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White Doves at Morning
For years, critics have acclaimed the power of James Lee Burke's writing, the luminosity of his prose, the psychological complexity of his characters, the richness of his landscapes. Over the course of twenty novels and one collection of short stories, he has developed a loyal and dedicated following among both critics and general readers. His thrillers, featuring either Louisiana cop Dave Robicheaux or Billy Bob Holland, a hardened Texas-based lawyer, have consistently appeared on national bestseller lists, making Burke one of America's most celebrated authors of crime fiction.
Now, in a startling and brilliantly successful departure, Burke has written a historical novel -- an epic story of love, hate, and survival set against the tumultuous background of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
At the center of the novel are James Lee Burke's own ancestors, Robert Perry, who comes from a slave-owning family of wealth and privilege, and Willie Burke, born of Irish immigrants, a poor boy who is as irreverent as he is brave and decent. Despite their personal and political conflicts with the issues of the time, both men join the Confederate Army, choosing to face ordeal by fire, yet determined not to back down in their commitment to their moral beliefs, to their friends, and to the abolitionist woman with whom both have become infatuated.
One of the most compelling characters in the story, and the catalyst for much of its drama, is Flower Jamison, a beautiful young black slave befriended, at great risk to himself, by Willie and owned by -- and fathered by, although he will not admit it -- Ira Jamison. Owner of Angola Plantation, Ira Jamison is a true son of the Old South and also a ruthless businessman, who, after the war, returns to the plantation and re-energizes it by transforming it into a penal colony, which houses prisoners he rents out as laborers to replace the slaves who have been emancipated.
Against all local law and customs, Flower learns from Willie to read and write, and receives the help and protection of Abigail Dowling, a Massachusetts abolitionist who had come south several years prior to help fight yellow fever and never left, and who has attracted the eye of both Willie and Robert Perry. These love affairs are not only fraught with danger, but compromised by the great and grim events of the Civil War and its aftermath.
As in all of Burke's writings, White Doves at Morning is full of wonderful, colorful, unforgettable villains. Some, like Clay Hatcher, are pure "white trash" (considered the lowest of the low, they were despised by the white ruling class and feared by former slaves). From their ranks came the most notorious of the vigilante groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, the White League and the Knights of the White Camellia. Most villainous of all, though, are the petty and mean-minded Todd McCain, owner of New Iberia's hardware store, and the diabolically evil Rufus Atkins, former overseer of Angola Plantation and the man Jamison has placed in charge of his convict labor crews.
Rounding out this unforgettable cast of characters are Carrie LaRose, madam of New Iberia's house of ill repute, and her ship's-captain brother Jean-Jacques LaRose, Cajuns who assist Flower and Abigail in their struggle to help the blacks of the town.
With battle scenes at Shiloh and in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia that no reader will ever forget, and set in a time of upheaval that affected all men and all women at all levels of society, White Doves at Morning is an epic worthy of America's most tragic conflict, as well as a book of substance, importance, and genuine originality, one that will undoubtedly come to be regarded as a masterpiece of historical fiction.
434 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 22, 2002
204 people are currently reading
1178 people want to read
About the author
James Lee Burke
124 books4,192 followersJames Lee Burke is an American author best known for his mysteries, particularly the Dave Robicheaux series. He has twice received the Edgar Award for Best Novel, for
Black Cherry Blues
in 1990 and
Cimarron Rose
in 1998.
Burke was born in Houston, Texas, but grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast. He attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Missouri, receiving a BA and MA from the latter. He has worked at a wide variety of jobs over the years, including working in the oil industry, as a reporter, and as a social worker. He was Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, succeeding his good friend and posthumous Pulitzer Prize winner John Kennedy Toole, and preceding Ernest Gaines in the position. Shortly before his move to Montana, he taught for several years in the Creative Writing program at Wichita State University in the 1980s.
Burke and his wife, Pearl, split their time between Lolo, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana. Their daughter, Alafair Burke, is also a mystery novelist.
The book that has influenced his life the most is the 1929 family tragedy "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner.
Burke was born in Houston, Texas, but grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast. He attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Missouri, receiving a BA and MA from the latter. He has worked at a wide variety of jobs over the years, including working in the oil industry, as a reporter, and as a social worker. He was Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, succeeding his good friend and posthumous Pulitzer Prize winner John Kennedy Toole, and preceding Ernest Gaines in the position. Shortly before his move to Montana, he taught for several years in the Creative Writing program at Wichita State University in the 1980s.
Burke and his wife, Pearl, split their time between Lolo, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana. Their daughter, Alafair Burke, is also a mystery novelist.
The book that has influenced his life the most is the 1929 family tragedy "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 239 reviews
August 4, 2017
JLB is a writer I return to time and again. He's known primarily for his crime fiction series featuring sometime cop Dave Robicheaux, based in New Iberia, Louisiana, but also for a group of novels featuring members of the Holland family. His writing is literary and his style brutal; his characters are bold and bad and even those on the right side of the law tend to be seriously flawed. It really is work of the highest order with complex plots and obscure words that drive me to park a dictionary at my side whenever I pick up one of his books. I love it.
Here Burke does something different, he delivers a historical novel set in Louisiana at the time of the American Civil War. A New Iberian himself, this is home territory to the author and to personalise it even further he includes two of his ancestors as leading players in the story. Robert Perry and Willie Burke are destined to fight on the losing side and we follow both characters as well as a local slave owner (plus his evil sidekick), his illegitimate daughter – the mother being one of his own slaves - and a Quaker abolitionist. Conflicts are everywhere and Burke revels in the opportunity to demonstrate his full range of insults and slurs.
This is a book I've tried to read before, three times in fact. It's probably the only book Burke’s written that I've struggled to get into. I think it’s possibly down to the nature of the tale itself (historical fiction is not my normal fare) but also the fact that it does start slowly and introduces a whole group of characters early on. It can be a bit confusing if, like me, you’re not strong on holding onto multiple plot lines. They're all closely related, of course, and many will find this a piece of cake. For me, a contributory factor is that it’s unremittingly depressing - there's no good news here: for the most part it's just full of conflict, death and destruction. There is a love story of sorts too, but this is pretty much swallowed up by the bigger story.
As I would have expected, the book is very well written and has real power. It does provide a real flavour of the time and place, with brilliantly descriptive passages and savagely written battle scenes. I’m glad I got around to finishing it – but it's not my favourite JLB.
Here Burke does something different, he delivers a historical novel set in Louisiana at the time of the American Civil War. A New Iberian himself, this is home territory to the author and to personalise it even further he includes two of his ancestors as leading players in the story. Robert Perry and Willie Burke are destined to fight on the losing side and we follow both characters as well as a local slave owner (plus his evil sidekick), his illegitimate daughter – the mother being one of his own slaves - and a Quaker abolitionist. Conflicts are everywhere and Burke revels in the opportunity to demonstrate his full range of insults and slurs.
This is a book I've tried to read before, three times in fact. It's probably the only book Burke’s written that I've struggled to get into. I think it’s possibly down to the nature of the tale itself (historical fiction is not my normal fare) but also the fact that it does start slowly and introduces a whole group of characters early on. It can be a bit confusing if, like me, you’re not strong on holding onto multiple plot lines. They're all closely related, of course, and many will find this a piece of cake. For me, a contributory factor is that it’s unremittingly depressing - there's no good news here: for the most part it's just full of conflict, death and destruction. There is a love story of sorts too, but this is pretty much swallowed up by the bigger story.
As I would have expected, the book is very well written and has real power. It does provide a real flavour of the time and place, with brilliantly descriptive passages and savagely written battle scenes. I’m glad I got around to finishing it – but it's not my favourite JLB.
December 23, 2016
This is a great civil war historical fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend. I couldn't help loving the two main female characters. Burke is so detailed that you get the full experience of the place and people. This is a stand alone book that I finished in a day. I actually listened to the audio in which Will Patton is the reader. He was fabulous.
November 9, 2023
4✚ 🕊️🕊️🕊️🕊️
October 2, 2016
Another good book by America's best writer. Burke examines the Civil War and its immediate aftermath through they eyes of some of his relatives and some other very well drawn characters. I suspect most of the book is fiction, but the wrap up of what the characters did in later life is probably mostly true. Highly recommended, especially to Burke lovers.
September 19, 2008
White Doves at Morning is a historical fiction novel, published in 2002 and set around New Iberia, Louisiana, during the Civil War. Of course, since it occurs during the Civil War, it does not include Burke's reknowned Dave Robicheaux. Instead, this book focuses on Burke's ancestry. Willie Burke is the son of an Irish immigrant who joins the Confederate forces more out of fear than support for the "cause." Robert Perry, Burke's friend, is the son of slave owners and is a staunch supporter of Secussion.
Perry and Burke are both in love with Abigail Dowling, an abolitionist who came south from Massachusettes to help fight an outbreak of yellow fever. Abigail befriends Flower Jamison, the black slave daughter of Ira Jamison, the owner of Angola Plantation.
White Doves at Morning follows these characters during the Civil War and into the beginning of Reconstruction.
As with James Lee Burke's signature series, this book lulls the reader into another world through the colorful depiction of character, the vivid development of setting and the captivating plot. When closing the book, I would have to remind myself of the present day since I was so focused and present in the Nineteenth Century.
Burke's characters are as rich and complex as Dave or Billy Bob Holland. I had the opportunity to briefly discuss this book with Jim Burke while I was reading, and he expressed pride in the characters of Abigail and Flower. And proud he should be. These two female characters are outstanding. Neither one is immune to pain and suffering, both are "outsiders" in their homes. But Abigail and Flower are strong characters who rely on eachother and find ways to perservere.
Burke's villans are also dynamic characters. And much like the antogonists in his series novels, these villans make your skin crawl and remind you to check the locks at night when you go to bed. From Ira Jamison at the top of the "food chain" to Rufus Atkins and Clay Hatcher, the preverbial "white trash," through them we see the birth of such groups as the Klu Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camellia.
And of course, it wouldn't be a James Lee Burke novel without an accute sense of place. Burke's amazing gift of transporting his readers to places completely unknown to them and making them feel like they've lived in the place all their lives is like no other.
White Doves at Morning is a magnificient departure from Burke's signature characters and time period but definitely a book that we should not forget is part of his great works.
Perry and Burke are both in love with Abigail Dowling, an abolitionist who came south from Massachusettes to help fight an outbreak of yellow fever. Abigail befriends Flower Jamison, the black slave daughter of Ira Jamison, the owner of Angola Plantation.
White Doves at Morning follows these characters during the Civil War and into the beginning of Reconstruction.
As with James Lee Burke's signature series, this book lulls the reader into another world through the colorful depiction of character, the vivid development of setting and the captivating plot. When closing the book, I would have to remind myself of the present day since I was so focused and present in the Nineteenth Century.
Burke's characters are as rich and complex as Dave or Billy Bob Holland. I had the opportunity to briefly discuss this book with Jim Burke while I was reading, and he expressed pride in the characters of Abigail and Flower. And proud he should be. These two female characters are outstanding. Neither one is immune to pain and suffering, both are "outsiders" in their homes. But Abigail and Flower are strong characters who rely on eachother and find ways to perservere.
Burke's villans are also dynamic characters. And much like the antogonists in his series novels, these villans make your skin crawl and remind you to check the locks at night when you go to bed. From Ira Jamison at the top of the "food chain" to Rufus Atkins and Clay Hatcher, the preverbial "white trash," through them we see the birth of such groups as the Klu Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camellia.
And of course, it wouldn't be a James Lee Burke novel without an accute sense of place. Burke's amazing gift of transporting his readers to places completely unknown to them and making them feel like they've lived in the place all their lives is like no other.
White Doves at Morning is a magnificient departure from Burke's signature characters and time period but definitely a book that we should not forget is part of his great works.
January 29, 2019
White Doves at Morning is a violent, epic saga about a bunch of lives irrevocably changed by the civil war. Burke maybe writing historical fiction instead of crime but he wisely sets it in Louisiana. Burke makes Louisiana come alive in a way few authors can. He describes war ravaged Louisiana in a way that carries the weight of the written word, captures the marvel of the movies and corresponds to the subtleties of still lifes.
Burke has never shied away from depicting the debilitating effects of violence, this time he has an even bigger canvas to paint them on. It is not an easy read; there is a constant threat of violent deaths, lynchings and other depravities. Burke scoffs at the idea of any side holding the moral high ground in war and posits both the Union and Confederate armies were made of same two groups - the leadership made of cruel, insecure men and cannon fodder made of misguided youth joining it in search of purpose.
The writing as always in Burke books is exceptionally strong. He understands human nature and has an ability to strip it into basic elements that are never likeable but always true reflections of who we all are deep down. The writing mutates constantly. It maybe as tender as the affectionate caress of a new lover or as volatile as a gut punch from an old foe.
In most Burke books (be it his crime series or his Pulitzer nominated The Lost Get Back Boogie) by the time one meets the protagonist, they are already beset with issues arising from their tempers and/or addiction. It is much easier to relate with the protagonists here, they are unspoilt and innocent. It is the war that corrupts them. It almost makes a mockery of the beliefs held by Willie Burke and Abigail Dowling who support opposing sides in the struggle but both believe passive opposition is a possibility. The best character however is not one of those two but black slave girl Flower who is a victim to every indignity imaginable but still resolute enough to not lose her dreams or herself. Burke uses multiple protagonists after a long time and female protagonists for the first time, he does justice to both. Ira Jamison is another great Burke villain combining cruelty and civility in equal measures. Other supporting characters are also richly drawn.
The narrative is usually tighter in his crime novels but that's not a big issue. Burke is much more ambitious here tracing the helplessness of slave laborers in antebellum South, the fall of the South, the inadequacy of the Northern government in postbellum South, and the slow rise of Ku Klux Klan while still managing to tell interesting personal stories of a bunch of diverse characters. The bigger problem is the ending, it is abrupt. The epilogue mentions the characters were real. So maybe the ending respects that but more dramatic liberty could have been taken, specially regarding the conflict between the protagonists and Rufus Atkins.
This tale is so cinematic that in a perfect world White Doves at Morning would do for Burke what The Shawshank Redemption or The Body (Stand by me is the movie version) did for Stephen King. That is convince everyone that pigeonholing this great writer as just a genre author is a great disservice to all fans of good fiction. Rating - 4/5.
Burke has never shied away from depicting the debilitating effects of violence, this time he has an even bigger canvas to paint them on. It is not an easy read; there is a constant threat of violent deaths, lynchings and other depravities. Burke scoffs at the idea of any side holding the moral high ground in war and posits both the Union and Confederate armies were made of same two groups - the leadership made of cruel, insecure men and cannon fodder made of misguided youth joining it in search of purpose.
The writing as always in Burke books is exceptionally strong. He understands human nature and has an ability to strip it into basic elements that are never likeable but always true reflections of who we all are deep down. The writing mutates constantly. It maybe as tender as the affectionate caress of a new lover or as volatile as a gut punch from an old foe.
In most Burke books (be it his crime series or his Pulitzer nominated The Lost Get Back Boogie) by the time one meets the protagonist, they are already beset with issues arising from their tempers and/or addiction. It is much easier to relate with the protagonists here, they are unspoilt and innocent. It is the war that corrupts them. It almost makes a mockery of the beliefs held by Willie Burke and Abigail Dowling who support opposing sides in the struggle but both believe passive opposition is a possibility. The best character however is not one of those two but black slave girl Flower who is a victim to every indignity imaginable but still resolute enough to not lose her dreams or herself. Burke uses multiple protagonists after a long time and female protagonists for the first time, he does justice to both. Ira Jamison is another great Burke villain combining cruelty and civility in equal measures. Other supporting characters are also richly drawn.
The narrative is usually tighter in his crime novels but that's not a big issue. Burke is much more ambitious here tracing the helplessness of slave laborers in antebellum South, the fall of the South, the inadequacy of the Northern government in postbellum South, and the slow rise of Ku Klux Klan while still managing to tell interesting personal stories of a bunch of diverse characters. The bigger problem is the ending, it is abrupt. The epilogue mentions the characters were real. So maybe the ending respects that but more dramatic liberty could have been taken, specially regarding the conflict between the protagonists and Rufus Atkins.
This tale is so cinematic that in a perfect world White Doves at Morning would do for Burke what The Shawshank Redemption or The Body (Stand by me is the movie version) did for Stephen King. That is convince everyone that pigeonholing this great writer as just a genre author is a great disservice to all fans of good fiction. Rating - 4/5.
September 8, 2011
Count me as an unabashed James Lee Burke fan. He is among the finest mystery writers out there. I always feel like I’m in Louisiana when I’m reading one of his books – the heat and humidity, the cane breaks (I think that's how it's spelled) and bayous. He’s a wonderful writer who paints pictures with words.
White Doves at Morning is a departure, not from Louisiana (yes, I know he has set some of his mysteries in Montana, but I’ve never read them) but from genre. The setting is the Civil War and this time out, it’s not a mystery but historical fiction. What remains is Burke’s wonderful sense of place; his ability to create fascinating, flawed characters; his gift for entertaining dialogue.
The result is a complex work that provides no easy answers to our nation’s greatest conflict. After a while, it really is hard to tell the good guys from the bad. I’m a northerner; two of my great-great grandfathers fought in the Civil War. But when the Yankees get to New Iberia, the devastation they wreak hits the poorest and most vulnerable – the former slaves – as hard as it does their soon to be former masters.
As the war winds down, the freed slaves find themselves in essentially little better position than before the whole thing started. Their freedom seems to come in name only. Burke takes a long, cool, unflinching look at the realities of life in ante- and post-bellum Louisiana.
This book is quite clearly a labor of love. Two of the main characters are Burke’s own ancestors, Willie Burke and Robert Perry. Their friendship is one of the joys of the book. How true to life this is I’m not sure, but it makes for a wonderful read.
White Doves at Morning is a departure, not from Louisiana (yes, I know he has set some of his mysteries in Montana, but I’ve never read them) but from genre. The setting is the Civil War and this time out, it’s not a mystery but historical fiction. What remains is Burke’s wonderful sense of place; his ability to create fascinating, flawed characters; his gift for entertaining dialogue.
The result is a complex work that provides no easy answers to our nation’s greatest conflict. After a while, it really is hard to tell the good guys from the bad. I’m a northerner; two of my great-great grandfathers fought in the Civil War. But when the Yankees get to New Iberia, the devastation they wreak hits the poorest and most vulnerable – the former slaves – as hard as it does their soon to be former masters.
As the war winds down, the freed slaves find themselves in essentially little better position than before the whole thing started. Their freedom seems to come in name only. Burke takes a long, cool, unflinching look at the realities of life in ante- and post-bellum Louisiana.
This book is quite clearly a labor of love. Two of the main characters are Burke’s own ancestors, Willie Burke and Robert Perry. Their friendship is one of the joys of the book. How true to life this is I’m not sure, but it makes for a wonderful read.
June 22, 2013
I loved this book and would recommend if you like to read about the Civil War period and like a little grit. I feel that this was a true depiction of the life and times of all the people in that period. Not just the Southerners, but the Northerners as well. I felt moved by some of the words in this book. To me he writes with words of a poet and very literary in nature. It is even quite possible you may need a dictionary at times, but if read in the context can surely figure it out.
I have read most of the books that James Lee Burke has written and I think this is one of my favorites. Very poignant, and left me with a feeling of woe. I know from reading this book that these were not easy times and everyone worked for what they owned, even those that came from affluent parents. Because it appears everything was taken from them and they literally had to start over. A very interesting period in our history. I am appalled at the conditions of that time and am glad I live in a more tolerant period.
I am giving this 5 out of 5 stars. I feel that it is one of the best books I have read so far this year.
I have read most of the books that James Lee Burke has written and I think this is one of my favorites. Very poignant, and left me with a feeling of woe. I know from reading this book that these were not easy times and everyone worked for what they owned, even those that came from affluent parents. Because it appears everything was taken from them and they literally had to start over. A very interesting period in our history. I am appalled at the conditions of that time and am glad I live in a more tolerant period.
I am giving this 5 out of 5 stars. I feel that it is one of the best books I have read so far this year.
February 21, 2015
It took me awhile to get into this book, but when I did I was hooked. A good look at history and the Civil War.
December 20, 2020
Listened to book on CD while driving.. Liked the descriptions, history and geography of the era. Hard time connecting with characters. My first read of this author- would definitely read again
July 18, 2024
Absolutely incredible. First we need to talk about the writing by James Lee Burke. I’ve never read anything by him before, but this reading experience was like the one I had for John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. The descriptions, the use of metaphor, the whip-smart dialogue that sometimes stopped me in my tracks or had me laughing out loud. The characters were incredible. Willie Burke was fantastic every time he came up, every glorious and sarcastic word out of his mouth made me laugh. But he felt everything so deeply too. I’ve had this book on my TBR for years, somewhere, someone said it is one of the best US Civil War stories out there. Truly this is the truth. It’s not an easy book to find though. I had it marked on my Wishlist for Kobo but saw that Will Patton was the narrator for the abridged audiobook. My Hoarder partner Elizabeth said I couldn’t go wrong if I chose Will Patton. And she wasn’t wrong there!!
Will Patton PERFORMS the heck out of this! The voices he gave to each character vividly brought them to life. I was stopped in my tracks when he rasped a dying man’s last words. When he performed so expertly a betrayed man’s words to his boss, he just performed this so incredibly well I’m upset to be finished it.
I’d absolutely say run and listen to the audiobook for this astonishing and incredible book. Loved it.
Will Patton PERFORMS the heck out of this! The voices he gave to each character vividly brought them to life. I was stopped in my tracks when he rasped a dying man’s last words. When he performed so expertly a betrayed man’s words to his boss, he just performed this so incredibly well I’m upset to be finished it.
I’d absolutely say run and listen to the audiobook for this astonishing and incredible book. Loved it.
March 2, 2021
I picked this one up at a Goodwill store last week just because I knew I liked some of Burke's books. This one is special, it's historical fiction set in the South, mostly Louisiana, during and shortly after the Civil War. Two of the characters were actually the author's ancestors, but it was such a good story that I never noticed one of them had the same last name.
July 10, 2023
I have read a number of Burke's mysteries and enjoy them mainly for their setting--New Orleans and Louisiana, a setting which only adds to the mystery of his story. In this book, Burke turns to the Civil War as it was fought in Louisiana. That it is drawn from family history adds to the story. Louisiana in the war was on the sidelines, as the main armies were fighting in Virginia and Tennessee for much of the war. Fairly early in the war, New Orleans, the South's biggest seaport, was captured by the Union Navy and was occupied by Union Army troops. So much of the war in the state was a vicious guerrilla war against an occupying power.
Burke focuses his story on four individuals: Willie Burke, an impetuous son of Irish immigrants, who joins the Confederate Army, his friend, Robert Perry, a wealthy aristocrat who also joins the Confederate forces, Abigail Dowling, nurse and abolitionist who aids slaves in escaping on the Underground Railroad, and Flower, a beautiful slave who is the daughter of one of the leading planters...We see the unfolding events of the war and its aftermath through the experiences of these four people. Beautifully written, my problem with the story is that moved very slowly at times...
Burke focuses his story on four individuals: Willie Burke, an impetuous son of Irish immigrants, who joins the Confederate Army, his friend, Robert Perry, a wealthy aristocrat who also joins the Confederate forces, Abigail Dowling, nurse and abolitionist who aids slaves in escaping on the Underground Railroad, and Flower, a beautiful slave who is the daughter of one of the leading planters...We see the unfolding events of the war and its aftermath through the experiences of these four people. Beautifully written, my problem with the story is that moved very slowly at times...
April 29, 2011
If you enjoy good historical fiction, you'll enjoy this story, set in the Civil War in Louisiana. Willie Burke helps a mulatto slave named Flower Jamison learn to read. He also gets into trouble and then joins the war with his friends, Robert Perry and Jim S. During the four years of the war, each character tells their story. Flower's battles with her white father and being taunted, Abigail Dowling, an abolitionist, who helps free slaves and the KKK, Willie's years in the war, amongst other characters in their POVs. There's a lot of drama and a hint of romance here, while the war goes on and after it ends. This is a good one who can't miss for an enjoyable read.
June 13, 2017
Superb; wonderful writing; tales of suffering from the South. How long does it take for people to realize the atrocities committed and those that lie in the future. I read out loud the first two paragraphs to a writing group I lead last night; good writing, gripping and tragic story, but humor also; Willie incredible character! All good. Read in one sitting
May 22, 2020
“White Doves at Morning” by James Lee Burke, published by Simon and Schuster.
Category – Fiction/Literature Publication Date – 2002.
This is a complete turn around for James Lee Burke. Burke is known for his mysteries that take place in New Orleans but this novel is something completely different. It deals with the old (Civil War) South and life on the plantations. Burke explores the war, politics, and the mores of this changing Nation.
Ira Jamison is the typical plantation owner who not only takes advantage of slaves he owns but he is also known for his business acumen. Ira fathers a beautiful slave girl, Flower. and although he will not admit to fathering her does feel some responsibility for her.
Flower is befriended by Willie, another slave who is educated and teaches Flower how to read and write. Flower is also befriended by Abigail Dowling. Abigail is an abolitionist who becomes involved with Willie and Robert Perry. Perry is the son of a plantation owner. Both he and Willie join the Confederacy and go to war.
After the war all of these characters meet up and try to live their lives in the New South. This proves difficult as Ira tries to bring his plantation to former glory by turning it into a penal colony and uses the slaves to this purpose. Both Willie and Robert try to renew their friendship with Abigail but find she is not who they think she is.
Another great novel from Burke.
Category – Fiction/Literature Publication Date – 2002.
This is a complete turn around for James Lee Burke. Burke is known for his mysteries that take place in New Orleans but this novel is something completely different. It deals with the old (Civil War) South and life on the plantations. Burke explores the war, politics, and the mores of this changing Nation.
Ira Jamison is the typical plantation owner who not only takes advantage of slaves he owns but he is also known for his business acumen. Ira fathers a beautiful slave girl, Flower. and although he will not admit to fathering her does feel some responsibility for her.
Flower is befriended by Willie, another slave who is educated and teaches Flower how to read and write. Flower is also befriended by Abigail Dowling. Abigail is an abolitionist who becomes involved with Willie and Robert Perry. Perry is the son of a plantation owner. Both he and Willie join the Confederacy and go to war.
After the war all of these characters meet up and try to live their lives in the New South. This proves difficult as Ira tries to bring his plantation to former glory by turning it into a penal colony and uses the slaves to this purpose. Both Willie and Robert try to renew their friendship with Abigail but find she is not who they think she is.
Another great novel from Burke.
October 13, 2012
It's a contrived effort to deal with the impact of the Civil War on the inhabitamts of one small town in Louisiana. The lead character is an ancestor of Burke's, but all the characters are wooden and stereotypical. The situatons are manipulated to allow Burke to ennoble his characters. The material was rich and could have been used more effectively if Burke had not tried so hard to make his ancestor, Willie Burke, a man of mixed mind about slavery and the causes of the war. The internal conflict seemed forced and somewhat stale. A little less omniscient narration and a great deal more dialogue would have made a fresher, cleaner novel and more realistic characters.
May 28, 2012
This book was completely different from the other books Burke wrote. This one is not a mystery, but more of a story of one of his relatives before, during, and after the Civil War. The descriptions and characters are fantastic.
September 30, 2012
I wish I could give it 10 stars. This is James Lee Burke's novel about the Civil War and two of his ancestors who fought in it.
October 2, 2018
Burke writes some gorgeous prose and I love a good historical novel. But I had a hard time getting past the stereotypical tropes of beautiful slave, heaving bustline and stirrings in the loins.
February 5, 2013
6th from burke for me...2002...white doves at morning, a hardcover version...he thanks a pamela arceneaux and a c.j. labauve for their help w/historical detail...
a dedication: for dracos and carrie burke
story begins:
1837
the black woman's name was sarie, and when she crashed out the door of the cabin at the end of the slave quarters into the fading winter light, her lower belly bursting with the child that had already broken her water, the aftermath of the ice storm and the sheer desolate sweep of leaf-bare timber and frozen cottage acreage and frost-limned cane stalks seemed to combine and strike her face like a braided whip.
sarie begat flower, not the man-child she hoped for...
anyway, i'm like 42-pages in at this point...beginning of chapter five...and interesting is the use of adjectives...black...negro...white...white trash...nigger...& a bit later (p96) darkies. "black" and "negro" are used interchangeably...and "nigger" is used only in dialogue by characters that willie burke calls "white trash".
"white trash" is also used in the narrative to describe, and that betrays something on the part of burke, i believe, what with this omniscient multiple-character p.o.v. "nigger" as yet is not used save in dialogue. man of color is also used.
since white trash, cracker, redneck, trailer trash...since those seem to be some of the few pejoratives still in vogue...(i've yet to see anyone get called on them...)...and...you will recall the somewhat recent use of the pejorative third world nation/country...that has fallen silently out of favor for the more flavor-able developing nation...ummm, i visited the dictionary to what see
my o.e.d., a version i acquired some twenty years ago, has no variation of "white trash"...not in the supplement that was part of the whole, nor in a supplement that i acquired after the initial purchase.
so...i wiki it...and t'would appear that "white trash" has been around at least as long back as this story begins...was in full use by the time of the civil war...but by slaves for poor whites...and then some.
i don't think that "black" came into vogue until...ummm, perhaps the 50s, more so the 60s...meh...could be wrong, but more often than not, "negro"...or perhaps "colored" is used, more so...fiction etc prior to the 50-60s...or did faulkner use "black"...ellison? wright?
anyway, i thought what we have here is another apologist for the white presence in the world...which i always want to tell them to kiss my ass, as my time in this country...roots i'm talking here...didn't happen until the turn of the last century...so don't throw your guilt trip on me....jackass. men have been beat the world over and it is not an american invention.
but even w/the war on christianity...and, yes, there IS a war on christianity, we have not lost our judeo-christian roots and retribution will be visited upon man...white man we're talking here...verily, to the 7th generation. hallelujah. amen. that shithead in the white house can publicly degrade a people, clinging to their guns and religion, and get elected, verily, to the 8th and 9th generation. that previous shithead gets caught w/his pecker in the mouth of an intern and what does the media do? make light of big hair and trailer trash, verily, to the 10th and 11th generation.
oh! but lo! we are diverse and ever-loving!
it is interesting that "white trash" came into usage around the time of the the years prior to the civil war...and that it is the one pejorative still in use. may it do ya fine. it is not included on any list of "hate crimes" and that speaks volumes. 'nother words, kiss my ass, jack. i mean, look at the description, the free use of white trash therein...and we congratulate ourselves on our diversity, how noble in deed...all the while afixin' labels to those we deem less deserving than ourselves...and the hoot is that so many are blind to this...taxed-enough-already?
the title of the piece
comes from a song that is included herein, 4-lines from same...
white doves come at morning/ where my soldier sleeps in the ground./
i placed my ring in his coffin,/ the trees o'er his grave have all turned brown.
time place scene settings
*1837, the time of flower's birth, chapter one
*1861, chapter two begins
*april 12, 1861...fort sumter, begins
*august, 1861
*april 5-6, 1862, shiloh
*winter, 1862 and the following spring
*1864-1865...april, 1865
*the summer days of 1865
*carrie's past, 1845, paris
*august, 1865...
*five years after that...for willie
*then, the epilogue, w/dates as late as 1900 give or take...though the initial date in the epilogue is 1868
*louisiana
*cabin at the end of the slave quarters
*a lean-to where sarie finds shelter
*bayou teche, from an atakapa indian word that meant snake
*the shadows, a plantation home
*new iberia...
*only bordello, owner carrie larose
*a brick saloon
*laundry where flower works
*a flat boat w/blacks & whites
*court, a water-stained loft above the saloon
*camp moore
*johnson island, ohio, a p.o.w. camp, mentioned, not visited
*shanendoah virginia, mentioned, not visited
the cast in order of appearance
*sarie, black woman, pregnant
*marse ira jamison (and by appearance, it could be by name only), angola plantation original farm, he is a widower by 1861
*man in a stovepipe hat, rufus atkins
*two other mounted men, clay hatcher & jackson
*drunkards and white trash
*negroes
*sarie's mother & a wet nurse
*a girl baby, spring...no, flower...flower jamison
*william "willie" burke
*his mother...'s boardinghouse, her name, ellen lee
*his father's survival at the goliad massacre during the texas revolution 1836
*a dozen negro men, wage slaves
*a constable
*a dozen soldiers from camp pratt out by spanish lake
*nathan bedford forest, memphis slave market...also seen at the battle of shiloh...although a wiki look-see has bare mention of him.
*carrie larose, new iberia's only bordello owner
*may, a dark-haired chub of a girl, whore
*jim stubbefield, willie's friend/acquaintance, killed at shiloh
*flower...grown now in 19861, flower jamison, works the laundry
*a free man of color w/slaves
*a man in a silk hat
*a white woman on main
*some other girls are ironing (black) but understood
*angel of goliad...past
*ladies who lived in the most elegant plantation homes
*acadian boys who spoke no english
*robert perry...father owns over 100 niggers...protects willie burke, who is head-strong & such...later, to the 8th lou'sana vols, camp moore...starts out a private...later he is a sergeant...still later he is a lieutenant
*captain rufus atkins...here in 1861...earlier too
*clay hatcher, corporal, here in 1861...earlier, too...and later on, he is a sergeant
*abigail dowling, a nurse from massachusetts, came south as nurse, is an abolitionist...she was also a deacon of a quaker church/she resigns by letter in the telling
*john brown...just a name, at present...qqc to do w/abolition it is understood, not explained, as yet
*a neighbor was boiling crabs
*jean-jacques larose, carrie's brother, also called "scavenger jack" and t'would appear he is a kind of pirate, him (the clock, she is wrong, her)
*secessionists...copperheads (perhaps some form of tea partiers? wingers? some name as all names have been, are, will be used)
*a member of town council, part owner of the bank
*a lady in st martinville & her cook
*the negro male population
*our women
*the men at the billiard table
*the piano player
*two naked people (doing it)
*a horseman...the paddy rollers...6 riders...a 7th man
*two negroes sat on the dirt floor
*five black people...two white boatmen (quakers)...a white woman
*judge
*a white woman driving hogs
*a child kicking a stuffed football
*a card sharp
*a drowned nigger (female) aunt of flower
*the black driver
*a black man emerging from a barn
*a black woman in a gray dress...ruby...one of marse ira jamison's servants/slaves...house servant
*a white baptist minister
*jubal labiche, a free man of color (w/slaves)
*the widow who ran the laundry for ira jamison
*abigail dowling's father, who was a physician & a quaker
*mr leblanc...and t'would appear he is robert perry's father?...that seems to be the grist of it...also the postmaster
*a black deliveryman
*two white men
*bounty hunters
*a runaway slave woman & her 2 small children
*other soldiers
*barefooted negro children
*mounted zouaves...?
*women threw flowers
*prostitutes from congo square
*five men & a drummer boy from the 6th mississippi/shiloh
*3 soldiers w/a banjo, fiddle & jew's harp
*tige mcguffy, the 11-yr-old drummer boy
*tennesseee infantry
*a redheaded, barrel-chested sergeant
*a confederate colonel
*colonel alfred mouton
*a dead man...another
*a union officer
*the standard bearer
*two blue clad pickets
*a huge black bearded union private
*a whiskered signal corpsman
*a white clad nun
*union sentry...confederate prisoners
*general butler..."spoons butler"
*a disheveled & terrified white man
*a creole woman
*an angola plantation overseer
*mr guilbeau, governor's assistant
AND I'M GOING TO STOP LISTING ALL OF THEM AT THIS POINT...'BOUT PAGE 100 OR SO...BUT YOU GET THE FLAVOR
*pinky strunk...tiny yellow teeth
*todd mccain, owner of the hardware store
*jarrette....rode w/quantrill & bloody will anderson
*jawhawkers & guerrillas
*uncle royal...ija jamison's father's house servant
*general nathaniel banks
*sgt. quintinius earp
*sheriff hipolyte gautreau
*elias rachet...returns to shiloh w/willie to retrieve the remains of jim
*isaac, boy student of flower...throws rocks at a squirrel
a quote: god fashions the pranksters to keep the rest of us honest...
update, at page-115, 6 feb 13, wednesday afternoon
yeah, and so the story--i'm not going to call it a "historical novel" as yes, the story has a historical context--but it is a story...nothing more, nothing less...
...and the story is focused through the eyes of a half-dozen characters at this point--willie burke, flower jamison, abigail dowling, rober perry...the civil war has been happening...new orleans is occupied by union troops
an idea
"mind-forged manacles"...attributed to an english poet in the story, although...only william blake, a book or his poetry, has been included in the story, as yet...hundred pages from the end.
another quote
"sometimes we're all tempted to think of our own race as being superior to others...then we meet someone such as yourself and immediately we're beset with the terrible knowledge that there's something truly cretinous at work in the caucasian gene pool."
--abigail to atkins
--and it does play well in the apologist's theory that retribution shall be visited, verily, to the 12th of never...and that's a long long time.
update, finished, 7 feb 13, thursday morning, 10:05 a.m. e.s.t.
good read...a gripping tale...argh! the epilogue, after the story, seems...i dunno...quaint...the various characters getting their due, or not, years later...the sense that the story could have followed them to that point...decades later in some instance. dunno how to take epilogues like that, conclusions. why not simply end it before that? seems cheap somehow, after the telling.
in the end...and this is unlikely unfair, but so be it...but, in the end, i imagine burke's politics are like stephen king's politics, who recently degraded honest gun owners in his essay...and got a free pass for it...was applauded by the people too blind to see that once you rub a proud peoples' nose in the shit you fling in their face, once that is done...just as abigail's murder of ira jamison in this piece is minimized and dismissed...bad things happen. i've seen the same thing here at goodreads, a book that is not worthy of the mention...had this shithead written about anyone other than "whites" he deemed lowly, it would be classified as a hate-crime.
...look at what happened to the serbs...world war one began because a hoity-toity ruler rubbed their noses in something...why? why because they can get away with it...although we know the outcome.
ira's end here...bringing us back to what set me off to begin, his thoughts on those he saw as "white trash"...there's something at work here...some kind of...what? dismissal of the rich's transgressions in the manner in which ira is played? can't quite articulate it at the moment...but i think it is seen in the patronizing, condescending attitude of the rich, a-la stephen king, calling gun owners yeehaws....seen in the minimizing of that shithead in the white house, seen in his degrading of a people w/his remarks that were minimized...marginalizing a people...as if that will set things right...
all i can say is that there's more than a few that believe we are in the early stages of civil war two. dismiss others are your peril.
an addendum thingie
...twice, burke provides some "past" for a character, twice, once for ira jamison and another time for connie larose. i dunno if it works or not, for ira i mean, him witnessing the old man nailing one of the slave girls once upon a time...this provided, i guess, as possible probably motive reason for the way he is now...the whole as the twig is bent so shall it grow thingie...does it work?
i dunno...from my time in the south, the mighty south...i'd say it could have been left out, or provided, either way, as all my experience has shown that...as the twig is bent, so shall it grow. as in...if the old man (and the mother, too) exhibits whatever traits to the child, the child is likely to take those traits on. verily
and the other, about carrie...that is a bit more...something...acceptable, her baiting her jailer in paris w/sex so that he takes another in her stead to the sharp female...off w/her head...and she has carried a certain amount of guilt w/her since then...so yeah...okay.
but why only those two? there's willie...abigail...well, there's flower, and once she learns more about her "past" she wants too...and that brings me to the gun...flower had it...somehow abigail got it toward the end, although she did buy it for flower, who wanted to put the hurt on the bad men...abigail the one pulling the trigger. i dunno. still...all in all, a good read. smoke em if you got em.
a dedication: for dracos and carrie burke
story begins:
1837
the black woman's name was sarie, and when she crashed out the door of the cabin at the end of the slave quarters into the fading winter light, her lower belly bursting with the child that had already broken her water, the aftermath of the ice storm and the sheer desolate sweep of leaf-bare timber and frozen cottage acreage and frost-limned cane stalks seemed to combine and strike her face like a braided whip.
sarie begat flower, not the man-child she hoped for...
anyway, i'm like 42-pages in at this point...beginning of chapter five...and interesting is the use of adjectives...black...negro...white...white trash...nigger...& a bit later (p96) darkies. "black" and "negro" are used interchangeably...and "nigger" is used only in dialogue by characters that willie burke calls "white trash".
"white trash" is also used in the narrative to describe, and that betrays something on the part of burke, i believe, what with this omniscient multiple-character p.o.v. "nigger" as yet is not used save in dialogue. man of color is also used.
since white trash, cracker, redneck, trailer trash...since those seem to be some of the few pejoratives still in vogue...(i've yet to see anyone get called on them...)...and...you will recall the somewhat recent use of the pejorative third world nation/country...that has fallen silently out of favor for the more flavor-able developing nation...ummm, i visited the dictionary to what see
my o.e.d., a version i acquired some twenty years ago, has no variation of "white trash"...not in the supplement that was part of the whole, nor in a supplement that i acquired after the initial purchase.
so...i wiki it...and t'would appear that "white trash" has been around at least as long back as this story begins...was in full use by the time of the civil war...but by slaves for poor whites...and then some.
i don't think that "black" came into vogue until...ummm, perhaps the 50s, more so the 60s...meh...could be wrong, but more often than not, "negro"...or perhaps "colored" is used, more so...fiction etc prior to the 50-60s...or did faulkner use "black"...ellison? wright?
anyway, i thought what we have here is another apologist for the white presence in the world...which i always want to tell them to kiss my ass, as my time in this country...roots i'm talking here...didn't happen until the turn of the last century...so don't throw your guilt trip on me....jackass. men have been beat the world over and it is not an american invention.
but even w/the war on christianity...and, yes, there IS a war on christianity, we have not lost our judeo-christian roots and retribution will be visited upon man...white man we're talking here...verily, to the 7th generation. hallelujah. amen. that shithead in the white house can publicly degrade a people, clinging to their guns and religion, and get elected, verily, to the 8th and 9th generation. that previous shithead gets caught w/his pecker in the mouth of an intern and what does the media do? make light of big hair and trailer trash, verily, to the 10th and 11th generation.
oh! but lo! we are diverse and ever-loving!
it is interesting that "white trash" came into usage around the time of the the years prior to the civil war...and that it is the one pejorative still in use. may it do ya fine. it is not included on any list of "hate crimes" and that speaks volumes. 'nother words, kiss my ass, jack. i mean, look at the description, the free use of white trash therein...and we congratulate ourselves on our diversity, how noble in deed...all the while afixin' labels to those we deem less deserving than ourselves...and the hoot is that so many are blind to this...taxed-enough-already?
the title of the piece
comes from a song that is included herein, 4-lines from same...
white doves come at morning/ where my soldier sleeps in the ground./
i placed my ring in his coffin,/ the trees o'er his grave have all turned brown.
time place scene settings
*1837, the time of flower's birth, chapter one
*1861, chapter two begins
*april 12, 1861...fort sumter, begins
*august, 1861
*april 5-6, 1862, shiloh
*winter, 1862 and the following spring
*1864-1865...april, 1865
*the summer days of 1865
*carrie's past, 1845, paris
*august, 1865...
*five years after that...for willie
*then, the epilogue, w/dates as late as 1900 give or take...though the initial date in the epilogue is 1868
*louisiana
*cabin at the end of the slave quarters
*a lean-to where sarie finds shelter
*bayou teche, from an atakapa indian word that meant snake
*the shadows, a plantation home
*new iberia...
*only bordello, owner carrie larose
*a brick saloon
*laundry where flower works
*a flat boat w/blacks & whites
*court, a water-stained loft above the saloon
*camp moore
*johnson island, ohio, a p.o.w. camp, mentioned, not visited
*shanendoah virginia, mentioned, not visited
the cast in order of appearance
*sarie, black woman, pregnant
*marse ira jamison (and by appearance, it could be by name only), angola plantation original farm, he is a widower by 1861
*man in a stovepipe hat, rufus atkins
*two other mounted men, clay hatcher & jackson
*drunkards and white trash
*negroes
*sarie's mother & a wet nurse
*a girl baby, spring...no, flower...flower jamison
*william "willie" burke
*his mother...'s boardinghouse, her name, ellen lee
*his father's survival at the goliad massacre during the texas revolution 1836
*a dozen negro men, wage slaves
*a constable
*a dozen soldiers from camp pratt out by spanish lake
*nathan bedford forest, memphis slave market...also seen at the battle of shiloh...although a wiki look-see has bare mention of him.
*carrie larose, new iberia's only bordello owner
*may, a dark-haired chub of a girl, whore
*jim stubbefield, willie's friend/acquaintance, killed at shiloh
*flower...grown now in 19861, flower jamison, works the laundry
*a free man of color w/slaves
*a man in a silk hat
*a white woman on main
*some other girls are ironing (black) but understood
*angel of goliad...past
*ladies who lived in the most elegant plantation homes
*acadian boys who spoke no english
*robert perry...father owns over 100 niggers...protects willie burke, who is head-strong & such...later, to the 8th lou'sana vols, camp moore...starts out a private...later he is a sergeant...still later he is a lieutenant
*captain rufus atkins...here in 1861...earlier too
*clay hatcher, corporal, here in 1861...earlier, too...and later on, he is a sergeant
*abigail dowling, a nurse from massachusetts, came south as nurse, is an abolitionist...she was also a deacon of a quaker church/she resigns by letter in the telling
*john brown...just a name, at present...qqc to do w/abolition it is understood, not explained, as yet
*a neighbor was boiling crabs
*jean-jacques larose, carrie's brother, also called "scavenger jack" and t'would appear he is a kind of pirate, him (the clock, she is wrong, her)
*secessionists...copperheads (perhaps some form of tea partiers? wingers? some name as all names have been, are, will be used)
*a member of town council, part owner of the bank
*a lady in st martinville & her cook
*the negro male population
*our women
*the men at the billiard table
*the piano player
*two naked people (doing it)
*a horseman...the paddy rollers...6 riders...a 7th man
*two negroes sat on the dirt floor
*five black people...two white boatmen (quakers)...a white woman
*judge
*a white woman driving hogs
*a child kicking a stuffed football
*a card sharp
*a drowned nigger (female) aunt of flower
*the black driver
*a black man emerging from a barn
*a black woman in a gray dress...ruby...one of marse ira jamison's servants/slaves...house servant
*a white baptist minister
*jubal labiche, a free man of color (w/slaves)
*the widow who ran the laundry for ira jamison
*abigail dowling's father, who was a physician & a quaker
*mr leblanc...and t'would appear he is robert perry's father?...that seems to be the grist of it...also the postmaster
*a black deliveryman
*two white men
*bounty hunters
*a runaway slave woman & her 2 small children
*other soldiers
*barefooted negro children
*mounted zouaves...?
*women threw flowers
*prostitutes from congo square
*five men & a drummer boy from the 6th mississippi/shiloh
*3 soldiers w/a banjo, fiddle & jew's harp
*tige mcguffy, the 11-yr-old drummer boy
*tennesseee infantry
*a redheaded, barrel-chested sergeant
*a confederate colonel
*colonel alfred mouton
*a dead man...another
*a union officer
*the standard bearer
*two blue clad pickets
*a huge black bearded union private
*a whiskered signal corpsman
*a white clad nun
*union sentry...confederate prisoners
*general butler..."spoons butler"
*a disheveled & terrified white man
*a creole woman
*an angola plantation overseer
*mr guilbeau, governor's assistant
AND I'M GOING TO STOP LISTING ALL OF THEM AT THIS POINT...'BOUT PAGE 100 OR SO...BUT YOU GET THE FLAVOR
*pinky strunk...tiny yellow teeth
*todd mccain, owner of the hardware store
*jarrette....rode w/quantrill & bloody will anderson
*jawhawkers & guerrillas
*uncle royal...ija jamison's father's house servant
*general nathaniel banks
*sgt. quintinius earp
*sheriff hipolyte gautreau
*elias rachet...returns to shiloh w/willie to retrieve the remains of jim
*isaac, boy student of flower...throws rocks at a squirrel
a quote: god fashions the pranksters to keep the rest of us honest...
update, at page-115, 6 feb 13, wednesday afternoon
yeah, and so the story--i'm not going to call it a "historical novel" as yes, the story has a historical context--but it is a story...nothing more, nothing less...
...and the story is focused through the eyes of a half-dozen characters at this point--willie burke, flower jamison, abigail dowling, rober perry...the civil war has been happening...new orleans is occupied by union troops
an idea
"mind-forged manacles"...attributed to an english poet in the story, although...only william blake, a book or his poetry, has been included in the story, as yet...hundred pages from the end.
another quote
"sometimes we're all tempted to think of our own race as being superior to others...then we meet someone such as yourself and immediately we're beset with the terrible knowledge that there's something truly cretinous at work in the caucasian gene pool."
--abigail to atkins
--and it does play well in the apologist's theory that retribution shall be visited, verily, to the 12th of never...and that's a long long time.
update, finished, 7 feb 13, thursday morning, 10:05 a.m. e.s.t.
good read...a gripping tale...argh! the epilogue, after the story, seems...i dunno...quaint...the various characters getting their due, or not, years later...the sense that the story could have followed them to that point...decades later in some instance. dunno how to take epilogues like that, conclusions. why not simply end it before that? seems cheap somehow, after the telling.
in the end...and this is unlikely unfair, but so be it...but, in the end, i imagine burke's politics are like stephen king's politics, who recently degraded honest gun owners in his essay...and got a free pass for it...was applauded by the people too blind to see that once you rub a proud peoples' nose in the shit you fling in their face, once that is done...just as abigail's murder of ira jamison in this piece is minimized and dismissed...bad things happen. i've seen the same thing here at goodreads, a book that is not worthy of the mention...had this shithead written about anyone other than "whites" he deemed lowly, it would be classified as a hate-crime.
...look at what happened to the serbs...world war one began because a hoity-toity ruler rubbed their noses in something...why? why because they can get away with it...although we know the outcome.
ira's end here...bringing us back to what set me off to begin, his thoughts on those he saw as "white trash"...there's something at work here...some kind of...what? dismissal of the rich's transgressions in the manner in which ira is played? can't quite articulate it at the moment...but i think it is seen in the patronizing, condescending attitude of the rich, a-la stephen king, calling gun owners yeehaws....seen in the minimizing of that shithead in the white house, seen in his degrading of a people w/his remarks that were minimized...marginalizing a people...as if that will set things right...
all i can say is that there's more than a few that believe we are in the early stages of civil war two. dismiss others are your peril.
an addendum thingie
...twice, burke provides some "past" for a character, twice, once for ira jamison and another time for connie larose. i dunno if it works or not, for ira i mean, him witnessing the old man nailing one of the slave girls once upon a time...this provided, i guess, as possible probably motive reason for the way he is now...the whole as the twig is bent so shall it grow thingie...does it work?
i dunno...from my time in the south, the mighty south...i'd say it could have been left out, or provided, either way, as all my experience has shown that...as the twig is bent, so shall it grow. as in...if the old man (and the mother, too) exhibits whatever traits to the child, the child is likely to take those traits on. verily
and the other, about carrie...that is a bit more...something...acceptable, her baiting her jailer in paris w/sex so that he takes another in her stead to the sharp female...off w/her head...and she has carried a certain amount of guilt w/her since then...so yeah...okay.
but why only those two? there's willie...abigail...well, there's flower, and once she learns more about her "past" she wants too...and that brings me to the gun...flower had it...somehow abigail got it toward the end, although she did buy it for flower, who wanted to put the hurt on the bad men...abigail the one pulling the trigger. i dunno. still...all in all, a good read. smoke em if you got em.
July 28, 2015
Excellent war scenes - graphic!
Nice departure from JLB usual PI books.
Nice departure from JLB usual PI books.
July 20, 2025
I’m rapidly running out of JLB books that I haven’t read. And that’s a bad thing.
This is yet another excellent tale involving an array of interesting, fully formed characters playing out during the civil war.
There’s obviously some unsettling scenes and tough language; this isn’t a sugar coated shoot em up. The writing is as ever beautiful in its description of scenes, nature, character motivation, etc.
The ending is quite surprising in terms of outcomes, with a brief epilogue that lists what befalls the characters that make it to the end of the main novel.
He’s a bit special, this fella.
This is yet another excellent tale involving an array of interesting, fully formed characters playing out during the civil war.
There’s obviously some unsettling scenes and tough language; this isn’t a sugar coated shoot em up. The writing is as ever beautiful in its description of scenes, nature, character motivation, etc.
The ending is quite surprising in terms of outcomes, with a brief epilogue that lists what befalls the characters that make it to the end of the main novel.
He’s a bit special, this fella.
October 19, 2023
A friend recommended this book and I am glad he did. I had skipped over this JLB title for some reason. I just finished it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love his prose. This book will also give an insight to life in the South during the Civil War. So many books focus on the War itself and battles and troop movements. This gives a glimpse of what daily life was like. I highly recommend.
July 9, 2025
I took a chance on this book solely based on it's cover. It's a decent story, though I felt at times it could drag and that the book was maybe 50 pages too long. Overall I was entertained enough to read the entire book. Wasn't the greatest novel I've ever read, but it was fine.
September 15, 2019
This book was a departure from the other novels of James Lee Burke. It was set during and after the Civil War and followed the lives of a small group of characters as they weathered these difficult times. Once again Burke created vivid characters struggling with tragedies, unspeakable evils and complex emotions. What an amazing storyteller.
May 6, 2015
At the end, I found myself thinking, "...and I read this because?"
A lot of the time someone will ask me whether what I am reading is good, and I will say, "I don't know. I haven't seen how it ends yet." When all was over and done, I was still casting about for a protagonist. I kept thinking I knew, and then everything would shift.
I sound like this is more of a two star book, so let me explain why it gets so much credit. It's a complex tale of a lot of lives that are braided together. I appreciate having a Southerner write Civil War historical fiction without trying to pretend that most people lived at Tara and that everything was so much nicer before those darn Yankees came in and ruined it all. He writes on the side of the angels, and he includes slaves--one in particular--as flesh and blood, personality, heart and bone. I appreciate that. And if anyone wants to go in and pick apart his bonafides, I think they will find that he has been really, really careful to be accurate.
Unfortunately, it isn't a very compelling story from where I sit. That's the problem here. I am by now a real fan of Burke's, and I'm a retired teacher who used to teach about the American Civil War. If I am having problems engaging with this narrative, chances are excellent that you will too. But having put in the time for the first hundred pages, I kept up, thinking it would get better, and around p. 140 or so it did. This only lasted so long.
It's a really tough thing to write a story that does not have a central protagonist. I'm not saying it can't be done, or even that Burke can't do it; I'm saying I don't think he was successful here. There were strange transitions that left me groping around, wondering where I was. And all the way through, I kept trying to figure out not what, but WHO, this story was about.
When the book ended, I still didn't know. I loved the point of view, but the center did not hold.
A lot of the time someone will ask me whether what I am reading is good, and I will say, "I don't know. I haven't seen how it ends yet." When all was over and done, I was still casting about for a protagonist. I kept thinking I knew, and then everything would shift.
I sound like this is more of a two star book, so let me explain why it gets so much credit. It's a complex tale of a lot of lives that are braided together. I appreciate having a Southerner write Civil War historical fiction without trying to pretend that most people lived at Tara and that everything was so much nicer before those darn Yankees came in and ruined it all. He writes on the side of the angels, and he includes slaves--one in particular--as flesh and blood, personality, heart and bone. I appreciate that. And if anyone wants to go in and pick apart his bonafides, I think they will find that he has been really, really careful to be accurate.
Unfortunately, it isn't a very compelling story from where I sit. That's the problem here. I am by now a real fan of Burke's, and I'm a retired teacher who used to teach about the American Civil War. If I am having problems engaging with this narrative, chances are excellent that you will too. But having put in the time for the first hundred pages, I kept up, thinking it would get better, and around p. 140 or so it did. This only lasted so long.
It's a really tough thing to write a story that does not have a central protagonist. I'm not saying it can't be done, or even that Burke can't do it; I'm saying I don't think he was successful here. There were strange transitions that left me groping around, wondering where I was. And all the way through, I kept trying to figure out not what, but WHO, this story was about.
When the book ended, I still didn't know. I loved the point of view, but the center did not hold.
February 3, 2019
Awesome read! In White Doves at Morning, Burke paints a vivid portrait of the old South during before and during the Civil War. Burke writes with clarity and vision, transporting the reader back to the bayous of Louisiana into some of the war's biggest battles. The scenes of this book played out like a movie as I read about Sarie and Flower and Willie and Robert and Abigail and the myriad of other characters in this novel many of which were based on real people. Willie Burke was the author's grandfather. A great way to start off February.
March 20, 2016
This is the real Gone With the Wind. No romance; no glory. The story of a small Louisiana town during and immediately after the Civil War. Burke bases the story on his own family (it's set in his town and nearby) -- which is not unlike GWTW, but this has a lot less romantic elements. It's a tough story about tough people in tough times. Burke is a master of description; you can feel rivulets of sweat running down your back and hear gravel crunching underfoot -- he's that good at placing you in the scene. And his characters have real lives; multifaceted, almost always flawed, working for their own motives and usually well aware of what they are doing and why.
April 15, 2019
Planning to write a novel about the US civil war - some 30 years after the event - Stephen Crane raided a friend's library. When he eventually returned the long-overdue volumes he noted: "I have spent 10 nights writing a story of the war on my own responsibility but I am not sure that my facts are real and the books won't tell me what I want to know so I must do it all over again, I guess." The result, needless to say, was The Red Badge of Courage.
James Lee Burke, lighting on the same subject, likewise eschewed research. In a letter addressed to readers of his new book he explains that such toil was hardly necessary, given that his home turf and local bayou were an eloquent memorial to the conflict, with cannonballs and wrecks barely below the surface. But he has more than the collective unconscious to draw upon, for the story he has waited years to tell concerns his own ancestors: great-grandfather Robert Perry and great-great-uncle Willie Burke. The former was officer class, the latter - initially, at least - a private.
As in The Red Badge of Courage, Burke's battle scenes are described from the point of view of a pawn, though Willie Burke and Crane's Henry Fleming are hardly peas in a pod. However, before seeing how they diverge, one other similarity should be recorded. Crane's title refers - of course - to the bloody wound Fleming longs for, to acquit him of cowardice. The injury is acquired eventually, but in an ironic fashion, so as to undermine the youth's last illusions and the title's poetic bravura. Burke's title (no less poetic) derives from a traditional song, steeped in bucolic melancholy; the white doves are not heralds of a brave new dawn, but birds of ill-omen, which visit the graves of fallen soldiers. Not a tactful refrain to chant on the eve of battle. Sure enough, Willie's best friend tells the tactless singer to shut up.
Willie's big problem is that he can't. His Irish tongue keeps getting the better of him. Henry Fleming, on the contrary, internalises everything. Hearing an officer describe his regiment as expendable, he bites his tongue and retreats with a scared look on his face. The young Keith Carradine would have impersonated him well. Willie, being an altogether flashier gent, demands a bigger name; maybe Leonardo DiCaprio, reprising his role in Titanic (though when he says, "Will you forgive a fellow for speaking sharply?" to a drummer boy, I swear I could hear the ghost of Errol Flynn).
The other characters are equally easy to cast. Ira Jamison, the slave owner whose southern charm hides a Machiavellian ruthlessness, and whose smooth skin belies his years, is practically Christopher Walken's doppelgänger. His sidekick, the unambiguously villainous Rufus Atkins, could well be played by up-and-coming John C Reilly. While the illegitimate daughter he fathered upon one of his slaves, the beautiful, much-abused (but never despoiled), half-black, half-white Flower, is tailor made for Halle Berry. Her friend and mentor (and, it is hinted, would-be lover), the Quaker abolitionist Abigail Dowling, might interest a latter-day Grace Kelly. And these are but a fraction of the dramatis personae. If it ever makes it to the silver screen, the resulting epic will surely rival The Birth of a Nation.
Don't get me wrong. I do not mean for one second to suggest that White Doves at Morning was written with a movie deal in mind. Certainly not. But it seems to this reader at least that the collective unconscious Burke dips into is filled with images derived not from dusty tomes or thrice-told tales, but from the cinema. You can practically hear the celluloid rattling through the projector as you read: "After he was gone she sat by herself in the cabin, her heart beating, her breasts rising and falling in the silence. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rufus Atkins' silhouette break across the light." Her heart beating? As opposed to what? Anyway, no prizes for guessing the next scene.
Don't get me wrong a second time. I do not mean to suggest that Burke is anything other than an accomplished writer (excepting the occasional heaving bosom, and stirrings in the loins). There are, in fact, many fine descriptions of Louisiana's flora, fauna and climate (which seems to be dominated by lightning). But he has made his reputation as a writer of thrillers (most featuring Detective Dave Robicheaux), and his chief interest remains in engineering the plot, at which he is no slouch; this reader, for one, was transformed into a vigilante baying for the blood of Jamison, and especially the devilish Atkins.
To this end a gun is purchased early on (I'd better not tell by whom), and events are carefully arranged so that all the main protagonists - the good and the wicked - arrive in the same place when (as Chekhov insisted) the weapon is finally discharged. At whom, and by whom, must also remain a secret. Suffice to say that - as in most good detective stories - justice is served and the world healed. Except that it isn't really. Throughout the novel Ira Jamison is concerned by a growing fissure in a wall of his mansion (not unlike that which brings down the House of Usher), but in the end Burke shies away from exploring the space between, the heart of darkness.
Should a Hollywood producer snap up the movie rights, he'd do well to check out Lillian Ross's book Picture, which details the philistine blows visited upon John Huston as he tried his damnedest to be true to Crane's masterpiece.
A movie was made from this book, but not worthy of the effort, like so many movies.
Since you’re here…
James Lee Burke, lighting on the same subject, likewise eschewed research. In a letter addressed to readers of his new book he explains that such toil was hardly necessary, given that his home turf and local bayou were an eloquent memorial to the conflict, with cannonballs and wrecks barely below the surface. But he has more than the collective unconscious to draw upon, for the story he has waited years to tell concerns his own ancestors: great-grandfather Robert Perry and great-great-uncle Willie Burke. The former was officer class, the latter - initially, at least - a private.
As in The Red Badge of Courage, Burke's battle scenes are described from the point of view of a pawn, though Willie Burke and Crane's Henry Fleming are hardly peas in a pod. However, before seeing how they diverge, one other similarity should be recorded. Crane's title refers - of course - to the bloody wound Fleming longs for, to acquit him of cowardice. The injury is acquired eventually, but in an ironic fashion, so as to undermine the youth's last illusions and the title's poetic bravura. Burke's title (no less poetic) derives from a traditional song, steeped in bucolic melancholy; the white doves are not heralds of a brave new dawn, but birds of ill-omen, which visit the graves of fallen soldiers. Not a tactful refrain to chant on the eve of battle. Sure enough, Willie's best friend tells the tactless singer to shut up.
Willie's big problem is that he can't. His Irish tongue keeps getting the better of him. Henry Fleming, on the contrary, internalises everything. Hearing an officer describe his regiment as expendable, he bites his tongue and retreats with a scared look on his face. The young Keith Carradine would have impersonated him well. Willie, being an altogether flashier gent, demands a bigger name; maybe Leonardo DiCaprio, reprising his role in Titanic (though when he says, "Will you forgive a fellow for speaking sharply?" to a drummer boy, I swear I could hear the ghost of Errol Flynn).
The other characters are equally easy to cast. Ira Jamison, the slave owner whose southern charm hides a Machiavellian ruthlessness, and whose smooth skin belies his years, is practically Christopher Walken's doppelgänger. His sidekick, the unambiguously villainous Rufus Atkins, could well be played by up-and-coming John C Reilly. While the illegitimate daughter he fathered upon one of his slaves, the beautiful, much-abused (but never despoiled), half-black, half-white Flower, is tailor made for Halle Berry. Her friend and mentor (and, it is hinted, would-be lover), the Quaker abolitionist Abigail Dowling, might interest a latter-day Grace Kelly. And these are but a fraction of the dramatis personae. If it ever makes it to the silver screen, the resulting epic will surely rival The Birth of a Nation.
Don't get me wrong. I do not mean for one second to suggest that White Doves at Morning was written with a movie deal in mind. Certainly not. But it seems to this reader at least that the collective unconscious Burke dips into is filled with images derived not from dusty tomes or thrice-told tales, but from the cinema. You can practically hear the celluloid rattling through the projector as you read: "After he was gone she sat by herself in the cabin, her heart beating, her breasts rising and falling in the silence. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Rufus Atkins' silhouette break across the light." Her heart beating? As opposed to what? Anyway, no prizes for guessing the next scene.
Don't get me wrong a second time. I do not mean to suggest that Burke is anything other than an accomplished writer (excepting the occasional heaving bosom, and stirrings in the loins). There are, in fact, many fine descriptions of Louisiana's flora, fauna and climate (which seems to be dominated by lightning). But he has made his reputation as a writer of thrillers (most featuring Detective Dave Robicheaux), and his chief interest remains in engineering the plot, at which he is no slouch; this reader, for one, was transformed into a vigilante baying for the blood of Jamison, and especially the devilish Atkins.
To this end a gun is purchased early on (I'd better not tell by whom), and events are carefully arranged so that all the main protagonists - the good and the wicked - arrive in the same place when (as Chekhov insisted) the weapon is finally discharged. At whom, and by whom, must also remain a secret. Suffice to say that - as in most good detective stories - justice is served and the world healed. Except that it isn't really. Throughout the novel Ira Jamison is concerned by a growing fissure in a wall of his mansion (not unlike that which brings down the House of Usher), but in the end Burke shies away from exploring the space between, the heart of darkness.
Should a Hollywood producer snap up the movie rights, he'd do well to check out Lillian Ross's book Picture, which details the philistine blows visited upon John Huston as he tried his damnedest to be true to Crane's masterpiece.
A movie was made from this book, but not worthy of the effort, like so many movies.
Since you’re here…
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