ROUSES_MayJun2019_Magazine-Print

In this author’s good literary company, we can squint at the sunlight on the bayou water, sway to imagined Cajun dance music, smell the sweet olive on a summer night. And oh, can we taste the food — spicy and soul-satisfying.

crawfish, breaded pork chops, Popeyes fried chicken, étouffée, pecan pie, oyster and chicken gumbo, fried eggplant, any kind of gumbo, fried sac-a-lait, catfish po'boys, oyster po’boys, oysters on the half shell, and either red or white boudin.” But then, there’s this: “Here’s the problem, however,” he said. “I’m a vegetarian today and no longer feel I can justify the killing of animals, even fish, simply to make a meal, although sometimes I do eat fish. I don’t mean that others are wrong in doing so.” Live and let live. Reverence for life. Do no harm, or at least as little as possible. Vintage James Lee Burke. Vintage Dave Robicheaux too.

especially difficult struggle in the context of a place that celebrates and enables drink- ing. Dave’s beverage of choice is Dr. Pepper with cherries and slices of lime, but when he goes off the rails and orders a shot and a beer chaser, we know that trouble will ensue. “Why’d you drink, Dave?” Alafair asks him. “The same reason as everyone who goes out. I wanted to,” he answers. It’s a sign of his scrupulous honesty as a writer that Burke oc- casionally sets scenes during AA meetings; Dave’s struggle is real. We tend to forget that Burke was born in Houston, and his series about the Hol- land family pays tribute to Texas history in all its violent and larger-than-life glory. You might think that he’d be an expert on chick- en-fried steak and chili too. Barbecue does tend to appear in his books now and then. When Burke says a place serves “barbecue

chicken that could break your heart,” you know he’s tasted that chicken. Just the way a song can break your heart, bringing back memory, he knows that food has the same power. The path of Burke’s life has taken him to Montana’s Big Sky country, where he works with rescue horses when he’s not writing. The new setting seems somehow right for the creator of Dave Robicheaux, but Louisiana is always in Burke’s heart and on his mind. “As you know,” he said, “Louisiana food is prepared in the Elysian Fields and is prob- ably the best seafood in the world. It also is probably responsible for the fact that Loui- siana has the highest rate of cardiovascular disease in the country. That said, you gotta do something for kicks [the line comes from Rebel Without a Cause ]. My favorite South Louisiana dishes are dirty rice, deep-fried

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