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Lay Down My Sword and Shield
Availability:
In Stock
Price:
$15.00
$3.65*
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| Part No: | 1439165459 |
| Manufacturer: | Pocket |
| MFG Part: | |
| Customer Rating: | 4.0 / 5.0 |
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- ISBN13: 9781439165454
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
BACK IN PRINT AT LAST -- THE MUST-READ NOVEL THAT INTRODUCES JAMES LEE BURKE'S TEXAS SHERIFF HACK HOLLAND The hero of James Lee Burke's recent bestseller Rain Gods, cousin to lawman Billy Bob Holland, and a genuine product of the South, both old and new, Hackberry Holland makes his first appearance in this early gem from "America's best novelist" (The Denver Post). Against the backdrop of growing civil rights turmoil in a sultry border town, the hard-drinking ex-POW attorney yields to the myriad urgings of his wife, his brother, and his so-called friends to make a bid for a congressional seat -- and finds himself embroiled in the seamy world of Texas powerbrokers. And when Hack attempts to overturn an old army buddy's conviction, and crosses paths with a beautiful union organizer who speaks to his heart in a way no one else has, he finds both a new love and a new purpose as he breaks free from the shackles of wealth and expectation to bring justice to the underserved.
Read the first chapter for Lay Down My Sword and Shield.
'As I stood there on my front porch that hot, breathless July day, leaning against the column with the six bullet holes, now worn and smooth, I could see Hack's whitewashed marker under the pin oaks in the Holland family cemetery... Four generations of my family were buried there.' Hack Holland is a product of the South, both old and new. Hard-drinking ex-POW and wealthy, progressive Democrat, he stands in the long shadow cast by his ancestors. When Holland's candidacy for a congressional seat brings him increasingly into conflict with those around him, his almost unwitting involvement with a violent civil rights conflict forces him to reassess his future - and his past...
| | James Lee Burke's books are always well written, poignant. He is one of my favorite authors and never miss one of his if can help it. His writing I consider literature more than most best sellers. When reading his descriptions of locale, always seems to actually place one in the scene. One can feel the wind, feel the sun, hear the leaves in the trees; is actually like being there. |
| Different strokes for different folks | 2010-06-17 | 1 / 5 |
| I appreciate that people have different tastes but this is the only suspense type book that I just could not bother finishing. I put it down three times and then a few days later decided to give it another try. Got about 2/3 through and decided I had much better things to do and books to read. The central figure is totally without virtue, as I'm sure the author intended. I'm also confident that if I finished the book, which I won't, I'd find some redeeming features shining through. So?? I found it predictable and "hack-neyed".
Spend your time on some other book/author. |
| A Story of Transformation and Redemption | 2010-06-13 | 5 / 5 |
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Lay Down My Sword And Shield by James Lee Burke
This book details the rebirth of Hackberry Holland. He returned from the Korean War, rebuilt his life and now he is recreating himself. The hard panned setting and historic family background contribute to his reassessment of his identity.
Describing the book doesn't really do justice to the story or it's fluidity. The author reminds me of Pat Conroy and his poetry like prose. The descriptions of the countryside and people are thorough and beautiful. Hack's experiences as a POW in Korea are horrific. His sublimation of both experience and emotions would fit quite well with PTSD victims in today's conflicts. His drinking appears to be fuel by displaced anger. Hack's reactions to his environment and his refusal to be what his family expects him to be as opposed to what he wants to be is a thumbnail of the book's plot.
We tend to forget how recent equal rights are. There are parts of the book that seem practically fantastic that are supported by facts and recollection of the times. I suspect younger readers may even find some of the incidents hard to believe. Burke's book was extraordinarily done.
I highly recommend the book.
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| Texas Two-Step | 2010-05-30 | 5 / 5 |
| Bound: SunPost Weekly March 4, 2010
[..]
James Lee Burke Drinks Deep from the Heart of Texas
John Hood
Hackberry Holland pisses me off. As a matter of fact Hack pisses off a lot people, so I doubt seriously he's worried about some cat down in Miami. Hell, the Texas mouthpiece probably doesn't even notice just how pissed off he makes me. Why would he? He generally doesn't notice how pissed off he makes anybody else either. And that includes his close friends and his immediate family. Okay, so he does notice. But he sure doesn't seem to care a whit.
Then again, Hack's pretty pissed off his own damn self, so he probably figures he's got a right to piss off everybody else too. With his near dead drunkenness and his relentless disregard, the man almost reeks of entitlement.
Of course Hack being to the manor born and not wanting anything to do with it or its privileges has a lot to do with his foul disposition. And then there's that heavy haunting from his days as a North Korean P.O.W. But Hack's being groomed to inherit his rightful place among the powerful - in his case, as a U.S. Congressman representing the great state of Texas. And Hack's as excited about that as he about everything else in his guided life. In other words: he isn't.
But when a former fellow warrior gets in a jam and calls on his ol' pal, Hack Holland sees something to lash out against. When Hack gets lashed back - and good, he's got himself a cause.
If I write this implying Hack Holland is a real life anti-hero doing some strange and violent version of the Texas Two-Step, well, you'll have to blame James Lee Burke. See it was JLB who brought the brawling lone star to life in the best-selling Rain Gods. Little did many folks know though that Hack had appeared long beforehand, in a muddy and bloody book entitled Lay Down My Sword and Shield (Gallery Books $15). That was back in '71, and despite the good writer's hitlist status, it's been pretty much out of print since.
Now it's back on the racks. Anyone who's ever read anything by James Lee Burke will know his characters come fitted with torn flesh and broken bone so vivid you too often forget it's fiction. And if you know this, then you'll wanna know more, much more, about their origins - and their horrors.
The title to Hack's first showing is, I imagine, taken from the traditional spiritual "Down by the Riverside," a song that seems to be at once uplifting and soul crushing. If I get it straight, it's about the joy of surrender. And if I know anything about surrender; there is no joy in it whatsoever.
But that's another story, for scholars far more astute than I am. As for James Lee Burke's Sword and Shield, well, I can tell you this: those depths that you think you've descended to go a whole lot deeper than you thought. And down there, at the very bottom, where even a single breath has to be ripped from the earth; that's where redemption begins. To go there at all is a hell few can fathom. To come back though, kicking and screaming and clawing your way to a place where you can at last hold your head up and look yourself in the eye. That's heaven.
And here in this story the man who would become Grand Master showed the whole wild world he was already capable of going deep, real deep, and still reaching great heights. |
| Listen to Will Patten Audio | 2010-05-05 | 5 / 5 |
| The James Lee Burke books are BEST on audio.
Will Patton reads with a soft southern voice that makes the characters live in Burkeland.
Just an idea.
Linda Palmer |
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