Review: ‘The Jealous Kind’

Sometimes it's not just the story. It's how the story is told.

That's what draws me back to the novels of James Lee Burke time after time. An author who just turned 80, Burke has a way with words I find absolutely delightful.

Here are a couple of examples from 'The Jealous Kind” (Simon & Schuster, $27.99, 382 pages):

'For me, fear was a given I factored into the events of the day, like a pebble that never leaves your shoe.”

'A psychiatrist would probably say my fears were an externalization of my problems at home. Maybe he would be right, although I have always wondered how many psychiatrists have gone up against five or six guys who carried chains and switchblades and barber razors, and didn't care if they lived or died, and ate their pain like ice cream.”

Those appear on the first two pages, and the prose poetry just keeps coming.

This is the story of Aaron Holland Broussard, grandson of Hackberry Holland, a colorful Texas lawman featured in several Burke novels. Set in Houston in the early 1950s, this book explores the underbelly of a certain segment of teenage life at the time and just how volatile that can be for a young man who ventures a bit too far into it.

Young love is beautifully examined, but so too is a level of violence most of us never experienced but knew was out there nonetheless. Relationships between adults and juveniles also come under Burke's microscope with startling clarity.

Young Broussard comes across a popular girl being mistreated by her boyfriend at a youth hangout and - despite warnings from his inner self - can't help but intervene. That sets up two things that drive the narrative: a touching relationship with the girl and a simmering-to-a-boil confrontation with the sinister and powerful elements of Houston society.

Broussard is a fascinating character, as Burke's usually are. And as richly as he's drawn, the remaining cast of characters - including parents, teachers, peers and police officers - are fully developed and equally engaged.

Often portrayed as the author of 'literary” mystery novels, Burke delivers an unbeatable combination for me. He crafts fascinating stories and tells them with a prose style that celebrates masterful usage of the English language.