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The convict
Book
1985
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Publishers Weekly Review
Burke brings the reader inside the minds and emotions of his characters, in stories that strike to the heart. They each concern the search for a reason, a purpose behind the interminable battle between good and evil. ``Uncle Sidney and the Mexicans'' focuses on a maverick tomato picker, fired for petty reasons and deprived of a day's pay, who is hired by the narrator's uncle and enabled thereby both to revenge himself on his former boss and to teach a lesson about Mexicans to the local bigots. A younger narrator, in ``Losses,'' is troubled in the confessional by his priest's reluctance to condemn. Only long afterward does he comprehend the arrogance youthful innocence that refuses to countenance human flaws. The closing sentence in ``When It's Decoration Day,'' about a young Civil War soldier, elegantly epitomizes the subtle impact of Burke's storytelling: as a shell bursts, the boy ``thought he felt a finger reach up and anoint him casually on the brow.'' November 24 (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
CHOICE Review
The nine stories in Burke's collection display a mastery of literary forms beyond that of his four novels. Basically realistic-almost to the point of naturalistic brutality-these stories convey a positive optimism that is at times raucously humorous and refreshingly humanistic. The range of setting and character is broad. Three war stories, for example, take the reader from the time of the Civil War to Korea and to Guatemala, and, in the title story, are heard both a young boy's questioning and an old, old man's senile wanderings. The initial story, ``Uncle Sidney and the Mexicans,'' portrays young love between an Anglo youth and a Mexican-American girl, reflecting the adult world with its prejudice and persecution. In ``Losses,'' the struggle of a young Louisiana boy with growing pains becomes a metaphor for lost innocence and ``the world beyound the tender, painful touch of humanity.'' Other stories deal with a tired and distanced college professor, and a Louisiana bush pilot whose escapades involve confrontation with a Nazi war criminal. Burke has finely tuned descriptive powers and an exact sense of dialogue. These stories not only are a delight to read but also exhibit uncommon sensitivity and thematic depth. They will have a strong appeal to readers ranging from high school students through professional critics.-W.B. Warde Jr., North Texas State University
Kirkus Review
Burke's stories frequently set up situations for good to conquer evil, for the disadvantaged to prove themselves more alive than the advantaged, for the wronged to take revenge--there's an old-fashioned Southern liberalism to them that seems morally worthy but artistically hollow. Here, the title story, ""Uncle Sidney and the Mexicans"" and ""Taking A Second Look"" all promote a loser into a winner, with a heavy anchor of moralism weighing them down and making them predictable. Burke writes well and evocatively of Louisiana, especially that of decades back; and one story, ""Losses""--a WW II Louisiana parochial school, a Catholic boy's introduction to the ambiquity of ethics--is especially satisfying (until its obvious conclusion). A Civil War story, ""When It's Decoration Day,"" has a crammed specificity that almost gives it the ballast of a novella. But on the whole, Burke, who has mostly published novels heretofore, seems message-heavy and schematic at shorter length. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Summary
A collection of nine award-winning stories, set in locales along the Gulf coasts of Louisiana and Texas and battlefields around the world.
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