Wayfaring Stranger

Holland Family Saga #1

by James Lee Burke

James Lee Burke's new novel begins in West Texas in 1934, and the story begins with a fateful encounter between the narrator, Weldon Avery Holland, and the notorious Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker - a meeting which ends with the sixteen-year-old Holland putting a bullet through the windscreen of Clyde's stolen automobile. Weldon's education in the evils that men - and women - are capable of continues as we move to the Ardennes Forest and the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, where Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland saves his sergeant, Hershel Pine, from death by suffocation when he is buried alive in his foxhole under the treads of a Waffen SS Tiger tank. Weldon and Hershel survive the executions of the wounded by the SS and escape on a freight train deep into Nazi Germany. There, they stumble into an extermination camp deserted by the SS, and discover among the stacked bodies a young woman named Rosita Lowenstein - the second woman to change Weldon's life. Weldon goes all the way to the Elbe River in the war's brutal climax, but afterwards he is determined to find Rosita - eventually tracking her down in Paris, where they get married. But Hershel has also found gold in the dross of conflict, claiming to have discovered the secret to the Tiger tank's indestructibility, its unique welding process - and on their return to the States, it looks as if the two friends have not merely survived; they're going to be rich. But as the two form a pipeline corporation and enter the oil business, they are about to encounter - amidst the super-rich of Huston - levels of greed and cruelty they thought they had left far behind in the blood and horror of war.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Audiobook, Thriller, Crime, Historical

434 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2014

About the author

James 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.

Reviews

[Andrew Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A paragraph of JLB’s writing is more recognisable than any author I’ve come across. He’s my favourite writer, and to sit down with his latest book is one of my greatest joys.

It’s been said by some that he regurgitates the same story every time. This isn’t true, but the pace and mood, the characterisation of his heroes (they’re all strong, articulate, and highly principled men), and the structure of his stories usually have striking similarities. His world is peppered with sociopaths, psychopaths and other social deviants, but he also has a way of looking wistfully to the past that, once experienced, stays with you and reminds the reader whose company he or she is keeping. And there’s the unique way he has of ending most sections of his books with a sentence that stings like a slap. I don’t know any other writer who does this.

A good number of JLB’s books have focussed on Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux and his hilarious sidekick Clete Purcell, but this book picks up a new (to us) member of the Holland family, Weldon Avery Holland. Aficionados of Burke’s work will have already met two present-day members of the clan - Hackberry Holland features in three books, and Billy Bob Holland (Hackberry’s cousin) has four books of his own.

The story tracks Weldon from his his childhood meeting with Bonnie and Clyde in the 1930’s, through his war service and his survival of the Battle of the Bulge to his post-war involvement in the oil business and describes the enmity and open hostilities that arise. We see the story unfold amidst the burgeoning growth of the two big money spinning industries of the time, oil and Hollywood, and witness the impacts of McCarthyism, segregation et al. This is also the tale of two couples and how their lives are entwined (I’ll not give away any of the background detail – it’s better to just dive in and discover it for yourself). As always, the descriptions are highly detailed and jump off the page. The dialogue is sharp and direct. It’s a big story, and it travels at pace.

Ok, if I were to find a flaw, it would be that the denouement is a little too neat, a bit too contrived. But I forgive it that. The overall experience is just so powerful, the characters so well drawn that I know I’ll be lucky to read anything this good until the next Burke novel is released.

Finally, I loved the way he slipped in a little something for fans of his Robicheaux series: in a scene where one of the characters drops a coin in a Jukebox the song played is none other than Harry Choate’s Jolie Blon. Well, I guess you’ll need to dive into this series if you want to understand the significance of this classic Cajun anthem.

[TXGAL1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my gosh…what a writer!! To me, this book read like beautiful poetry although the subject was dark.

THE WAYFARING STRANGER follows the life of Weldon Holland and his walk through it with honesty and grit. A young man from Texas, Weldon lives with his grizzled grandfather until Weldon sets out to make his mark in the world. Weldon’s path is interrupted by World War II and he experiences events that further shape him from boy to man.

Post war, Weldon is on his way to making a name for himself in the business world but will mean and evil good ol’ boys stand back and watch; or, will Weldon’s future be harshly challenged?😱🪓

This book is FANTASTIC. I hope you read it. I definitely will be reading more of James Lee Burke’s books!

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is hard for me to describe to someone who has never read this author before, just how brilliantly he writes, how tightly constructed is this novel. He is truly a cut above the rest. From the opening paragraph, the reader is drawn into the time and place in which the story is set. From the opening chapter when a young Weldon Holland confronts Bonnie and Clyde on his grandfather's property there is an underlying tone of menace.

Holland is a unique man, a man who protects those he loves, who is a master of his convictions, has a great deal of integrity and loyalty. He serves in he war and it is there we meet two other characters who are integral to this story. After the war there were two ways in which fortunes could be made, Hollywood and oil drilling. With his partner from the war Hershel Pine they start a company with machines Pine invented that weld pipeline better than anyones. Of course there are men who will stop at nothing, use whatever they can to take what is not theirs. What they do and how Holland reactsis the moral dilemma at the center of this novel.

In his novel Burke has given us a man whose youth was formed from a chance meeting with some infamous outlaws, an everyday man who makes his own success, who tries not to descend to the level of those who threaten to take away everything he loves and has worked for. A wonderful new story from the masterful Burke. If you have not read this author before, give him a try.

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 4 out of 5]

”I suspect it was foolish to be musing upon the allure of a young woman when there was a possibility that we might be blown into bits in a snowy, tree-lined gulch in the heart of a medieval forest. But the prospect of death sometimes creates an interlude when time stops and you see a portrait of what existence should be like rather than what it is.”

Weldon Avery Holland has a moral compass that makes people uneasy. He sets the standards. He doesn’t impose them on others, but people know within a few minutes of meeting him that they haven’t met anyone quite like him before. His grandfather Hackberry Holland once knocked John Wesley Hardin off his horse and threw him in jail. The Holland’s are tough, but they treat everyone with respect. They don’t back down, but nor do they go looking for trouble.

Somehow, trouble always finds them.

During the war, Weldon saves Hershel Pine’s life, and both of them pull a woman named Rosita Lowenstein out of a stack of cold bodies in a German concentration camp. She reminds him of another woman by the name of Bonnie Parker. As a child, he had his own encounter with Bonnie and Clyde, and for the rest of his life, he remembers how he felt in the glow of the lady outlaw. He feels that same kind of smoldering burn around Rosita.

We do like outlaws. ”Why did they continue to intrigue and fascinate us? Was it because we secretly envied their freedom? Or was it because they got even for the rest of us?”

When they get back to the United States, Hershel and Weldon start an oil drilling company, but with special welders that Hershel discovered in Germany. Soon their success comes to the attention of the rich and powerful. They vie for their souls.

Hershel is married to an ambitious, beautiful woman named Linda Gail. Hollywood comes calling and with it comes another darkness that threatens to destroy not only her, but Hershel and Weldon as well. When you let corruption in your life it is nearly impossible to ever remove the stain from your mind, your heart, your character. ”You had a fling and your hubby found out about it. What did he think happens out here? This is Babylon-by-the-Sea. On a spring night you can hear the hymans snapping like crickets. Are you going to dump your career and go back home and serve your redneck friends’ beer while they tell nigger jokes?”

You live in Hollywood too long, and all you know is stereotypes. As you meet people, you peg their usefulness to you before you analyze their character. The interesting thing is, at the beginning of the book, I could not stand Linda Gail, but by the end of the book, under the careful manipulations of a crafty writer, I started to cut her some slack. She might have jumped in and swam in the shallow end of the pool, but it didn’t take her long to understand that the glitter of lights doesn’t always make up for the darkness that hitches a ride in the shadow you cast.

Things get much worse, and soon Weldon and Hershel realize that they are up against people who refuse to lose. These rich men will do whatever it takes to chalk up another win, including going after Weldon’s and Hershel’s wives. ”We give power to the worst among us.” What an apt statement to read in an election year like this, where honor is written on tissue paper that has been wadded up and tossed over the shoulder to blow away in the wind. Winning is so important that nothing else carries any weight.

Even a good man, like Weldon reaches a point where he is ready to ”sling blood on the trees.”

The lyricism of James Lee Burke has been admired, written about, and discussed ever since he first appeared on the scene. To meet him in person is like meeting a character from one of his books. He is a gifted writer who could have been considered literary if he had decided to write books with prizes in mind. He understands love, betrayal, grief, weakness, honor, and has a highly developed sense of how a man or woman should conduct themselves. He has strong characters of both sexes in his books. Every time I read a James Lee Burke book, I spend time thinking about whether I am a good enough person to ride the river with the likes of Weldon Holland or his Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux. Acting honorably is something we need to do all the time, not just when it is convenient. By compromising ourselves, we can have some short term gains that turn into long term regrets.

Nothing irritates my wife more than when someone takes advantage of me. I reassure her every time that I can take it. My great-grandmother once said to me that I was smart, and therefore, I had a responsibility to help other people. That doesn’t mean I have to be a fool. I might help a man up, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a club in the other hand if he proves to be treacherous. There are times when you have to cut people loose. They aren’t ready to be the best of who they can be yet. Proving yourself capable comes with the responsibility of being reliable. People start to RELY on you. Few of us can really shoulder that burden but, in my opinion, more should.

If you’ve never read James Lee Burke, this would be a good one to start with. He has other books with the Holland family, but this one stands alone. If you like this one, you will be happy to know that there are plenty more JLB books to read. I’ve read a lot of them, and there is no inconsistency. His writing remains stellar, despite how many times he goes to that deep well for more words. Reading one of his books is like taking that first sip of a vodka martini or the first bite of a Milky Way or the first time you push the accelerator down and watch the needle hit 100.

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Holland Family Saga is a fine addition to James Lee Burke's impressive oeuvre.

At the age of 16 Weldon Holland meets the infamous bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow when their gang hides out on the outskirts of his grandfather's Texas ranch.



Weldon and his grandfather - former Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland - are lucky to come out of the encounter alive, and Weldon shoots a bullet into the bandits' 1932 Chevy as the thieves drive off.



Jump ahead to 1944 and Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland's army unit is massacred by the German army during the Battle of the Bulge. Weldon survives and manages to dig his Sergeant, Hershel Pine, out of a crushed foxhole.



The two men, on the run from the enemy, come across an abandoned Nazi death camp where they liberate a young woman, Rosita Lowenstein, from a pile of corpses. After additional harrowing experiences Weldon, Hershel, and Rosita are rescued by American troops.

In time Weldon marries Rosita, a Spanish Jew whose family were communists. Weldon also goes into business with Hershel Pine, who's developed a revolutionary way to weld pipes for the oil industry.



Weldon and Hershel form the Dixie Belle Pipeline Company, which becomes enormously successful and lucrative.....and attracts the attention of oil barons who want its technology.



To this end Roy Wiseheart, the son of a billionaire Texas oil tycoon, proposes a joint venture with Dixie Belle, but is roundly rejected. Wiseheart - a war hero who won a flying ace under questionable circumstances - tries to convince Weldon to change his mind, to no avail.



Roy Wiseheart is a complicated character: he's handsome, charming, avaricious, and repeatedly unfaithful to his (admittedly horrible) wife - but harbors wisps of conscience and heart. Roy's father though, is a take-no-prisoners businessman who's a vicious anti-communist and anti-Semite.



Thus the senior Wiseheart makes it his business to destroy the two couples associated with Dixe Belle: Weldon and Rosita; and Hershel and his wife Linda Gail.

To achieve this goal the elder Wiseheart hires a corrupt Houston detective who employs every trick in the book to harass the Hollands and Pines.



He engineers a traffic stop for Rosita that results in an arrest - and ultimately escalates to an intolerable situation; he sends Weldon painful films of Rosita in a Nazi concentration camp; he distributes compromising photos of Linda Gail after she becomes a Hollywood starlet; he steals into the bedroom of Weldon's grandfather and tries to humiliate him....but the tough old coot pulls a gun and scares the crap out of the rotten cop (ha ha ha). 😊

Weldon and Hershel's families seem helpless in the face of Wiseheart's power and influence, but Weldon is a rugged, crafty fellow. Moreover, he's assisted by 'visions' of the old Chevy that once belonged to Bonnie and Clyde.



This book has elements common to many of Burke's novels: men on the side of law and justice (Weldon and his grandfather); a devoted married couple (Weldon and Rosita); an evil wealthy family (some of the Wisehearts); a grasping female (Linda Gail); and supernatural elements (the Chevy).

As always, Burke's writing is excellent, with evocative descriptions of scenery, ranging from Texas;



to the Ardennes;



to Louisiana;



to the Rocky Mountains;



Burke also excels in his descriptions of people, though some of the book's characters are well-rounded and complex while others are two-dimensional 'types' (a white supremacist woman; a Hollywood lothario, a grasping insurance company executive; a crooked cop, etc.).

I'd love to see James Lee Burke write a book that goes in a different direction but - whether he does or not - I'll keep reading his excellent stories. This book would appeal to a wide variety of readers and I highly recommend it.

You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/

[Cathrine ☯️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5+★ (and that's not enough)
Oh my! I already used the term hot damn when singing the praises of House of the Rising Sun so let me think a moment. I did give it 5 stars but technically awarded 4.75 because I had the feeling James Lee might take it up a notch and I’d need room to grow with him. Boy howdy, he delivered with Wayfaring Stranger. Here we have another book about a male hero during times when men were men and women liked it. After falling in love with the author now I’m completely gone on Weldon Holland. He is the man women yearn for let me tell you; honor, the courage of his convictions, inability to back down or compromise his principles, not to mention putting his hand in a fire for a friend. As a young boy we learn his first love was Bonnie Parker, you'll remember her as Clyde’s better half. As a man he tells us about his Rosita, one of the sheroes in our story.

“To make love to Rosita Lowenstein was to enter a Petrarchan sonnet. I told her she was probably the only woman in the world who made love in iambic pentameter, and the Lowenstein sonnet always ended with a rhyming couplet, one that left me weak and breathless. To make love with Rosita was not a sexual act; it was a sacrament. After she fell asleep, I went downstairs with my notebook and wrote these words: Lose the entire world if you have to, drive your car off a cliff, gamble away a fortune in Vegas, single-handedly invade the Soviet Union, but never let go of Rosita Lowenstein. Never, never, never.”

You got that right Weldon. And where did he learn all the right stuff? His grandfather Hackberry Holland of course. Here’s a bit of advice from him on how to deal with the evil in some men.

"'Draw a line in the sand. But don’t tell anybody where it is. Don’t let your feelings show. Don’t let others know you’ve been hurt. No matter what they do, don’t react until they come over the line. Then you drop them in their tracks.'
'It’s 1947 Grandfather.'
'It certainly is, he said.'”

What a man, what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man (thank you Salt-n-Pepa). Yes indeed.
I know I’m not telling you much about the story and it’s a great one with characters inspired by the author’s relatives. I will say I’m considering putting all my other books on the back burner because according to GR James Lee Burke has 30 distinct works leaving me 28 to read. Hot damn!

[Penelope Forrester · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the most important book Burke has written to date. It is literature at its best. As much as I appreciate all his highly underrated work, this one far surpasses even Tin Roof Blow Down, which, was in my personal opinion, his best. Before that, Confederate Mist. This is not to say his other works do not pierce the psyche of his characters. They do. But this work is far different. More personal. It comes from his very soul. His treatment of the Hollands is even more complex than our old friend Dave. His theme of human fallibility, sin and redemption is profound.

In my three particular favorites, I sensed a unique connection between Burke and the characters. Wayfaring Stranger leaves the other two in the dusty roadside. This is not because of his obvious respect and love and admiration of the actual Weldon, but how Burke got into his head and heart more deeply than in any other work. He did his cousin Weldon and many other WWII hero soldiers (my dad included) proud. They are/were all heroes, as much as one of my friends, who at fifteen, led her mother out of Austria and Germany in 1939. We cannot imagine the dread she felt as she led her mother through a snow-laden forest from Cologne to the Belgian border. It took five attempts to make the escape.

My friend, thanks be to God, was never sent to a Camp, but she was molested by Nazi soldiers. I thought of her as we followed Rosita’s journey. Burke has always respected women in his books, and portrayed them elegantly. Within this work he continues with his female characters portrayed as strong and brave and intelligent.

Rosita is the best of the best, the bravest of the brave. She is brilliant and gutsy and beautiful. I have noticed, within the last three or four works women are represented stronger and stronger, and Burke has given them a more prominent role. This was also the most profound love story he has written to date.

When I finished the book, I realized I was crying. I don’t cry.

I could go on and on and on. There’s no need. This is a masterpiece. If Burke never wrote another book, he could rest his reputation on this one. That statement does not, however, give him license to retire. I hunger for his next.

[Lee Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fuck me. Burke is such a goddamn badass.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I applaud Burke making such a great transition to historical fiction. As with Lehane’s metamorphosis, he can’t keep mysteries out of the plot or a few behind the scenes murders. But the hero here, Weldon Holland, is in no way a detective. He is a Texas oilman in the post-war boom. He has the soul of a writer, an old ambition from his college days, one that aligns with capacity to see people as if they were actors in a Shakespearean play or Medieval romance. And indeed he ends up playing some roles with chivalry at their core.

Weldon’s father abandoned his family when he was a kid, resulting in his mother breaking down and being institutionalized. The vacuum was filled by his grandfather, a cantankerous but loving man, whose work as a fair but tough sheriff instilled in Weldon a respect for justice and old fashioned family values. An experience when he was 12 in which his grandfather chased Bonnie and Clyde and associates off their land has a big impact on Weldon, as he ended up shooting at their car after the run-in injured his grandfather. The twist in his heart was that he had developed a crush on the outlaw Bonnie Parker when visiting with them earlier. I love how Burke uses this improbable experience to prefigure events later in the book and nurture some mythic overtones.

Another stage-setting event at the beginning of the book is the experience Weldon had as a lieutenant at the Battle of the Bulge. I won’t spoil the plot, but merely say he becomes bound forever to his sergeant Hershel Pine and saves his future wife, Rosita Lowenstein, from a concentration camp. Back in Texas after the war, he and Hershel capitalize on a German welding method to start a successful pipeline company. The details of their struggles to stay independent was fun to experience. But it brought them into conflict with a certain greedy and super wealthy oilman. His son, Roy Wiseheart, professes to respect them for standing up the father he hates. He also claims to envy Weldon for being a self-made man and a true hero in the war. In contrast, his career in the war as an aviator was driven by a desire to prove himself to his father, and in the process his pursuit of status as an ace pilot in numbers of downed enemy planes led to the death of his squadron leader.

This history provides a rich foundation for themes of loyalty and honor and redemption throughout the book. Roy can’t resist trying to help Weldon and Hershel, despite the hatred his aristocratic wife has for their low-status origins, especially Hershel’s country girl wife, Linda, who desires to join her Houston country club. Her virulent anti-Semitic attitudes come out for Rosita, who is tagged as a Communist because of her family’s alliances during the Spanish Civil War before fleeing to France. Roy wangles it so Linda gets an opportunity to try out as an actress in a Hollywood movie he is an investor in. Her surprising success and dive into the Hollywood high life puts a big strain on her marriage. Mobsters such as Bugsy Siegel are part of the background. Slowly the work of powerful enemies out to destroy the families of Weldon and Hershel come to the fore, and we are left to wonder who is behind their minions and to wait anxiously to experience the roles of each of the four in the drama of saving themselves.

You should be getting the picture now that this story is reaching for a classic sprawling tale that portrays people with traditional rural values at odds with the corrupting forces that come into play when the American Dream gets married to big oil and the Hollywood engine. I think Burke did well at the ambitious effort, grounding the plot in compelling character development and excellent sensory evocation of a sense of place. I got almost as much satisfaction as I did from Meyer’s multigenerational Texas saga, “The Son.” I do find fault in Burke’s tendency to have his characters all speak in complete sentences and expound articulately on their moral outlook. For example, the following concept of evil appears in all of his Robicheaux detective books, though it isn’t central in this one:

There are times in your life when you know, without any demonstrable evidence, that you are in the presence of genuine evil. It is not generated by demons, not does it have its origins in the Abyss. It lives in the breast of our fellow man and takes on many disguises, but its intention is always the same: to rob the innocent of their faith in humanity and to destroy the light and happiness that all of us seek.

Also, I like the paradoxes in his characters, but I felt he spelled them out too much in a particular revery by Weldon. Close your eyes if you think the author’s plan for character traits is a spoiler; read on if you want a feel for them as an impetus to pursue the book:

The Greek tragedians viewed irony, not the stars, as the agency that shaped our lives. They were probably right. I was a river-baptized Christian, but I married a Jew who was a better Christian than I. I wanted to be an anthropologist, but I became a pipeline contractor and a rich man through the use of machines that made the tanks that tried to kill me. Roy Wiseheart was born with everything except the approval of his father and consequently seemed to value nothing. Hershel Pine was a man of humble birth who could have served as a yeoman under Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, yet he possessed the chivalric virtues of an Arthurian knight. Clara Wiseheart owned imaginable amounts of money, and seemed governed day to day by the vindictive child living inside her. Linda Gail had stopped for gas at a country store and stepped off the gallery into a camera’s lens and a career in Hollywood. And since 1934, the single most influential ongoing event in my life had been my encounter with Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, people who had the cultural dimensions of a hangnail.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Sometimes your luck runs out and you have to accept that the life you planned is a dream written on water." I had never read anything by this author before and that was a big mistake. This was a wonderful thriller/family saga, but the best part about it was the author's use of the English language. The narrator was Weldon Holland who, when he was 16, encountered Bonnie and Clyde. This turned out to be an influential event in his life, although he thought of them as "people who had the cultural dimensions of a hangnail". Later, while fighting Nazis, Weldon and his friend Hershel Pine rescued Rosita Lowenstein from a death camp. Rosita was Jewish, and possibly also a communist, two characteristics that would eventually attract the attention of her husband Weldon's enemies. After Weldon and Hershel started an oil pipeline business they became embroiled with the dangerous Wiseheart family comprised of Dalton, his son Roy and Roy's wife Clara. Soon someone was out to destroy Weldon and would use any means available to do so.

The characters in this book were so rich. My only quibble was that Rosita was probably the weakest of the characters, known mostly by her flawlessness. As Weldon put it, "I had married a Jew who was a better Christian than I". Hershel was pathetically devoted to his childlike, selfish wife Linda Gail (who was not as hapless as she originally appeared). "The Greek tragedians viewed irony, not the stars, as the agency that shaped our lives." Weldon and Hershel became rich using "machines that made the tanks that tried to kill" them. Roy was an enigmatic figure who had "everything except the approval of his father and consequently seemed to value nothing". Hershel "possessed the chivalric virtues of an Arthurian knight". Clara "seemed governed day to day by the vindictive child living inside her."

I loved this book and the narration of the audiobook by Will Patton was perfection.

I received a free copy of the e-book from the publisher, however I wound up buying and listening to the audiobook version.

[Larry H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I received an advance readers copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

James Lee Burke is one of my favorite authors of all-time. Over the last 25 years or so, I've read everything he has written, and really marveled at his ability to tell stories. His writing style is one of the most poetic and evocative I've ever seen; no one can set a scene or describe a person quite like Burke.

With Wayfaring Stranger, Burke departs from the usual characters he's written about lately, most notably Louisiana police detective Dave Robicheaux, to tell the story of Weldon Holland. When we first meet Weldon in the 1930s, he is fatherless, being raised by his curmudgeonly grandfather. At 16, he has several chance encounters with Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, as they are hiding out following one of their many bank robberies. Weldon is entranced by the beautiful Bonnie, yet he knows intuitively that the group are criminals, and their last encounter leads to Weldon firing a gun at their car as it drives away. This experience both shapes his view of criminals and sets up an interesting standard of women in his mind.

Years later, Weldon finds himself in the army during World War II, and is one of a handful of survivors of the Battle of the Bulge. He and a fellow soldier, Hershel Pine, whose life Weldon saves, come upon an abandoned concentration camp, where they wind up saving the life of Rosita Lowenstein, who had been captured when her Communist father and her family were arrested. Weldon is immediately besotted with Rosita, who is a firebrand more interested in changing the world than settling down, yet Weldon pursues her again once the two are separated.

Returning to Texas, Hershel makes good on his gratitude toward Weldon by forging a partnership in the fledgling oil industry. Hershel has envisioned using German technology to weld oil pipeline, which makes it strong so it will not split. Yet as they begin to achieve immense success, they are dogged by corrupt businessmen and thieves who want to seize their business, and will stop at nothing—including using information about their wives—to destroy them. But their strong sense of right and wrong keeps them fighting, with positive and negative results.

Burke's writing ability is on fine display in this book, and many times I was struck by his use of imagery and his descriptions of characters, which made them tremendously vivid. Yet while many of the reviews I've read of this book claim that Wayfaring Stranger is a tremendous departure for Burke, I think it is only in that it's about different characters than his other books. I felt that in many ways, Weldon was very similar to Dave Robicheaux, in his steadfast need to right wrongs—even if it means doing wrong in the process—his long-suffering nature, and his fierce loyalty to those he cares about. And many of the villains that Weldon and Hershel encounter seem familiar as well.

I enjoyed this book, but not as much as many of Burke's others, yet many of the reviews I've seen say this may be his finest book to date. Whether you agree with me or not, if you're a fan of excellent storytelling, with a particular emphasis on the seamier side of human nature, I'd encourage you to pick up one of James Lee Burke's books, and hopefully you'll become as much an admirer of his as I am.

[Paul Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wayfaring Stranger is a slightly different animal to the gritty thrillers starring Hackberry Holland that I’ve been devouring recently.
 
The Holland family’s story, even claim to fame always comes back to the Grandfather and his antics in the Wild West in the late 1890’s. As a lawman he crossed swords, or pistols maybe, with the infamous gunfighters & outlaws Bill Dalton and John Wesley Hardin, dubbed one of the bloodiest killers of the Old West. Now I googled these as their names have cropped up in several stories now and they do both come with colourful histories, it’s certainly a period I’m developing an interest in.
 
Anyway this story kicks off in 1936 and Grandfather Holland is still around, a strong character who has a story that probably outweighs all his charges but this tale is about Weldon Holland, 16 years old and about to meet some significant people of the era. Spotting a vehicle in the woods out back of their property, Grandfather and Weldon investigate and find notorious armed robbers Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow holed up after a robbery. The encounter ends with Weldon putting a bullet through their window as the criminals flee but this meeting stays with Weldon throughout the story, captivated by the beautiful Bonnie Parker.
 
The story jumps to the War ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and Sergeant Hershel Pine escape the Battle of the Bulge by the skin of their teeth and stumble onto a recently deserted extermination camp. A harrowing part of the story sees them rescue a woman amidst the bodies, who Weldon will eventually chase around Paris determined to find and lay his heart on the line for.
 
Weldon and Rosita marry and set out for America where he becomes a partner with Hershel Pine and what follows is the rapid rise of a business born in the War itself and the enemy they left behind. A failsafe method of welding oil pipelines, big news indeed for the oil business.
 
Their success brings a wagonload of unwanted adversaries, most come disguised as friends, shaking your hand, patting your back while leading you over a trapdoor covering spikes. It’s an altogether different type of enemy than your usual bad guy, it’s the dirt at the bottom of the oil barrel, the shit you can’t get rid of and eventually it reaches everywhere. The depths aren’t deep enough for some people and its gripping to see how far the might of the oil business and even Hollywood will go to either get a piece of both Weldon and Hershel or ruin them, run them into the ground.
 
Wayfaring Stranger is an exemplary character driven thriller, where the heroes aren’t cops and the bad guys are more calculated than your average villain, where you cross the money men and it will come back to haunt you in ways you couldn’t possibly imagine.
The story also touches poignantly on Weldon’s relationship with his family, they’ve all got stories to tell, it’s by no means the mainstay of the story but it’s always close and personnel.
 
A 4.5 Rating, recommended.

Also posted at.
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[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I try to read all of Mr. Burke's novels. I like all the characters. Dave Robicheaux, Billy Bob Holland, Hackberry Holland. And his other novels and characters.

All that said, I think Mr James Lee Burke has outdone himself and written his best book. And I've read over 30 of his books.

Here's how you can tell you are reading a great story. You can't wait to get to the last page, to find out how the story ends, and yet you don't want the book to end at all.

That's "Wayfaring Stranger".

[Chrissie · Rating 1 out of 5]

After 1/3:

There is no point in my continuing with this. My friends know I don't usually dump books, but nevertheless I have decided to do just that. My reasons follow.

I have no interest in any of the characters. I couldn't care less if they succeed or fail. I don't even like Weldon Holland, and he is supposed to be the hero! He is so damn sanctimonious.

I dislike the crude language.

There is no humor.

I am not blown over by the occasional lines of descriptive writing.

One minute we are told X cannot walk, and then presto he is fine. What? Is that believable?

I do not mind reading about people's unscrupulous behavior, cheating, infidelity, cowardice and desire for pecuniary riches if I am learning about a real event. Tell me, what is the point here?! This is pure fiction. I am not learning a thing. The portion on fighting at the Battle of the Bulge is short. That about Bonnie and Clyde too. Now, after the war, it is about corrupt and exploitative managers running oil companies in Texas. These guys are all fictitious, and really, there is zero to learn!

Maybe reading about undercover detectives appeals to you? It doesn't to me.

I also hate the audiobook narration by Will Patton. Yes, he reads slowly, but he mumbles and he slurs words. He sounds so self-satisfied. Maybe that is good; it does fit Weldon Holland.

I read for fun. This is tedious and boring. I don't give a fig if Weldon Holland earns a bunch of money by any means. I am sure he will deem his methods to be above board.

[Kristin (MyBookishWays Reviews) · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.mybookishways.com/2014/07/...

I shamefully admit that it’s been awhile since I’ve read anything by the wonderful James Lee Burke. It’s all good, though, because Wayfaring Stranger has reignited my love for his books, and I’ll be devouring the rest of them soon enough. Wayfaring Stranger could be called a thriller, I suppose. It’s paced like one at times. But, oh gosh, it’s so much more. Weldon Holland, grandson of Hackberry, is only 16 in 1934 when Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker come blazing through the Holland land after orchestrating the prison break at Eastham. Insouciant in their 1932 Chevy Confederate, they’re a source of instant fascination for young Weldon, especially the feral eyed Bonnie Parker with her beret titled over one eye. In a separate encounter a short time later, perhaps thinking he was protecting his grandfather, Weldon shoots his .44 into the back of the Chevy as it flees. This would prove to be a defining moment in his life. Then we move on to Holland’s stint in WWII in which he and his Sergeant, Hershel Pine, rescue a lovely woman, Rosita, from an SS death camp. Holland subsequently marries Rosita and when Pine tracks him down with a claim of a pipe weld that would never break, and the birth of their company, The Dixie Belle Pipeline Company, in 1946. The following years are good for them, but after a business venture goes south, they have no choice but to accept a loan from an untrusted source, and when Pine’s wife, the spirited and wayward Linda Gail, is “discovered” and introduced to the glittering gutters of Hollywood, it kicks off a chain of events that threaten everything they’ve built and everyone they love.

If you enjoy character driven sagas with plenty of kick, you’ll love Wayfaring Stranger, and if you’re already a fan of Burke’s work, it’s a given. Weldon Holland is a hero, but it’s his quiet way, loyalty, and deep seated morality that make him a standout. His fierce, fierce love for Rosita is enough to make a girl swoon. Enjoy that, because you won’t see me write that very much. I’m not much of a swooner, but good grief, the things he writes about Rosita are beautiful, and he respects and cherishes her in a time when women were sometimes not very respected, at least for anything other than how they looked. Lest you think that Weldon is the strongest character, Rosita is an absolute force of nature, Hershel is a loyal friend, solid and good, Hackberry Holland is very much the lovable curmudgeon, and if at first Linda Gail gets under your skin (oh, how she will), her eventual redemption and hard won strength are a glory to behold.

Wayfaring Stranger has a bit of everything that I love. It’s a grand literary tour of some of the most significant events in American history, and the glamorous parties of old Hollywood and sometimes diabolical machinations of behind the scenes players mark a time thought of as “innocent” which really wasn’t. I’m from Texas, and couldn’t help but revel in a book chock so full of so much amazing Texas history. How was I ever bored by this stuff in school? Maybe I just needed James Lee Burke for a teacher. This book is embodies everything that I think a good story should have, and not only is it a fine story, it’s also a meditation on human nature and our capacity for cruelty, but also the ability of the human spirit to rise above it, to love completely, and to refuse to give into the evil the evil that men, and women, do. Rosita endures some horrendous things throughout the course of this book, and her refusal to give in to those that would hurt her is inspiring, even as your heart breaks for her plight. I savored every word in this big, bold, gorgeous book. I didn’t want it to end, but what a helluva ending it was, certainly worthy of a Golden Age Hollywood actioner (I may have cried, don’t tell anyone.) If you only read a few books this year, make this one of them.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale of Texas family told in the usual poetic expression of James Lee Burke. It's basically about a man from childhood to his later years who has to deal with some very bad people. It's not an action piece nor would I agree it's even a thriller.

That said, it's pretty well done when you've got the voice of the amazing Will Patton. His display of different voices was amazing.

OVERALL GRADE: B.

[Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did finish the book because I bought it and I usually give any book I finish at least a 2 star rating, but I will make an exception here. The ending is just absolute nonsense. For pulp fiction of this type, unlikely events are required and I can live with "unlikely." About half way through this one went from unlikely to outright impossible. I should have quit then, but as I said, I paid for the book. I have sworn off this author before because of ridiculous endings but this time I am swearing off any more of his work for good.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this might be the best book I've read all year. I received a free copy as part of the GoodReads First Reads program, and I'm so glad I did, because I don't think I'd have read anything else by this author if this book hadn't shown up in my mailbox. Every page was five stars. The writing rivals Larry McMurtry's in its seemingly effortless complexity, which is to say that this guy has a Way with words, maybe even The Way. I don't know how someone manages to craft such a cohesive narrative that ties together Bonnie and Clyde; the Holocaust; post-war Hollywood; and the mid-20th century Texas oil industry, but Burke did it in spades. Throw in some real characters, some Texas noirish mystery, some of the best musings on life I've ever read, and you've got this damn fine work of storytelling. Highly recommended. I'm putting everything this guy has ever written on my To Be Read List.

[Robert Bacal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, an amazing book. Burke' ability to encompass both the darkness and light of the human soul is amazing, while at the same time being the most evocative writer of our times. You can smell, see, almost touch the scenes.

This is far more of an "epic" than his other books, steeped in the past - WW II, and the post war era.

BTW, the audio version is read by Will Patton, the same person who did many of the Robichaux books. If you've never listened to an audiobook and want to hear what it's like, this is one to get, because it brings a different dimension to the dialogue and descriptions in the book.

Or get the audio and text versions. Different experience. Both great.

[Craig Monson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burke’s expansive saga (apparently part of an even broader family epic) takes us from the Texas dust bowl of 1934 to war torn Europe a decade later, to the oilfields of post-war Texas and Louisiana and the studios of Hollywood, and, for a sentence or two, even to Mexico City in 1968. Beneath the plot’s surface details (many of which recall Edna Ferber’s Giant, but transposed from Marfa, TX to the area around Houston) the larger, basic struggles between good and evil run portentously. It is richly narrated, without poetic self-consciousness (except, perhaps during the more passionate romantic entanglements).

Weldon Holland is an honorable man, whose loyalty and chivalric virtue seem almost too good to be true. The woman whom he rescues from a recently abandoned concentration camp and whom he eventually marries is just as admirable. His wartime ally and friend-for-life, Hershel Pine, (“with far more humanity in him than he was aware of”), had he lived 70 years later, might well have carried a tiki torch in Charlottesville and dubbed “fake news” what the 1940s Hershel witnessed, wandering into that Nazi death camp, which helped to change him. Hershel’s empty, ambitious sweetheart from back home, Linda, may not deserve him but is not hopelessly beyond a little redemption (even if she needs a good shake).

The Dark Side is inhabited by wealthy and therefore powerful, predatory, and well-connected Texas oil barons from the top of the One Percent. “They’ll wave every flag they can get their hands on and tell you they’re patriots,” Weldon’s grandpa warns him. “Don’t be taken in. They’re just downright mean.” These bad guys (and gals) have no redeeming qualities, which doesn’t make them implausible—their 21st-century equivalents would not be hard to find.

The reader waits anxiously for crimes and other bad things to start happening and I’ll be danged if after a good while (2/3 of the book) they don’t—in spades. (This probably isn’t a book for those who want life to resemble a Preston Sturges movie.) Tensions mount with plausible inevitability as the end approaches, accompanied by a certain increase in righteous preaching that probably speaks only by the converted. The narrative does rather collapse at the end, when the Wayfaring Stranger descends (literally) like some Baroque Deus ex Machina and the curtains quickly close, leaving the reader to wonder “Huh? Wait! What? How?” before an epilogue restores plausibility.

I found the book very appealing. I looked forward to picking it up every time and to reading onward.

[Larraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't read this book if you're one of the people who think that the American Dream is alive and well. Don't read this book if you think the Greatest Generation was composed of honorable people who wanted nothing but the best for the USA. This book is a dose of cold water and one of the most beautifully written books I've read this year. James Lee Burke obviously knows his history and this novel, which starts as young Weldon Holland is trying his best to stay alive after being lost in the Ardennes after the Battle of the Bulge. He is a young lieutenant and his companion is his Sargent,Herschel. They stumble upon a small concentration camp where everyone is dead except one woman. He and his Sargent carry her out of the camp, and he marries her in Paris. She is a Spanish Jew whose father was a radical and supporter of the Spanish Revolution and is related to Rosa Luxembourg, a well known Communist. This is unimportant to Weldon, but becomes crucial as the novel goes on. Weldon gets out of the army and is planning to become a writer and anthropologist until Herschel convinces him to go into business with him. He can "smell" an oil field, he claims, plus he has discovered that the Germans had the best pipe welds ever. Their company prospers and becomes noticed by a wealthy man who wants to buy it. When they refuse, the persecution and the heartaches begin. Their lives become entwined with a wealthy couple. The wife is a rabid antisemite as well as being mentally unbalanced. It's a lethal combination. This was a book that, for me, was hard to put down. Burke is one writer I seldom miss.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a few of Burke's Dave Robicheaux crime novels and really enjoyed them. This one is a departure from those novels being a complex story about the Holland family. It starts out with 16-year old Weldon Holland having a chance encounter with Bonnie and Clyde after one of their notorious robberies. Weldon ends up putting a bullet through the car they were driving without hitting anyone but this encounter stays with Weldon for life. Ten years later, Lieutenant Holland is at the Battle of the Bulge and barely makes it out alive with his sergeant, Herschel Pine. The two happen upon a deserted concentration camp and rescue a beautiful woman, Rosita, who was hiding there. Rosita, a Jew who is also from a Communist family, ends up becoming Weldon's wife and the future for them seems bright when Herschel is able to convert a Nazi welding machine into one used for laying oil pipeline in Texas and Louisiana. But Weldon gets on the bad side of some evil anti-communist bigots who want his business and want to hide what had happened to Weldon's father years earlier. This puts Weldon, Herschel, Rosita, and Herschel's wife, Linda Gail, all in harm's way.

This was a very entertaining and engrossing story that meanders across post-war America from the oil fields of Texas and Louisiana to Hollywood where Linda Gail is posed to be a star. I have enjoyed Burke's writing and this one goes beyond any of his other novels I have read. High recommendation!

[Joe · Rating 1 out of 5]

What am I missing? I read some reviews expecting this to be a solid piece of storytelling, tightly crafted, brilliantly written . . . and my reaction is just the opposite. Not trying to offend Burke's many happy readers, but this -- the only book of his I've read -- left me empty. It was popcorn. A little tangy now and then, but hardly nourishing. I found the writing hackneyed and purpled with adjectives (please take that man's Thesaurus away!), the character sketches shallow, and the plot thin with a long-fortold and disappointing ending. I won't go on about it; he has many fans and obviously has broad appeal. But this example wasn't to my taste. Rating: 1 out of 5 dusters.

[Gail Strickland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure James Lee Burke can write a bad novel, but with this one,he's outdone himself. Beautifully written, I could not put this one down and I don't say that about many books. Except for the 2 hours I spent at my book club (which I almost missed so I could continue reading), I read this one straight through. So lyrical, some sentences seem to demand to be set to music and required re-reading just for the language.

Highly recommended.

[wally · Rating 4 out of 5]

six thirty-three ay em monday morning the 26th of march 2018 finished good read four stars i really liked it kindle library loaner. have never been disappointed with a story from burke. umm, honestly, i'd have liked a bit more justice served to those in need. some. not enough. but then the story mirrors life.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love James Lee Burke. Have been reading him for very many years. I believe he is Dave Robicheux and Wendell Holland. He’s part of the Louisiana Bayou and the West, the land and the people of both. He is literary and a gosh darn good storyteller.
I even like his hat, denim shirt and wonderful eyes that always look as if he’s staring into the distance on down the road.
I am a a big fan. I have not read a bad book of his yet.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh the Prose of this author…This reader has read a few James Lee Burke’s books but felt compelled to start at the beginning, #1. The audiobook, read by Will Patton, truly a “voice smythe”-the story unfolded in a smooth Southern drawl, the war, finding your true love, pipe lines, Hollywood actress and friendship. Enjoy

[Wayne Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, this guy can write. This is only the fifth book I've read by Burke and the first that was not part of the "Robicheaux" series, but I can tell by the way his novels entertain me that eventually my book shelf is going to be cluttered with quite a few of his novels.

[Gram · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book. James Lee Burke is a master storyteller who paints pictures with words. Highly recommended.

[Michael Shore · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It was the poem that explained the nature of courage and turned the mystery of death into a heroic couplet. Ultimately, it was the poem that banished fear from the heart and transformed us from actors into participants." Just one passage from one of the best written books i have ever read. Another one before my review "There's another way to put it. Sometimes your luck runs out and you have to accept that the life you planned was a dream written on water"."

From the first sentence i knew this was going to be exceptional. Many years ago i had read a mystery by James Lee Burke and it was one of the best of that genre back then. Now, many years later a friend told me about it and i looked it up on Goodreads and Amazon. The reviews were positively glowing including the Denver Post calling Burke "the finest American novelist". So I decided to take a leap of faith and read it An incredible sweeping novel of the southwest USA that begins before WW 2 and ends years after the war.

When the main character meets Bonnie and Clyde early on, i knew i was in for one heck of a ride, and this book is one that gets better and better the deeper you get. With its beginnings in rural Texas,then on to Europe for WW2, back to Texas, some forays into California, the story is about one good man, who despite his upbringing, and in some cases as a result of it, is determined not to let the evil of the world change who he is. It is a place and time of incredible wealth being created with the resulting greed and evil that invariably follows it.

Burke said this book is as close to an autobiographical novel as he has ever written, and the book reads very much like as historical fiction with many real life characters sprinkled throughout the book in believable situations. There is one movie star whom he doesnt give a real name to but when you finish, you are pretty certain you know who it is, or you think you know. haha

Most importantly, these are real men and women, people you can love and hate, admire and be revolted by, with some that you absolutely are rooting for and worried about. It is one of those book you can not put down. The writing is magical, lyrical and had me in awe of Burke. It is the very rare book that has me reading the same page over because i am so enthralled by the words, the sentences, and the phrasing. Many times i would say, how can he have written those two sentences back to back, let alone this page as it is so elegant and poetic. It's not the kind of book i normally read, but that is now going to change.

A ride through a time period in American History with a brilliant driver. Am now going to tackle as many JLB books as i can. He is truly as great a writer that all those reviewers claimed.