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WHITE DOVES AT MORNING
by James Lee Burke
Orion, November 2003
344 pages
6.99 GBP
ISBN: 0752842757


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

"White doves come at morning

Where my soldier sleeps in the ground.

I placed my ring in his coffin,

The trees o'er his grave have all turned brown"

For a well-respected and much loved mystery writer to accept the challenge of discovering the mystery of his own ancestors, takes bravery, endurance, and an immense love of his family. James Lee Burke is a favorite of many readers and this time allows the reader to journey with him into his past, into the Civil War, and to meet his great-grandfather.

The challenge in writing of your own ancestors is to make them human and to allow them to have faults. As you read of the intertwining histories of these characters, some real, some as a composite of real people, and some fictional, you find yourself transported to New Iberia, Louisiana during the Civil War and understanding the inner conflicts of the time.

The personal conflicts of Willie Burke and a young slave woman named Flower are the driving forces of this novel. Willie teaches a young slave, Flower, to read when this is against the law of the time. He also signs up to fight for the Confederacy while not believing in the causes. Flower, who is the illegitimate daughter of Ira Jamison is also striving help others and working through her inner conflicts of her heritage. Jamison himself has inner conflicts even though he is characterized as self-serving and manipulative in striving to maintain his status throughout this time of change.

The realism of the Battle of Shiloh, the guilt of having a brave friend die, the ambitions and dreams of the abolitionist movement, the Quaker involvement, the smuggling, the prostitution, the beginning of the White League and the Knights of the White Camellia, the prisoners of war, the viewpoint of seeing the Union soldiers and their rape of the women, the land, and the spirit of the people are all beautifully intermixed in White Doves at Morning.

Perhaps the insightfulness of the characters is what makes this such a unique work of love and artistry. The character, Tige, who is a Confederate drummer boy when the reader fist meets him best says it, “You lose a war, then spend every day of your life losing it again in your head. Never seen a bunch so keen on beating theirself up all the time.” That statement lets you know of the realism in the writing of this novel that truly transports the reader back into another time and another place and into the thoughts and beliefs.

Though this is obviously different from James Lee Burke's mystery novels, this work is a journey of our heritage as a country.

Reviewed by Teri Davis, November 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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