I Am In Love With James Lee Burke

The man is single-handedly saving my life.

Comfort food, man - I read his books for comfort food. They soothe me, they entertain me, they beat back my anxiety with a sledgehammer.

I adopted a new policy - I keep one of his books at the ready on my tablet at all times. That way, whenever the spirit moves me, or my tortured soul needs immediate repair, there is no delay.

I am currently reading In The Electric Mist with Confederate Dead; Dixie City Jam waits patiently in the wings on my tablet.

I am consuming every book in the Dave Robicheaux series chronologically. In the recent past I have read The Neon Rain, Heaven's Prisoners, Black Cherry Blues, A Morning for Flamingos, and A Stained White Radiance.

I am in desperate need of comfort in 2022.

There is a danger here because I have read many James Lee Burke books randomly over the years. Hopefully I will be able to recognize those before I buy them.

This recently happened to me with a Tom Wolfe book. I was reading something somewhere and his book A Man In Full was referenced. I thought "Hot damn, that sounds like a great book." I excitedly bought the hardcover version of this 700 page monstrosity. Two pages in, it felt familiar. Thirty pages in, it was definite. What blew me away is I must have read it quite a while ago. Yet everything about it seemed as if I read it yesterday. My mind is not exactly fresh - what the fuck is going on?

Beware engagement of those who inspire you. I checked out James Lee Burke's website yesterday. There was a zoom interview, conducted by a bookstore owner, with Burke and Stephen King. I am no longer a fan of King's but I am a fan of writers.

James Lee Burke is 85 years old. King is 74 years old. It was painful. Burke forgot to turn on the mike and he began the interview happily chatting in silence. An assistant had to help him out.

Every picture you see of Burke is of him wearing a cowboy hat (he lives in Montana) and looking fairly rugged. You see age, but you see rugged. He looked frail in this interview. So did King.

I couldn't continue with the interview. It bothered me.

Fucking age, man - it is a relentless motherfucker.

I am 68 and morbidly obese. But I don't think I project fragility. But whose to say I won't? Disease is waging a consistent war against me. That takes something out of you. And age won't leave me alone. I want to be robust when death claims me. I do not want to be a frail, old man. But I have nothing to say about it. I despise being helpless. This is why I despise hospitals.

Anyway...................love is a sweetener of life.

I am in love with James Lee Burke.