Whimsical Wednesday: Car Diversions

Since I was a small child, traveling with my mother on lengthy road trips across America, I’ve clocked a lot of miles on America’s highways and byways. Though I’m accustomed to the long drives and the sometimes boring stretches (especially that particular part of I-10, from San Antonio to El Paso), even I need ways to pass the time – and the state lines.

Now, that I’m on the road yet again – making the seasonal journey between northern Michigan to southern Louisiana – I’m giving some thought to such diversions. Here, in no particular order, are the six ways that I often combat boredom on the road:

Conversation: Whether riding with my mom from New Orleans to New York or traveling with Dan from South Padre Island to Los Angeles, I’ve always found that conversation is an ideal way to ignore the discomfort of road travel. With Mom, I could talk about movies and music and current events and our upcoming destinations – while with Dan, well, the topics haven’t really changed, which is helpful for me.

Auto bingo: When I was a kid, I used to love playing auto bingo with my mom. Since she was driving and unable to have her own card, we would share one – trying, together, to spy the things (from silos to police cruisers to tanker trucks) pictured on the bingo card. It was a hoot and a half, especially the time that we needed to spot a pig, and a whole truckload passed right by my window. Today, Dan and I have our own bingo card – but we have yet to play it. Maybe tomorrow?

XM Radio: What would Dan and I do without our XM? From comedy channels to old radio serials to Monty Python skits to classic tunes to news programs, our XM keeps us entertained for hours on end. However did Mom and I travel without it?

Truck stops: If our legs are feeling sore, or we just can’t stand another moment in the car, Dan and I simply seek out a truck stop – whether it’s a Pilot, Petro, Flying J, Love’s, or Travel Center of America. There, we typically find quirky gifts, yummy snacks and beverages, relatively clean restrooms, paperbacks and audiobooks, and, if we’re feeling so inclined, a restaurant, an arcade, and private showers.

Wireless Internet: I must admit that, as with my childhood journeys with Mom, Dan tends to be the designated driver while I tend to be the designated navigator (ironic considering that I’m directionally challenged). Since I often sit in the passenger seat, I often have access to my beloved laptop, which can usually find a wireless signal, even in the most remote of places – meaning I can surf the blogosphere while the asphalt passes beneath me. What a world we live in!

Audiobooks: In recent years, Dan and I have discovered the wonders of audiobooks – particularly audiobook versions of James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series, as read by the amazing Will Patton. Why, just today, we listened to Burke’s fourth Robicheaux novel, A Stained White Radiance – and it was awesome indeed.

Have you ever experienced lengthy car trips? If so, what do you do to fight the boredom?

Friday Fantasies: In the Electric Mist

In case you missed one of my very first posts, it bears repeating that I’m a huge James Lee Burke fan. As I explained in that previous post, the irony is that I, a New Orleans native, had never even heard of Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series until my mother-in-law, who lives in Michigan and Florida (far from Burke’s bailiwick), told me about it. Well, so what if I was a clueless Louisianian! At least I know about him now.

While I haven’t read all of his Robicheaux mysteries, I’ve perused (or listened to) many of them, and I’m in the process of reading them (or rereading them, as the case may be) from the beginning of the series. This summer, I read The Neon Rain (1987) and Heaven’s Prisoners (1988), and as soon as I’ve turned in the book proposal on which I’ve been working, I’ll plunge into Black Cherry Blues (1989). Dan and I also plan to while away the driving time between Michigan and New Orleans with a few of the audiobook versions of Burke’s Robicheaux mysteries. The great thing about them, incidentally, is that they’re narrated by Will Patton, one of my all-time favorite actors and, as a husky-voiced native Southerner, a terrific choice to speak as the flawed but noble-hearted Robicheaux.

So, in keeping with the family’s obsession with all things Burke, my hubby, my in-laws, and I watched In the Electric Mist, the latest cinematic adaptation of a Robicheaux novel, last night over a dinner of pepperoni pizza and root beer floats (a cuisine choice that has less to do with the Cajun themes of the story and more to do with a desire to be naughty). Based on the novel In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead (1993) and starring Tommy Lee Jones as the inimitable Dave Robicheaux, the film is indeed entertaining. After all, it was filmed exclusively in southern Louisiana, so the setting and atmosphere are evocative and true, and the supporting roles are believably portrayed by the likes of John Goodman, Mary Steenburgen, Peter Sarsgaard, Kelly Macdonald, Ned Beatty, James Gammon, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Buddy Guy. The accents are right, the scenes make me hungry and homesick, but still, something is missing.

Afterward, we all agreed that no one – not even Oscar-winning Tommy Lee Jones – has successfully portrayed the complicated Robicheaux. Alec Baldwin, who starred in Heaven’s Prisoners in 1996, seemed far too young at the time, while Jones is far too old and run-down – not so much in appearance but in attitude. Jones is tough at times, violent when necessary, and compassionate when it counts, but for most of the movie, he seems close to retirement – which is disconcerting, given that there are at least eleven more novels after this one.

Should Hollywood ever consider another Burke project, the four of us are all in agreement on who should play Dave Robicheaux – why, Will Patton, of course! His audiobook versions are incredible in every way, and as his on-screen roles illustrate, he has the perfect mix of tenacity, humor, loyalty, and energy. So, what do you say? Think Hollywood’s listening?

Friday Fantasies: The Neon Rain

A few summers ago, my mother-in-law, Dee, recommended that Dan and I – both avid readers – check out James Lee Burke, an award-winning crime novelist based in New Iberia, Louisiana. According to her, we were sure to love Dave Robicheaux, the complicated protagonist of Burke’s Louisiana-based series, and she couldn’t stop raving about the author’s rich descriptions of New Orleans and the surrounding marshland.

Being a native of New Orleans and a lover of other crime novels – such as Kathy Reichs’ “Bones” series – I couldn’t believe I’d never heard of him before. But then, the best purchasing decisions often result from word-of-mouth reviews.

So, trusting Dee, Dan and I bought our first Burke novel – Purple Cane Road (2000), the eleventh in a series of seventeen so far – and neither of us were disappointed. Like any good series writer, Burke had crafted a novel that, though incorporating character and story elements from previous novels in the series, firmly stood on its own.

As it turned out, Dee was right: Dan and I both adored Robicheaux, a flawed detective who, despite plenty of missteps in his past, ultimately endeavors to save (or, at least, honor) the people who deserve it. And Burke's spot-on descriptions of bayous, shrimp po’ boys, and the Garden District made me utterly homesick for New Orleans.

Immediate Burke converts, Dan and I set about trying to find other Robicheaux stories. As part of his present two Christmases ago, I bought three books from earlier in the series – A Stained White Radiance (1992), Burning Angel (1995), and Cadillac Jukebox (1996). Several months back, we even listened to the audiobook versions of Jolie Blon’s Bounce (2002) and Pegasus Descending (2006), both of which are narrated by Will Patton – who would incidentally make the best Dave Robicheaux if Hollywood ever attempts another cinematic version of one of Burke’s novels.

Since we’ve now read (or heard) several of the books out of chronological order, we recently decided to experience the series from start to finish, beginning with Burke’s first Robicheaux novel, The Neon Rain (1987). I just finished reading it – while lying on a hammock in northern Michigan – and I’m happy to report that I absolutely loved it. Told in first person, the narrative is rife with descriptions of the French Quarter, accounts of bloody scrapes with the "bad guys," and inner monologues about Robicheaux's own brand of Cajun justice and philosophy.

When the novel opens, Dave Robicheaux, a homicide detective in the New Orleans Police Department, has just arrived at Angola Prison, to speak with a convicted murderer mere hours before his execution. During the visit, the convict informs Robicheaux that, due to a recent homicide case involving the drug-induced drowning of a young black prostitute, someone has marked the persistent detective for death. Unwilling to let the case go - despite the fact that it lies outside his jurisdiction - Robicheaux soon finds himself mixed up with an unsavory cast of characters - from drug dealers, arms smugglers, and mob henchmen, to government spooks and dirty cops, including his wayward partner, Clete Purcel.

A divorced, ex-drunk, still chasing demons from his dark days as a soldier in the Vietnam War, Robicheaux might not be the likeliest of heroes, but that’s what’s so darn lovable about him. He’s far from perfect, often letting his temper override his reason and always struggling to quell the alcoholic beast within, but ultimately, he’s a noble-hearted rogue, with a soft spot for naive do-gooders and the determination to see a case through to its inevitable conclusion, no matter what the consequences – for himself or his loved ones (including his brother, Jimmie the Gent, and his latest girlfriend, Annie, a tough, kind-hearted Midwestern beauty with a past of her own).

If you’re interested in crime novels rich with character, action, atmosphere, philosophy, and, yes, violence, I highly recommend delving into the Robicheaux series, which includes the following novels:

The Neon Rain (1987)
Heaven’s Prisoners (1988)
Black Cherry Blues (1989)
A Morning for Flamingos (1990)
A Stained White Radiance (1992)
In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead (1993)
Dixie City Jam (1994)
Burning Angel (1995)
Cadillac Jukebox (1996)
Sunset Limited (1998)
Purple Cane Road (2000)
Jolie Blon’s Bounce (2002)
Last Car to Elysian Fields (2003)
Crusader’s Cross (2005)
Pegasus Descending (2006)
The Tin Roof Blowdown (2007)
Swan Peak (2008)

Although you might find yourself cringing at the more brutal encounters and yelling at Robicheaux from time to time, you're sure to be sucked into Burke's world of good cops, bad cops, mysterious swamps, rowdy bars, fried seafood, memorable music, crooked politicians, and everything else that defines southern Louisiana, even its seedy, embarrassing underbelly.