Jesus Out to Sea – James Lee Burke

Even those not especially fond of the short story genre will find much to savor in this collection of short stories by well-known author James Lee Burke. Many will be familiar with the dark themes that emerge in his novels, especially the Dave Robicheaux series, and they are certainly much in evidence in these stories, almost all set in the past of over 50 years ago, except for the last one, entitled Jesus Out to Sea.

Each of the stories, like so much of Burke’s other writing, carries with them the duality of human nature. We sense that sudden and brutal violence is never far from the surface of our souls, yet at the same time, we are reminded that the possibility of redemption is there as well. This duality is especially powerful in A Season of Regret, which begins with a retired professor simply trying to protect his property rights, progresses through an act of defending a seemingly defenseless woman, and ends in a violent outcome not likely to be anticipated by the reader; this outcome , though not directly involving the protagonist, is one he must take ultimate responsibility for.

Even in the short but brutal The Village, told from the perspective of an American operative, probably a CIA agent, there is just the slightest suggestion of redemptive
possibilities. Throughout most of this four page tale, the unnamed protagonist engages in a litany of excuses for the shedding of innocent blood. It is only at the end, while engaged in a brutal act to dispatch a troublesome Mennonite that he seems to acknowledge wrongdoing, by repeating her final words, You must change your way. If the reporting of these five words marks the beginning of that change, all may not be lost for the operative.

Probably the most moving, and certainly the most recent in terms of setting, is the last story, Jesus Out to Sea. Set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, through the eyewitness descriptions of the protagonist, the odor of failure permeates the narrative – not only the failure of government in its reaction to the disaster, but also the failure of the city of New Orleans, in its transition form a city of hope, camaraderie, and music to a repository of drugs, crime, and desperation. A story offering little of the hope evident in many of the previous tales, its central image of the remnant of a destroyed church, Jesus on a cross, floating away in the floodwaters, is an apt symbol in this chronicle of disillusionment.

For the reader who is not uncomfortable confronting the more unpleasant aspects of life, this collection, eleven in total, has much to offer.