Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 13, 1993 TAG: 9306130003
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO, Book page editor
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On a recent publicity tour for his newest book, he stopped in Washington for signings at book stores and a reading at the Smithsonian. The tour had been going well with impressive crowds and sales. His publisher, Hyperion, had even set him up at the Four Seasons, one of D.C.'s classier joints.
But his popular and critical success hasn't come easy. After winning some prizes early in his career, and being hailed as a rising star in mainstream fiction, Burke found himself out of fashion. "In 1985 I was completely out of print," he said.
"I had a 13 year period in which I was always writing but I couldn't publish anything in hardback. I published one novel is paperback and I published quite a few short stories in good magazines like Atlantic and Southern Review, but I couldn't sell ice water in hell in hardback."
Then fellow writer and friend Rick DeMoranis suggested that he try crime fiction. Burke wrote two chapters of `The Neon Rain' and sent them to Charles Williford, another old buddy from Miami, who gave him some good advice. "When I was finished," he said, "the agent submitted it simultaneously to three houses and all three made bids on it. I was stunned.
"Since that time, my other work all went back in print. One was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. I received a Guggenheim Fellowship. "Black Cherry Blues' won an Edgar for best crime novel of 1989. I learned my lesson. I had a lot of success as a young writer, and success is a fickle girlfriend. It comes and it goes.
"I learned also during that period that you don't write any more for the success or the money because you won't find it that way. Also, it will drive you mad if you write for other reasons.
"On the business side of the ledger, find the right people, the people that you trust who came into your career before your success and put your faith in them. Because you can have all the business friends you want after you're successful. When you're in tall cotton, you tend to acquire a lot of people who are there for the season. But when the weather gets dry and the hot wind blows, they're gone, partner, and you're still standing there in the cotton patch."
The first three novels in the Robicheaux series are a trilogy. " `The Neon Rain' deals with transitions, beginning with Dave Robicheaux's odyssey out of alcoholism and into sobriety. The second novel, `Heaven's Prisoners' deals with loss, absolute descent into the abyss -- the murder of his wife -- then a descent almost into madness. The third book, `Black Cherry Blues,' deals with atonement and redemption when Dave Robicheaux finally is able to put aside the anger that drives him."
The new novel, "In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead," comes from a different literary source. "The appearance of the apparition of John Bell Hood is my attempt at `Le Morte Darthur' by Thomas Mallory. It's the Arthurian legend about the knight who promises to return to his people in their time of need. He represents the uncompromising spirit that has a vision of the land." But Dave Robicheaux -- a complex, driven, stubborn, fully human character -- is at the heart of these novels, and he's the reason for their success. "I hope the books are of some help to people who have shared certain experiences. I can't count the number of letters written to me as well as the people who've come up to me at signings and readings who tell me how the books have helped them, perhaps in their own lives or recovery or in dealing with certain traumatic experiences.
"It makes you feel pretty good to have done something helpful in someone else's life. I feel very fortunate that the novels have been so successful, but their success is far beyond my wildest expectations."
That popular success is something of a mystery because Dave Robicheaux is not a conventionally warm, easy-to-take hero. He's a hardheaded cuss who makes things tough on himself and everyone around him. What's the attraction?
Burke answered with a smile, "The tragic protagonist is usually flawed. He overextends his limits. This is the nature of tragedy. But these are also the kinds of people who lead us away from ourselves. We never learn from rational people who adapt themselves to the world. It is the people who, in effect, decide sometimes to do outrageous things.
"Like Dave says, when you pitch, you throw spitters, sliders, whatever and then sometimes in the interest of batter humility, there's nothing like a 90 mile-an-hour forkball at the head."
by CNB