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Dixie City Jam by James Lee Burke
This is one of those novels that feel like a violent fever dream, like A Rage In Harlem or Green River Rising. It's full of bizarre and grotesque characters fighting over a sunken German submarine outside New Orleans. I tend to think that, outside WW2 stories, including Nazis is a sign that things have got a bit desperate (see also Breaking Bad) but Burke has something to say about fascism and greed. It was written in the 90s, but some of the comments about politics in the novel feel very timely today. The hero, Dave Robicheaux, is one of those crime heroes who can do virtually anything, and he philosophises too much, but if you accept that this book is about weird people doing crazy stuff, it's pretty readable. The trouble is that you have to buy into its strange world - brutal, bizarre and occasionally sentimental - in the first place.
This is one of those novels that feel like a violent fever dream, like A Rage In Harlem or Green River Rising. It's full of bizarre and grotesque characters fighting over a sunken German submarine outside New Orleans. I tend to think that, outside WW2 stories, including Nazis is a sign that things have got a bit desperate (see also Breaking Bad) but Burke has something to say about fascism and greed. It was written in the 90s, but some of the comments about politics in the novel feel very timely today. The hero, Dave Robicheaux, is one of those crime heroes who can do virtually anything, and he philosophises too much, but if you accept that this book is about weird people doing crazy stuff, it's pretty readable. The trouble is that you have to buy into its strange world - brutal, bizarre and occasionally sentimental - in the first place.