hard by Katrina. His boat is missing, probably stolen.
Just as Cormac McCarthy eloquently told the story of a boy and his father traveling across the country at a time of annihilation in "The Road," Burke comes to grips — as perhaps no other author has — with Hurricane Katrina.
His story includes looters on boats, refugees on rooftops and black diamonds stashed in dry wall. The characters include Otis Baylor, a mild-mannered insurance agent; Sidney Kovick, a mobster known to be expert with a chainsaw; Ronald Bledsoe, a degenerate claiming to be a private eye; and Bernard Melancon, a rapist who grew up on the streets of the Ninth Ward.
Burke, who lives in both Louisiana and Montana, knows New Orleans completely, so when he builds fictional characters into the actual events known as Katrina, it gives the reader chills. Burke is much more than a crime writer — he is a literary artist who appreciates the work of Steinbeck, Hemingway, Flannery O'Connor and Sherwood Anderson.
He especially loves William Faulkner, and it shows through strongly in his work — description and emotion rolled into one. This could be the book on Katrina.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com