Lay Down My Sword and Shield

The introduction of Texas sheriff Hack Holland is brought back into print with this new edition. Hack in this novel is a troubled attorney suffering from his experiences as a POW during the Korean Conflict, in which he suffered wounds and subsequent harsh treatment at the hands of the invading Chinese captors. His father was a Congressman, and after his release and return to the States Hack goes on to law school and a successful practice in partnership with his brother Billy Bob. He marries a socially prominent woman, and both she and the brother cover for his excessive drinking and social foibles. The story picks up with Hack running for Congress, with a long-serving U.S. Senator sponsoring him. The only problem is that Hack really doesn't want to run for public office and keeps avoiding meetings, his wife and brother continuing to cover for him by making excuses. Then a buddy from the war is railroaded by prejudiced rednecks in the Texas Valley on the Rio Grande and sentenced to the penitentiary. Hack goes to his rescue, filing an appeal. As a result, he becomes involved with the activities of the United Farm Workers union (a no-no in the right wing Texas area) and falls in love with a beautiful union worker. The reader can respond with ambivalence to Hack, but the author portrays him sympathetically despite his unceasing drinking and womanizing. Written with a hard edge, foretelling the many future novels he would go on to write about Dave Robicheaux, Billy Bob and Hack Holland and others, Mr. Burke builds each situation with tension and suspense. Recommended.

Hackberry Holland came on the literary landscape in 1971, talking about the bullet holes in his porch left by John Wesley Hardin when the outlaw confronted Hack's grandfather before relating how an up-and-coming politician ended up far from the corridors of power. In 2009, Hack was seen again in Burke's brilliant RAIN GODS. Now, Hack's introduction, LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND SHIELD, has been reprinted. Son of a congressman, Hack is on the verge of becoming one himself. All he has to do is live through endless cocktail parties, meetings with donors and pretending to be happily married to his ice queen wife. Anyone who survived being a Korean prisoner of war should be able to put up with a few wealthy Texas housewives and a senator, right? Instead, Hack is drinking himself into oblivion. When an Army buddy calls from jail after being arrested walking a picket line with Mexican workers near the border, Hack hightails it to help. It's the end of his old life and the beginning of his new one. This isn't just Hack's story. Burke uses his questing, honest hero not only to show Hack's personal journey to make his life meaningful. He also shows what it meant when the song would soon be "The Times They Are A'Changin' ". Whether it's non-white people trying to make the American dream come true, whites who brutally try to stop time's progress or an opportunistic politician and someone who scares even him, Hack crosses their paths. Their combined stories provide a fascinating and important glimpse into what life was like for some people during the 60s. LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND SHIELD is a stirring remembrance of a time when people's actions made profound impacts. That Burke brought Hack back in RAIN GODS only makes the original story more powerful. Those who have read RAIN GODS will want to see where Hack came from, while those who are introduced to him through this first novel will want to pick up the later book right away. Even though they are set decades apart, they are connected by a character who remained true to himself throughout the years. That's the kind of power James Lee Burke brings to his stories.

I give this 5 stars because in my view anything from JLB rates 5 stars and deserves to be read. But I didn't like it. I'm not sure why, but I didn't like Hack until the epilogue (best part of the book, imho). Too much about the Korean POW experience...wouldn't have taken that much to color in that part of his life. Does anybody suck on a bottle of Jack Daniels and drive 100 mph and eventually reach a happy ending?...not even in Texas, I don't think. Anyway, I've read most of the Robicheaux and Billy Bob novels twice, but this one won't get picked up again.

This will be a departure in some way for people that have read the series about Dave, but for those of us that simply love his written word, this is a stunning piece of work by Burke. I have read this book twice, something I don't do too often because there are just too many things stacked up in my "to read" pile. Hack is a good man plagued by demons of his own making, something that is NOT a departure in a Burke novel and is what makes this book one that is not easily forgotten. I think that the struggle we all make in our lives to do what is "right" is just rife with areas of grey. This is what makes reading this (and any) Burke novel an experience rather than several hours to kill time with a story. Just my opinion, I've been wrong before, as someone much wiser than me once said.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book about Hank Holland. The JLB style remains the same with the tough, rough main character, plagued by his own demons,but ultimately righteous in the end. It was enjoyable (and available in Mexico in Paperback, so not thoroughly out of print...) I'd read another book about the same character and I've read all but the most recent one of the Dave Robicheaux collection.