The Glass Rainbow: A Short Review of James Lee Burke’s Novel

It is extremely difficult for a writer to create a character who can be used repeatedly and successfully in a series, but James Lee Burke succeeds in his new novel The Glass Rainbow (Simon & Schuster 2010). I’ve read every novel in the Dave Robicheaux series, and with every read I’ve felt satisfied with the storyline, inspired to develop my own writing, and eager to read the next in the series. This novel, like Burke’s other 27 novels, is rich in cultural and historical allusions in the South Louisiana milieu chosen as the setting. While Burke’s characters confront  and wrestle with the evil that threatens to destroy them, they also struggle with relationships, personal failures, and with matters more philosophical and ethical–questions relating to law and legal issues, to social mores, and personal standards.

Burke is a gifted writer who has enriched our age. There are reasons he has two Edgar Awards and was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

As I usually do in these short reflections of my readings,  I wanted to list a few phrases from the novel that intrigued or interested me. The page numbers are from the hardback edition.

“I realized that southern Shintoism does not necessarily have to clothe itself in Confederate gray and butternut brown” (39).
“A local bluesman by the name of Lazy Lester once said, “Don’t ever write your name on the jailhouse wall” (55).
“Jerry Springer does referrals for me” (92).
To me, the rain in Louisiana has always worked as a kind of baptism” (109).
“I have had visions of them that I do not try to explain to others.  Sometimes I thought I heard cries and shouts and the sounds of musket fire in the mist, because the Union soldiers who marched through Acadiana were turned loose upon the civilian populace as a lesson in terror.  The rape of Negro women became commonplace.  Northerners have never understood the nature of the crimes that were committed in their names  . . .” (139).

There were so many other good quotations, but perhaps these will pique your interest in reading The Glass Rainbow.

Lee Cody has written a wonderful book entitled, The 14th Denial: A Civil Rights Memoir, edited by yours truly. The book tells the story of how in the midst of the volatile times surrounding the Civil Rights Movement, two police detectives solved one of our nation’s worst hate crimes and paid for it with their careers.

Lee Cody, Jr. worked with the Duval County Sheriff’s Office for seven years, reaching the rank of Detective Sgt. The Jacksonville native helped solve one of Northeast Florida’s worst hate crimes, but he paid for it with his career. In the years since, he has collected a mountain of evidence that reveals a horrifying conspiracy, a tale of blatant racism and denial of the rights promised citizens by the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution.  This book tells the true story of the murder of Jonnie Mae Chappell, a thirty-five-year-old African-American mother of ten. As told on Oprah, Dateline, Court T.V. and the History Channel, the story also reveals a massive conspiracy on the part of law enforcement and government officials and prosecutors—both state and federal—and even members of the FBI who were determined to cover up Ms. Chappell’s murder, the governmental corruption and obstruction of justice, and the civil rights violations that Sgt. Cody and other detectives discovered.  This is a story that America needs to hear. You can see the publisher (Lulu) and order the book in printed (Hardback $29.95)  or in pdf form ($5.00) here: