Bitterroot

Rating:
Summary: "Bitterroot" it Ain't !
Review: Having recently become a James Lee Burke fan and having read several of the Dave Robicheaux novels, I wanted to read "Bitterroot" because I happen to live in the center of the Bitterroot Valley and thought a Burke novel centered in my own "back yard" would be a fun read. However, I have to admit that my expectatations were not met, because easily 90% of the book takes place in locations outside the Bitterroot Valley. Missoula, Seeley Lake, Potomic, Jocko Valley, etc. are not within the Bitterroot, and most of the locations are a good half days drive. As far as the story goes, Burke has his usual bucket full of ner-do-wells and hero's with psychological problems themselves and everyone gets whats coming to them in the end, as it should be! A note of explanation to the reader is that they should remember that this is a fictional story. The human scum Burke writes about, outlaw bikers, white supremests, mafia bosses, and militia compounds are NOT found in the Bitterroot ! I wouldn't want to hear of anyone cancelling a planned vacation here out of fear of running into any of the lower life forms described in the book. All in all, I did like the story, but have to admit that the Robicheaux novels are Burkes best ! Keep them coming and send Billy Bob Holland back to Texas !

Rating:
Summary: Worth the read, not my favorite Burke novel...
Review: I admit I'm a stronger fan of the Dave Robicheaux novels. But I can't pass up an opportunity to jump into the world created by James Lee Burke. In *Bitterroot*, Burke pits good vs. evil against a striking backdrop sure to please fans of the genre.

Billy Bob Holland is a former Texas Ranger, father of a musician Texas A&M student and carrying around the baggage (and ghost apparently) of accidentally murdering his partner. An old friend, Doc Voss, invites Holland up to Montana for some fishing and companionship, but Holland gets more than he bargained for.

Within hours, Holland is thrown in the middle of a regional dispute over mining and cyanide use, which then evolves into a crowd of baddies no lawman would want to get involved in.
Chapter after chapter, injustice after injustice, Holland reaches his limit, especially when Holland's assistant come girlfriend is attacked. With the assistance or possibly the interference of the ATF, the local sheriff and Voss, Holland works to find closure with the villains around him.

Overall, it was a decent read. I think I'm still a Robicheax fan, but I won't hesitate to read more about Billy Bob.

Rating:
Summary: Enough is enough
Review: I always look forward to Burke's work. But it has finally grown wearisome. And more predictable and violent. Turn to any page of this novel and you can find some depravity. It is almost cartoonish. And where is the great writing that has characterized Burke's work in the past? This book is essentially a parody of his past work. He is a wonderful writer whose first Holland novel seemed to offer wonderful promise. It's a promise not fulfilled.

Rating:
Summary: Bitterroot leaves a bitter taste
Review: I am long-time admirer of James Lee Burke's books and I think I have read all of his Dave Robicheaux novels, as well as a few others set in different locales. Let's hope he soon returns to Louisiana. Montana does not seem to provide him with the same inspiration. Bitterroot reads like a bad parody of Ernest Hemingway, overlaid with a patter of homespun philosophy and pop psyschology. It is filled with tortured similes and other forced descriptive devices. Perhaps his publisher expects a new book each year, but I would prefer to wait longer rather than seeing a fine writer waste his talent..

Rating:
Summary: 3* Compared to His Others 4* Compared to Everyone Else
Review: I have 1st editions of everything Jimmie Lee Burke has written and have enjoyed my impressions of this outwardly gentle and private man from his readings at book signings. Authors can't always be on target, this book isn't. Yet while the book doesn't really hit its mark like "Purple Cane Road", it's a lot better than some of the other drek out there that won't get this close on their best day. Don't waste your time with the movie of Robicheaux's early exploits. That said. . . .

Billy Bob Holland, a Deaf Smith Texas attorney visits an old Texas neighbor Doc. Voss in the Bitterroot Valley in Montana. This is the second time Burke has written about this amazingly beautiful part of the West. I preferred the previous story "The Lost Get-Back Boogie" both for the story and descriptions of Montana.

The "mystery" is who killed an undesirable biker "brain dead misogynists" that Doc Voss had recently damaged in a fight, resulting in Doc's arrest and need to go to trial. The mystery becomes less and less germane to the story as we guess early on who the murderer is.

Why Do These People Talk to Each Other This Way & why do they take it when being addressed in such offensive fashion? I live in the West and normally peaceful people would not talk this way to anyone unless armed and ready to fight, certainly not every waking moment. The characters in Dave Robicheaux's world in Southern Louisiana talk this way; it's a Burke trademark of dialogue but it's losing it's appeal. Perhaps it's meant to be abstract. Normal conversation in which people reflect a bit more beforehand, and are not trying to offend or hurt someone's feelings would be welcome. Maybe the intention towards the other person in all the book's conversations is expressed early on in the book by Cleo Lonnigan "Sometimes if you confess your real thoughts, people will be afraid of you." The protagonist, Billy Bob says to his romantic interest "With regularity I say the wrong things to you, I just don't want to do that anymore." Yet it seems until the very end, he doesn't change saying "the wrong things" to her and everyone else in the book.

The book becomes overpopulated with characters, many of whom follow Billy Bob to Montana, including Billy Bob's 18 year old son, a potential girl friend and a very well drawn villain who speaks in an amusing but unlikely fashion. Some of the superfluous characters in the story include BATF agents. Their involvement appears to be an attempt to make a connection between the Oklahoma City bombing and a militia group in the area. That plot detour goes nowhere and the three agents seem to be acting in an unlikely renegade fashion.

Doc Voss is not developed very well and just about everyone seems to have a deathwish based on their actions. The overriding current is not found where everyone wants to fish, it's made up of violence. Just about everyone is a whole lot more self-destructive than the people I've encountered in my 56 years. When I've found people like them, they sure didn't concentrate in one place like they do here. As a minor character says to Billy Bob "You must put away your violence, sir. You will never have peace until you do. Until that day comes, a minister such as I will only be a seashell echoing in the wind." "Seashell echoing in the wind"? How come I don't know anyone that talks like that?

I have to wonder if Robicheaux/Holland are just wearing out. The sheriff is well described, especially when he "walked away heavily, like a man who knew his knowledge of the world would never have an influence on it." The rest of the characters confirm Billy Bob's observation "it's presumptuous to assume a common moral belief governs us all."

In addition to beautiful descriptions of the Montana scenery and wildlife, most of which resonate & delight, there are enjoyable and startling for their unadorned clarity, descriptions of character's passage of emotions. "Eventually he would forgive Sue Lynn, not at once, not by a conscious choice or arriving at a philosophical moment, but instead one day he would look back through the inverted telescope of time and see her as possessed of the same moral frailties as himself and hence, in memory, an acceptable part of his life again." It's passages like that which will keep me going back to Jimmie Lee Burke.

Rating:
Summary: More Like 3.7 Stars
Review: I liked this book one whole heck of a lot but it also disturbed me on many levels as well. There are 4 main heros pitted agienst an equal number of bad guys. Billy Bob, his son, Doc and his daughter I also enjoyed the characte1r of the sheiff in the town but I guess he really doesn't count as a "Good Guy" because he is just doing his job.

The three bad guys are Clayton Dixon(the most menicing charcter in the book), Terry Witherspoon his annoying psychopath in training and a mobster who is about as stereotypical as they come.

Barring all of these it's a great book for what it is, there are good guys you can root for and bad guys you can hate. People familiar with a few James Lee Burke books will also take note there is also a ghost and several crazy people rounding out the cast something that no self respecting James Lee Berke book would be without.

Overall-I loved the character development, the thing that killed this book was the many plot threads and that its villains were disposed of much too easily and conveniently I almost felt cheated when the book was over. This is a book that will be perfect for long distance driving, because it keeps a listener or reader interested but not OVER interested.

Rating:
Summary: More Like 3.7 Stars
Review: I liked this book one whole heck of a lot but it also disturbed me on many levels as well. There are 4 main heros pitted agienst an equal number of bad guys. Billy Bob, his son, Doc and his daughter I also enjoyed the characte1r of the sheiff in the town but I guess he really doesn't count as a "Good Guy" because he is just doing his job.

The three bad guys are Clayton Dixon(the most menicing charcter in the book), Terry Witherspoon his annoying psychopath in training and a mobster who is about as stereotypical as they come.

Barring all of these it's a great book for what it is, there are good guys you can root for and bad guys you can hate. People familiar with a few James Lee Burke books will also take note there is also a ghost and several crazy people rounding out the cast something that no self respecting James Lee Berke book would be without.

Overall-I loved the character development, the thing that killed this book was the many plot threads and that its villains were disposed of much too easily and conveniently I almost felt cheated when the book was over. This is a book that will be perfect for long distance driving, because it keeps a listener or reader interested but not OVER interested.

Rating:
Summary: Boy Howdy Billy Bob!
Review: I listened to the unabridged audio version while traveling the highways and biways of the Upper Midwest. The reader, Tom Stechschulte, is a joy to hear. The voicing of the characters is fine! And what a cast of characters it is: Billy Bob Holland, an attorney/former Texas Ranger (the Law Enforcement kind - not G.W.'s former baseball team) and his friends and relatives along with foils including white supremicists, semi-unemployed mafioso, despoilers of the environment, "Tree-huggers," and a sociopathically sinister rodeo clown.

The problem with *listening* to James Lee Burke's writing while driving down the highway is that it would be detrimental to oneself and one's fellow travelers to attempt to contemporaneously write down some of the linguistic jewels one encounters. One zinger was a comment on a particularly syrupy Okie drawl of which, to the best of my recollection, Burke said, "If Shakespeare had heard such a permutation of the English language, Old Will would have written all his stuff in Mandarin Chinese!"

Another drawback of *listening* while driving is that one cannot pause, in the middle of the freeway, to draw charts with circles and arrows to keep clear on who is affilliated with whom, who offed whom, and why. But it was an excellent sojourn in Montana, and I encourage you to take the trip. As a special bonus extra tape, the Unabridged Audio version (I got this at my local library) has a very interesting and illuminating interview with the intelligent and hyper-articulate James Lee Burke. I will definitely be going back and listening to Stechschulte's racountment of this gang's first adventure: "Cimarron Rose." Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: JAMES LEE BURKE IS ONE OF THE BEST WRITERS IN AMERICA TODAY!
Review: I made a promise to myself after reading HEARTWOOD last year that I'd buy the next "Billy Bob Holland" novel in hardback when it came out, rather than waiting for the paperback edition. It's a promise I'm glad I kept. In James Lee Burke's newest novel, BITTERROOT, ex-Texas Ranger Billy Bob Holland is back in true form, ready to protect his family and friends, and to put down anyone who gets in his face. When Billy Bob goes to Bitterroot, Montana to visit his old friend, Tobin "Doc" Voss, he expects to have a nice, relaxing vacation with maybe a little "fly" fishing thrown in. It turns out, however, to be anything but relaxing. It seems that a local mining company is polluting the rivers around Bitterroot with cyanide and Doc Voss is trying to put a stop to it. The mining company decides to fight back by hiring some hard-nose bikers and members of a certain white supremacist group (led by Carl Hinkel) to try and intimidate Doc. Since Doc is a former SEAL and did his fair share of killing in Vietnam, he's not the kind of guy who generally backs down. When Doc's sixteen-year-old daughter, Maisey, is brutally raped by three bikers, everything takes a turn for the worse. The men suspected of the crime are released from jail due to a lack of evidence and then are murdered, one by one, by an unknown assailant. Because of evidence found at the crime scenes, Doc is the number one suspect for the murders, and he has to ask Billy Bob to represent him as his lawyer. As if Billy Bob doesn't have enough to deal with, an ex-con by the name of Wyatt Dixon shows up in Bitterroot, seeking revenge against the former Texas Ranger for the death of his sister (a woman who killed all of her children). Then, there's a mobster by the name of Nicki Molinari, who's trying to retrieve some stolen money from a woman Billy Bob happens to be sexually involved with. All of this is just the tip of the iceberg. Before the novel is over, the body count is going to be sky high, and Billy Bob is going to have to answer some tough questions about love, family, friendship, and his violent nature. Not even the ghost of his late friend and partner, L.Q. Navarro, will be able to help him with this. In BITTERROOT, James Lee Burke shines at his brightest as he juggles a dozen or more subplots, spinning and weaving them into a gripping tale of violence, suspense and redemption. The character of Billy Bob Holland will have to delve deeply into his heart and examine his feelings for his close friend, Carol Temple, while at the same time, acknowledging that his son, Lucas, is now a man and must be allowed to make his own decisions, right or wrong. Billy Bob must also find a way to deal with his violent tendencies, understanding that he only feels alive when putting down men who deserve to be killed. This is especially true for the character of Wyatt Dixon, a man who's as deadly as a rattlesnake and is determine to teach Billy Bob a thing or two about revenge by going after the people he loves the most. Though the book is filled dozens of main and secondary characters, Mr. Burke manages to breathe life into each and everyone one of them through the use of individual quirks and nuances. Few authors have the skill to do this. The writing, of course, is sheer poetry to read. Mr. Burke has a finely tuned ear for dialogue and a vivid eye for description, bringing words together that reach into the reader's heart and soul, making him or her at one with the story. I have to say that, after three novels, the character of Billy Bob Holland is beginning to remind me more and more of Dave Robicheaux. Both men are filled with guilt at the lost of a close friend or wife. Each one also has a strong loyalty to friends and family, not to mention a strict code of honor that enables them to do whatever is necessary in order to protect the weak and innocent. There's even a rumor floating around that Mr. Burke will eventually bring both characters together in one book. That is definitely something all of Mr. Burke's fans would happily die for. Read BITTERROOT and find out why James Lee Burke is now considered to be one of America's best writers, then check out the "Dave Robicheaux" novel, PURPLE CANE ROAD, and discover why millions of people are addicted to this great author.

Rating:
Summary: This is as good a book as Burke's ever written.
Review: I read a review of this in _Booklist_ or _Library Journal_ or somewhere which suggested that the characters of Billy Bob Holland and David Robicheaux were becoming almost indistinguishable. So I was very worried about how this book would read, since this is something I've noted before, particularly in the last Billy Bob book, _Heartwood_, which really did read like a retread of a Dave Robicheaux book (_Cadillac Jukebox_), with little but the names of characters changed. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Even though he's dealing with the same concerns that he deals with in other books, _Bitterroot_ is entirely new and different territory for James Lee Burke.

Perhaps it's because the setting has moved from Texas to Montana, also the setting for the Edgar-winning _Black Cherry Blues_ from his Robicheaux series. But this doesn't read like a retread of the Robicheaux books. It's got the same mix of dangerous, lowlife characters whom our protagonist can't seem to stop stirring up. But the fresh locations help to revive and invigorate the proceedings.

Billy Bob isn't just a mirror image of Dave Robicheaux--he's much more extreme than Dave. His attraction to violence seems much more ingrained and difficult to overcome, and he spends quite a bit of his time in the book musing about this fact. Sometimes, you just want to whack Billy Bob (or Dave, for that matter) on the head and tell him to stop messing around with the lowlifes, but he just can't seem to help it. And, ultimately, this is what we read Burke for: the battle of good vs. evil.

Coming on the heels of _Purple Cane Road_, _Bitterroot_ suggests that Burke has found a second wind to his writing and I, for one, could not be more excited to see what's next.