This book did not get particularly good reviews when it was first published (it's pre-Robichaeux and this edition is a reprint), but I liked it very much. As the book opens, Iry Paret has just been paroled from prison, having been convicted of manslaughter. Because the man was trying to cut him open with a broken bottle, Paret was sentenced to only five to fifteen years. Iry is an outstanding guitar player of jazz and country-western music, and the crime happened in one of those seedy redneck bars in Louisiana. He arrives home just in time to bury his father, who died of intestinal cancer. He negotiates permission to leave the state for Montana where a prison buddy's father owns a ranch. Unfortunately, this man has managed to alienate just about everybody in the community by suing the local paper factory fur pollution. The entire community relies on the plant's paychecks for survival. Iry finds himself positioned squarely in the middle of a battle when all he really wants to do is return to playing his beloved Dobro guitar. Iry is not a particularly lovable lush, but Burke's genius is already evident in beautiful descriptive language and a spell-binding story.
edited 11-24-09
