Southern Bookman

James Lee Burke's "Flags on the Bayou" looks back at Louisiana's Civil War turmoil

Historic verisimilitude anchors the lurid plot of James Lee Burke's "Flags on the Bayou."

Burke's fascination for the Civil War history of his native New Iberia, La., and surrounding Bayou Teche region enriches the novel set in 1863.

The memory of the region's violent past, and his family's stories from the era, also haunt his popular Dave Robicheaux detective series, set in modern times.

"Flags on the Bayou" portrays a gallery of outlandish characters embroiled in the era's violence and social upheaval. While the Union Army occupies Baton Rouge and New Orleans and controls the Mississippi River, conflict rages among remnants of the Confederate army,  a force of guerrilla raiders known as "the Redlegs" and federal "blue-bellies."

The grotesque male characters are torn between violent impulses and adherence to the virtuous codes of gentlemanly behavior. The most admirable characters are three women who revert to the justified killing of sexually predatory men.

Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman working on the Lufkin family's Lady of the Lake plantation, is the book's most virtuous character, possessing magical abilities and healing power. In an echo of classical themes, she searches for her son, lost in the battle of Shiloh. The book has several other Shiloh survivors who're obsessed by the battle.

Accused of murder, Hannah escapes with Florence Milton, an New England-born abolitionist who comes to love Louisiana's natural beauty.

When they're threatened with rape by monstrously cliched slave hunters, Florence somewhat incongruously finds a pistol and kills the men.

The conflict and reconciliation between Wade Lufkin and Pierre Cauchon emerges as a main plot element. A genteel artist hideously disfigured in a duel with Cauchon, Lufkin reverts to militancy, allying with the Redlegs in a fanciful plan to overthrow the Union control of Louisiana.

At the end, he and Cauchon join forces in a chaotic battle against Union forces led by a vainglorious, murderous and sexually predatory Union officer who's the book's villain.

Col. Carleton Hayes, the psychopathic  and syphilitic leader of the Redlegs, is another of the book's grotesque personalities. His redemption helps carry Burke's theme of peace eventually overcoming war.

The  love affair between Cauchon and the beautiful slave Darla Babineaux is another significant plot element. The two, along with with Hannah, Florence, Wade and even Carleton, eventually escape Louisiana, bringing an ending that strains credulity.

In an innovative plot device, each character in succession narrates the book. Their first person voices at times sound too much alike, but overall the technique effectively conveys the action.

The book might sound abhorrent, but Burke makes the disreputable characters and melodramatic action entertaining.

 

 

In Wall Street Journal essay, literary biographer Jeffrey Meyers examines Joseph Conrad's enduring importance

Joseph Conrad still illuminates the world's turmoil, noted biographer and literary critic Jeffrey Meyers asserts in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal.

Born in Kiev, then part of the Polish empire, Conrad turned to English to write "Heart of Darkness," "Lord Jim," "Nostromo," "The Secret Sharer," "Under Western Eyes" and other classics. He died on Aug. 3 100 years ago at age 66.

English was Conrad's third language, after Polish and French, Meyers notes. Conrad spent many years at sea, traveling to colonial outposts, before beginning his literary career at age 37.

While Conrad is one of the white male writers accused of racism, Meyers emphasizes the author's condemnation of the ravages of colonialism, which still shapes global events.

Meyers cities Conrad's influence over T.S. Eliot, Graham Greene, V.S. Naipaul and George Orwell. He's also a guiding spirit for the travel writings of contemporary authors Paul Theroux touring Mexico, Redmond O'Hanlon reporting in the Congo and Amy Wilentz exploring Haiti, Meyers says.

Unmentioned by Meyers, Conrad also provided a model for Vietnam era writers Tim O'Brien, Michael Herr and David Halberstam. "The Heart of Darkness" was the basis for Francis Ford Coppola's film "Apocalypse Now," which condemned America's war effort in Vietnam.

Meyer's essay is another jewel in the WSJ's rise as a serious intellectual publication. 

 

 

 

 

 

Salman Rushdie's "Knife" affirms love's healing power

Salman Rushdie's "Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder" chronicles the triumph of love over hate.

A young Islamic fanatic attacked Rushdie on Aug. 12, 2022, as the 75-year-old author sat on a stage waiting to speak at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.

Rushdie, who lived under constant police protection after he was condemned to death in 1989 when his novel "The Satanic Verses" was judged blasphemous to Islam, had enjoyed years of freedom in New York City as a writer, public intellectual and social celebrity.

That illusion of security was shattered when Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old New Jersey resident of Lebanese descent, rushed the stage and stabbed Rushdie multiple times, leaving him critically wounded. The assailant was quickly apprehended, and Rushdie taken by helicopter to the UPMC Hamot Hospital in Erie, Pa.

The attack took place at a bucolic sanctuary of art and literture, making it even more shocking. Rushdie had thought himself free of the danger that surrounded him when Iran's Ayatollah Kkomeini issued a fatwa for his assassination following the publication of "The Satanic Verses."

Near death, Rushdie underwent  intensive surgery and began a harrowing recovery. With mordant humor, Rushdie describes his hospital ordeal, in which he needed a ventilator to breathe. He lost the vision in his right eye, and needed excruciating therapy to regain the use of his right hand.

In the book, Rushdie refuses to name his assailant, who has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges, although the crime was witnessed by the audience gathered to hear the author. Mati was recently additionally charged with aiding the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah.

A lifelong atheist, Rushdie refuses to credit divine intervention for his survival, which he concedes was "near miraculous."

Rushdie celebrates the unwavering love of his wife, the poet, photographer and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths, as the greatest power in his triumph over death.

During Rushdie's return to normal life, Rushdie's fellow authors Martin Amis, Paul Auster and Milan Kundera died. Rushdie mourns their deaths and expresses gratitude that he received the gift of life, continuing to write and champion freedom of speech.

Rushdie's inspiring book could have been titled "Love," rather than giving attention to the weapon used to attack him.

 

Farewell Lewis Lapham, stylish writer and innovative Harper's editor

New journalism zealots castigated Lewis Lapham for replacing beloved Harper's editor Willie Morris.

The Mississippi native Morris thrilled the New Yorker literati by shaking up the venerable journal, running articles like Norman Mailer's 90,000-word report on the Vietnam protest in Washington.

But Harper's, founded in 1850, hemorrhaged money. Morris' innovative but expensive pieces dismayed the magazine's corporate owners, the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, which at last ousted Morris.

Lapham took over, restoring the magazine's editorial decorum and producing shorter, more economical articles. While the financial losses continued, Lapham kept Harper's going until a savior emerged

The patrician editor, who led Harper's from 1976 to 2006, with a hiatus from 1981 to 1983, died Tuesday at age 89 in Rome. He also served as the magazine's managing editor from 1971, when he replaced Morris, to 1975.

Descended from a wealthy family, Lapham wore stylish suits and enjoyed upper class amenities while lampooning the foibles of the elite. One of his grandfathers was a founder of Texaco and another served as mayor of San Francisco, where Lapham grew up.

After graduating from the Hotchkiss School, Yale and Cambridge University's Magdalene College, Lapham discovered a passion for journalism. He worked as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and New York Herald Tribune before finding success as a freelance magazine writer

Along with his insightful editing, Lapham was lauded for the progressive essays that skewered America's crass materialism and provincial outlook.

Satirizing his fellow members of the upper class, Lapham wrote with a haughty, Mandarin style that recalled 18th century British essayists. While he published writers like Tom Wolfe and Christopher Hitchens, Lapham as an author was a throwback to classic journalism.

While Lapham was seen as the corporate henchman who ousted Morris, he brought several innovations to Harper's that continue today, including an index of surprising facts and a compilation of  annotated writings titled "Readings."

After leaving Harper's, Lapham edited the Lapham Quarterly, which published selections from classical literature along with work by contemporary writers. Each issue was devoted to a particular theme.

I personally admired Lapham for a long, thoughtful response he made to a letter to the editor I sent to Harper's. He personally signed the typed reply.

Harper's financial difficulties persisted under Lapham, and the magazine hovered near death until 1980, when it was purchased by the John D. and Catherine T, MacArthur Foundation and the Atlantic Richfield oil company, which made the publication a nonprofit.

It continues on under the foundation's guidance, gamely competing against the well-endowed Atlantic,  also founded in the 19th century, and the New Yorker, whose corporate backer Conde Nast is under financial duress. Another intellectual journal, the New Republic, recently launched a revival.

While Morris is acclaimed for his ground-breaking editing at Harper's, Lapham saved the magazine, also giving it a new burst of energy.

 

Farewell Lewis Lapham, stylish writer and innovative Harper's editor

New journalism zealots castigated Lewis Lapham for replacing beloved Harper's editor Willie Morris.

The Mississippi native Morris thrilled the New Yorker literati by shaking up the venerable journal, running articles like Norman Mailer's 90,000-word report on the Vietnam protest in Washington.

But Harper's, founded in 1850, hemorrhaged money. Morris' innovative but expensive pieces dismayed the magazine's corporate owners, the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, which at last ousted Morris.

Lapham took over, restoring the magazine's editorial decorum and producing shorter, more economical articles. While the financial losses continued, Lapham kept Harper's going until a savior emerged

The patrician editor, who led Harper's from 1976 to 2006, with a hiatus from 1981 to 1983, died Tuesday at age 89 in Rome. He also served as the magazine's managing editor from 1971, when he replaced Morris, to 1975.

Descended from a wealthy family, Lapham wore stylish suits and enjoyed upper class amenities while lampooning the foibles of the elite. One of his grandfathers was a founder of Texaco and another served as mayor of San Francisco, where Lapham grew up.

After graduating from the Hotchkiss School, Yale and Cambridge University's Magdalene College, Lapham discovered a passion for journalism. He worked as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner and New York Herald Tribune before finding success as a freelance magazine writer

Along with his insightful editing, Lapham was lauded for the progressive essaays that skewered America's crass materialism and provincial outlook.

Satirizing his fellow members of the upper class, Lapham wrote with a haughty, Mandarin style that recalled 18th century British essayists. While he published writers like Tom Wolfe and Christopher Hitchens, Lapham as an author was a throwback to classic journalism.

While Lapham was seen as the corporate henchman who ousted Morris, he brought several innovations to Harper's that continue today, including an index of surprising facts and a compilation of  annotated writings titled "Readings."

After leaving Harper's, Lapham edited the Lapham Quarterly, which published selections from classical literature along with work by contemporary writers. Each issue was devoted to a particular theme.

I personally admired Lapham for a long, thoughtful response he made to a letter to the editor I sent to Harper's. He personally signed the typed reply.

Harper's financial difficulties persisted under Lapham, and the magazine hovered near death until 1980, when it was purchased by the John D. and Catherine T, MacArthur Foundation and the Atlantic Richfield oil company, which made the publication a nonprofit.

It continues on under the foundation's guidance, gamely competing against the well-endowed Atlantic , also founded in the 19th century, and the New Yorker, whose corporate backer Conde Nast is under financial duress. Another intellectual journal, the New Republic, recently launched a revival.

While Morris is acclaimed for his ground-breaking editing at Harper's, Lapham saved the magazine, also giving it a new burst of energy.

 

"Easy Rider's" cinematic beauty salvages film's fatuous script

"Easy Rider's" visual majesty contrasts with the film's time-worn performances.

Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda's counterculture epic creaks with the fatuous dialogue of their screenplay, co-written with Terry Southern. Under Hopper's direction, the film's fast pace does build suspense and narrative momentum. While the script seems dated overall, some of the lines retain their power.

Laszlo Kovacs' gorgeous cinematography eloquently expresses the film's message of corrupted American beauty. The soundtrack also enhances Hopper and Fonda's flamboyant performances as hippies riding from Los Angeles to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

Hopper's zany antics as Billy result in a hippie caricature, more cornball than cutting edge after all of these years. Fonda's Wyatt - the equally trite "Captain America" - displays moments of quiet dignity reminiscent of his father Henry. Wyatt and Billy - yes, we get it, Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. Instant irony, kids.

The two groovy dudes finance their trip with a cocaine deal - deemed heroic at the time, but contemptible now. Phil Spector makes an amusing cameo appearance as an all too easily pleased drug dealer who eagerly buys their cocaine stash, which they had acquired in Mexico.

Jack Nicholson's brief appearance in his breakout role as the dissolute lawyer George Hanson raises the film's temperature. Karen Black, Nicholson's co-star in the more accomplished film "Five Easy Pieces," also injects energy as a New Orleans prostitute forced to act out an unconvincing acid trip in New Orleans' above-ground tombs.

Once again, I resented the film for slandering my native state by depicting Louisianians as violent, prejudicial rednecks. Many are, but I doubt they'd murder white hippies. At the time, plenty of longhairs roamed the state.

Despite their heavy-handed performances, the shots of Fonda and Hopper cruising past American vistas deliver a rare cinematic excitement, thanks to Kovacs.

 

 

 

 

Farewell John Mayall and Jerry Miller, 1960s blues pioneers

John Mayall and Jerry Miller shared a devotion to the blues.

Mayall and Miller, who played significant roles in boosting the popularity of the American black music in the 1960s, both died recently: Mayall Monday at age 90 at his home in California and Miller July 21 at age 81 at his home in Tacoma, Wash., according to Washington Post obituaries.

Both men excelled as blues guitarists, and evangelists of the music, one of the major influences on American and British rock in the 1960s.

Mayall was a leading progenitor of the British blues surge in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His Bluesbreakers launched the careers of blues prodigies Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and others who went on to greater stardom.

American blues masters like B.B. King credited Mayall with introducing the music to a new generation of fans. Mayall often accompanied bluesmen when they performed in Britain. Mayall went on to a solo recording and concert career.

Moby Grape's 1967 album "Moby Grape," with its driving psychedelic anthems and harmonic love ballads, is considered one of the classics of the San Francisco sound.

Along with Peter Lewis and Skip Spence, Miller wrote songs and laid the musical foundation for the group. After their first burst of fame, the group abruptly collapsed from management difficulties and dissension exacerbated by Spence's drug problems. Spence, a former member of the Jefferson Airplane, suffered a severe mental breakdown.

A teenage friend of Jimi Hendrix, Miller returned to Washington, playing in several bands and joining Moby Grape reunion tours over the years.

Clapton, who first gained renown with the Yardbirds, left the Bluesbreakers to form the supergroup Cream with Bruce and Ginger Baker, rising to new heights. Taylor joined the Rolling Stones, whose blues pedigree was inspired by Mayall.

Green, who some place alongside Clapton as a guitar master, formed Fleetwood Mac along with McVie and Fleetwood. He left the group after suffering a drug-induced mental collapse, which hampered his career. 

During my college days, I loved the Moby Grape songs "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" and "Can't Be So Bad," which the popular Baton Rouge band The Greek Fountains performed in clubs around town.

While never achieving major stardom, Mayall and Miller played essential roles in pushing the blues to the center of popular music.

.

 

 

 

Rosanna Warren looks back on sunny Breton summers with her parents, Robert Penn Warren and Eleanor Clark

Poet, biographer and literary critic Rosanna Warren in an article in the current Harper's magazine recalls two idyllic childhood summers in France's Brittany region.

Warren and her brother Gabriel lived in local homes with their famous parents, the poet, novelist and critic Robert Penn Warren and the writer Eleanor Clark.

"My Mother's Oysters: Recollections of Breton Summers" gives an intimate glimpse of her family's life, portraying her illustrious father and mother as warm and loving parents.

The family came to the village of Locmariaquer in the summer of 1961 so that Clark could do research on the rustic village's oyster-based economy. The next year, the family lived in the Basque region in the south of France before returning to Brittany.

Rosanna celebrated her eighth birthday and Gabriel his sixth during their first year's sojourn. She remembers receiving a birthday gift of a small plastic carriage drawn by eight miniature horses.

Brittany, unlike other parts of France, was settled by Celtic tribes who migrated from Britain in ancient times and lived among the region's original inhabitants. The region was separate from France until 1532.

Rosanna Warren, interviewed by Southern Bookman in 2009, remembers going to school in Locmariaquer with oyster workers' children. She and Gabriel were taught by nuns who conducted their lessons in French, although she and her brother didn't speak the language.

The trips weren't always blissful: Rosanna broke an arm in a beach accident, and the entire family caught the mumps. When they left France in 1962, they found themselves thrust into the French-Algerian war. Clark tensely drove the family to the airport through Paris streets lined with machine gun-bearing soldiers.

In the article, Rosanna Warren examines Brittany's rich history and special geography. She recalls ancient churches with martyr's bones, and viewing in astonishment the ancient stone monuments known as dolmens and menhirs.

Clark's immersion with the rustic oyster workers resulted in her 1964 book "The Oysters of Locmariaquer," which won the National Book Award.

Rosanna Warren, now 71, says at the end that the region's people, history and oceanic geography remain real to her. Her fondest memory is of her parents, who allowed her to explore childhood wonder.

 

 

Doris Kearns Goodwin's "An Unfinished Love Story" gives vibrant portrait of 1960s

Richard Goodwin as a speechwriter and political insider witnessed the Democratic Party's rise and fall during the volatile 1960s.

Before Goodwin's death at age 85 in the spring of 2018, he and his wife, the acclaimed presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, combed through his copious archives to write a retrospective of that turbulent decade.

Doris Kearns Goodwin's "An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s" impressively completes the project, combining a loving portrait of Goodwin's career, her own recollections of the era, and a day-by-day recounting of 1960s political events that shifts from inside views of decision making to public drama.

Goodwin began his career as John F. Kennedy's confidant and speechwriter during his 1960 campaign for the Democratic nomination for president and victory over Republican Richard Nixon.

Campaigning side by side with Kennedy, Goodwin witnessed moments such as Kennedy's inspiration for the Peace Corps in an early morning meeting with University of Michigan students, and Kennedy's dominant TV debate against Nixon.

In one of the shining moments of the Kennedy presidency, Goodwin and Jacqueline Kennedy planned the famous Dinner in Camelot, for which Nobel Prize winners gathered at the White House on April 29, 1962.

After Kennedy's assassination, Goodwin helped plan details of the slain president's funeral.

Although Goodwin later bitterly broke with Lyndon Johnson over the Vietnam War, Goodwin wrote LBJ's eloquent speeches that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act and other civil rights legislation.

Following his break from Johnson, Goodwin joined the campaign of Eugene McCarthy, whose success caused LBJ to decide not to seek re-election in 1968. Doris Kearns Goodwin, relying on her husband's recollections, gives an in-depth view of McCarthy's well-organized New Hampshire primary campaign whose success persuaded Johnson to withdraw.

When Robert F. Kennedy joined the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Goodwin shifted to the New York senator's campaign. Goodwin was at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when RFK was assassinated there in 1968.

Before meeting Goodwin, Kearns also participated in 1960s events such as the March on Washington in 1963. A Harvard graduate student, she served as a White House fellow during Lyndon Johnson's administration, eventually becoming his confidant and helping him write his memoirs after the left Washington to return to his Texas ranch.

The book takes a positive look at the 1960s, emphasizing the advances in human rights and equality for blacks and women. Sadly, the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, conservative resistance and political turmoil disrupted the advances.

Doris Kearns Goodwin expresses hope that her look back at the 1960s will illuminate today's efforts for political, social and economic equality. Her "unfinished love story" is also the nation's.

 

Farewell Bob Newhart, American comic genius

Bob Newhart was naturally funny, as if he didn't have to try for laughs.

Newhart, whose long career spanned stand-up comedy, records, TV sitcoms and movies, died Thursday morning at age 94.

In an age of threatening comics like his close friend Don Rickles, Newhart was one of American entertainment's reassuring Dads.

Newhart's comedic ability seemed mysterious, a gift that came naturally.

First gaining stardom in the late 1950s as a standup comic, Newhart was considered less iconoclastic than contemporaries Mort Sahl, Lennie Bruce and Nichols and May.

Yet Newhart's routines possessed a satiric, quietly subversive edge. His famous telephone dialogues stand among the ground-breaking classics of American comedy.

The conversations led to the pioneering album "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart," one of the first best-selling comedy recordings, opening the field for other comics.

In his two popular sitcoms titled "The Bob Newhart Show," Newhart portrayed the calm center of sanity in the midst of crazy characters acting irrationally. As the perfect straight man, Newman with his bemused persona was the star attraction.

Newhart began his career in 1960 as John F. Kennedy's New Frontier heralded a dynamic cultural era.

During his decades of fame, Newhart carried the flame of that brief moment.