Michael B. (Ichabod) reviewed Another Kind of Eden (Holland Family, Bk 3) on + 109 more book reviews
Remembering America ``great again"... the early 1960's... the country was wholesome and innocent, it was a time of Camelot -- peace and love filled the air. Father knew best, we made room for daddy, and while Hazel tidied the house Ozzie was searching for Tutti-Frutti ice cream for little Ricky and David.
This was the facade. This was not Mayberry.
In James Lee Burke's "Another Kind of Eden" Aaron Holland Broussard is an aspiring writer wandering across the great wide western states, hopping trains and working on farms, just trying to make an honest living. Beneath Eden's surface things are not so perfect, not always as they appear. Those in power use brute force to maintain control over the disadvantaged. Any mention of the word "union" is an incitement for violence. The respected beacons of the community, the people Aaron looks up to, harbor dark corrupt secrets. Even the dawn of the hippie flower child culture feels the contamination of narcotics.
A hidden undercurrent runs through Aaron, too. An overwhelming force compels him to stop the wrongs he sees behind the facade, all while he wrestles with demons and flashbacks from his Korean war trauma. In the aftermath of these blackouts he is left to wonder what violence he summoned to answer the evil.
There is a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" in the prologue. That story, set in the time of Salem's witch trials, concludes with the world turning upside down for the main character. He travels a nightmarish journey culminating in the revelation that the people he counted on are aligned with the devil. Aaron has the same experience. His blackouts, time-tripping, and hallucinations meet with the supernatural in a showdown smashing his reality like a wrecking ball.
James Lee Burke's previous novel, "A Private Cathedral'', also introduced a supernatural vein into his work. His protagonist in that book (and in dozens of others), Dave Robicheaux, is also a moral but flawed man driven to violence when confronted with pure evil. In these works the villainy is manifesting itself stronger than ever and is dealt with accordingly.
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With 5 stars I highly recommend this book as I would all James Lee Burke's work.
This was the facade. This was not Mayberry.
In James Lee Burke's "Another Kind of Eden" Aaron Holland Broussard is an aspiring writer wandering across the great wide western states, hopping trains and working on farms, just trying to make an honest living. Beneath Eden's surface things are not so perfect, not always as they appear. Those in power use brute force to maintain control over the disadvantaged. Any mention of the word "union" is an incitement for violence. The respected beacons of the community, the people Aaron looks up to, harbor dark corrupt secrets. Even the dawn of the hippie flower child culture feels the contamination of narcotics.
A hidden undercurrent runs through Aaron, too. An overwhelming force compels him to stop the wrongs he sees behind the facade, all while he wrestles with demons and flashbacks from his Korean war trauma. In the aftermath of these blackouts he is left to wonder what violence he summoned to answer the evil.
There is a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" in the prologue. That story, set in the time of Salem's witch trials, concludes with the world turning upside down for the main character. He travels a nightmarish journey culminating in the revelation that the people he counted on are aligned with the devil. Aaron has the same experience. His blackouts, time-tripping, and hallucinations meet with the supernatural in a showdown smashing his reality like a wrecking ball.
James Lee Burke's previous novel, "A Private Cathedral'', also introduced a supernatural vein into his work. His protagonist in that book (and in dozens of others), Dave Robicheaux, is also a moral but flawed man driven to violence when confronted with pure evil. In these works the villainy is manifesting itself stronger than ever and is dealt with accordingly.
Â
With 5 stars I highly recommend this book as I would all James Lee Burke's work.
