As if that is not enough, Burke just published his third story collection, ‘Harbor Lights.” These captivating stories reveal a writer so masterful, so immersed in his craft, this reviewer was awestruck. The book closes with two lengthy tales. In “A Distant War” Burke mischievously spins science fiction. The collection peaks with the dazzling “Strange Cargo” at almost novella length.
Burke’s readers expect him to mine certain thematic lodes and he frequently does; devastation of the environment, our cruelty to animals and to each other, political demagogues, corrupt law enforcement officers, endemic racism, and notably; evildoers who seem to have oozed out of some separate gene pool.
His prose is distinctive, so recognizable. His lyrical descriptions of nature are without peer. Here’s an example: “We went into a shack that had no door and no glass in the windows, among a grove of cottonwoods, and lay down on some gunnysacks and listened to the trout night feed in a long riffle that came right down the center of the stream, as shiny as a ribbon of oil under the moon.”
The title story is set in Louisiana during WWII. According to Burke, it is little known that German U-boats were sinking oil freighters in the Gulf of Mexico. An oil worker loosely based upon Burke’s own father reports this sinister activity and is stunned to learn nobody will talk about it-our government didn’t want to unleash panic.
When Burke invents characters he doesn’t play around: “Lizard was a driller. His skin looked like leather stretched on a skeleton. At age twenty he already had chain gang scars on his ankles and whip marks from the Black Betty on his back. He whistled and sang while he worked, and bragged on his conquests in five-dollar brothels. I was jealous of his peace of mind.”
In “A Distant War” we don’t anticipate science fiction. I talked to the author last week, that is how he described it. A woman seems to be under the delusion she is the widow of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America.Varina Davis lives in an Airstream trailer. It is tasty dystopian chowder. Burke’s most recent novel, “Flags on the Bayou,” was just nominated for another Edgar Award. I hope he wins, it could not happen to a more deserving fellow.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
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