Half of Paradise

By: James Lee Burke

Narrated by: Mark Zeisler

In this intense, fascinating story, Burke follows the lives of three young Louisiana men, each of whom finds himself in desperate circumstances. There's Avery Broussard, the last survivor of a family of once-prosperous land owners, who has a weakness for alcohol; J.P. Winfield, a poor singer and guitar player who rises to fame as a country music star, only to be destroyed by drug addiction; and Toussaint Boudreaux, a Black longshoreman who moonlights as a heavyweight boxer. The destinies of these men are tragically intertwined in this debut novel that showcases Burke's masterful and now-familiar style.

©2013 James Lee Burke (P)2013 Simon & Schuster Audio

unfinished?

I enjoyed it, as I always do JBL. but the stories seemed unfinished. or at least, I wish they had gone on longer...

Depressing.

I love James Lee Burke, but this story starts out bad and never improves. 2 of them die, one ends up back in prison. And the poor women they leave behind.

Not a feel good story

Any additional comments?

Half of Paradise, James Lee Burke
So you think you’ve had a rough life? You’re upset with what fate has handed you? Or maybe you’re feeling guilty about how good your life is and can’t forgive yourself for being so happy?
Then this book is for you. “Half of Paradise” is a very well written and extremely dark anthology of tragic people making tragic decisions on a tragic course to destruction.
Mr. Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series is one of my favorites, a great writer telling great stories. Maybe it was just my mood (or perhaps my story) but this book, “Half of Paradise” depressed the hell out of me.

Not one of Burke's finest.

The story was predictable and drug on. I didn't like any of the characters and started to shut it off several times, but since it was Burke's I stuck with it. Mistake on my part.

A Very Good Early Work of Jamie Lee Burke

I am a fan of Jamie Lee Burke. This is an early work of this author. It is a dark series of stories set in Louisiana in the 1950s. The stories can be comprehended by listening and therefore this makes a good audiobook. However some of the descriptions of scenery are fairly intricate. I like to pay close attention to how scenery is depicted and there fore I needed to both re and listen to those passages. The stories themselves are dark and have a definite noir aspect to them. The quality of the work is very good but this is not a light, happy reading experience. Thank You….

disappointed

Overall I love James Lee Burke and have yet to hear a book from him that I didn't like. unfortunately this book really fell short. I struggled through the whole book waiting for it to turn around. All of the protagonists were depressing & I am not sure how they all fit together. James Lee Burke fans-pass on this book

Excellent early Burke ruined by terrible narration

This book is probably Burke's first novel, first published in 1965. It consists of three stories loosely interwoven in Louisiana's seamier sides, including the fight game, blues singers, and prison camps. Early Burke sounds a lot like later Burke so far a tone, mood, and dialog. It's very good writing. But caution: these are not an uplifting stories. The prison camp in particular conjures up images of Cool Hand Luke's camp.

Except for the fact that everyone talks like some bland character from a TV family sitcom.

Not the dialog, Zeisler's narration. Escaped prisoners being chased through the marsh: they all sound the same, like a couple of frat boys talking about cars. Passionate lovemaking? Same thing. The woman even sounds the same, not like any woman I know and certainly not passionate. There's not even an attempt made to make some poor Louisiana coon-ass sound authentic. They're all the same, speaking with near monotone delivery. Everyone sounds like Zeisler ordering a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Well, all but one. For some reason Zeisler has to take a shot at a British accent. It's terrible, and the story doesn't even need a Brit. Zeisler could have just gone on with his coffee-ordering delivery and no one would be the wiser.

The only reason I can see that Simon and Schuster Audio picked Zeisler for this read is that he does a pretty good job singing some of the blues lyrics sprinkled throughout the book, or at least he has the guts to try. They should have used him for just the lyrics and got someone else, almost anyone else, to do the narration.

If I had it to do over again I would get the print version and try to imagine Will Patton or Mark Hammer narrating it.

Boring!!

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

If this was James Lee Burke's first book it's a wonder he wrote more. Nothing at like his later books. Very seldom do I not finish a book, but I could only get through half of this one before I gave up.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Since there was no distinction between the characters voices, there was a lot of "Avery said" "Billy Joe said" - very annoying

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

Love JLB, but

… a story of troubled characters going through trouble. It is a bit depressing to listen to. Well written, of course.

Beautifully Written and Thoroughly Depressing

I really enjoy Burke but this book dragged downward and descended all the way to the bottom . The reader’s voice was good but he had awkward pauses and his characters all sounded the same. Bring back Will Patton to read ALL of Burke’s books.