“Don’t Forget Me, Little Bessie” is one of the author’s Holland Family novels. Burke is best known for his Dave Robicheaux series but he has also written a number of books about the Hollands. They were his mother’s family and while these are works of fiction they were inspired by that family history.
The Bessie of our title is the main character, she is based in some ways upon Burke’s mother who lived to be 102 years old. As this novel closes Bessie, our narrator, is nearly 102 years old. She says “my son became a writer and wrote down a number of these stories.” That is as close as Burke ever gets to being autobiographical in his fiction.
As the story opens Bessie is a young girl living in Texas. This is during the years just prior to WWI. Her mother is dead. Her father, a former Texas Ranger, is a drunk. Bessie cannot rely upon Papa, a womanizer. His drinking binges render him unreliable.
Fortunately from the very first page Bessie has someone watching out for her. This guardian goes by the name of Slick and we are never certain if he’s a real person, and a con man, or if he’s a ghost or spirit of some kind. We wonder because he seems to be invisible to some people and he can just appear out of thin air.
Slick is a great character. When she meets him she warns him “you’d better git before my father comes out.” Bessie acts gruff towards him but his concern for her eventually melts her resistance. This was during the period when Texas was experiencing an oil boom and petroleum companies were scrambling to lease the rights to drill for oil.
Across the way from where Bessie lives with her dad a young girl had been murdered. Her ghost haunts this story. Slick keeps telling Bessie that she looks just like that dead girl. This makes Bessie quite uncomfortable. There’s also an unfortunate incident that leaves Bessie’s brother blind in one eye. Things go sideways fast. I doubt if Burke’s mother ever shot anybody but young Bessie certainly does.
James Lee Burke has barely slowed down. He has put out several books over the last couple of years and at age 88 still tries to write 750 words each morning. He already has another Dave Robicheaux book completed. “Hadacol Boogie” weighs in at 550 pages, surely the longest book in the entire series. Last year a statue of Burke was erected in New Iberia, Louisiana. He’s wearing his signature cowboy hat. In bronze.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
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