Set mostly during the American Civil War, this is the story of young Irish migrant Willie Burke, the black woman he touches to read and the Northern abolitionist whom he loves. As the vortex of the Civil War sweeps away lives, livelihoods and love affairs, the tale explores the moral choices confronting Willie, Flower Jamison and Abigail Downling as the tumult tears apart the genteel culture of the Old South and exposes the brutal and brutalised underclass on whose back it was built. James Lee Burke uses major battles of the Civil War, at Shiloh, Shenandoah and Louisiana, as set pieces to punctuate his story of love, loss and liberation. It is not a history book, but an historical novel, using an epic setting to explore how Willie and his women discover their true characters in this punishing time. While the battle scenes are brutal, as is the treatment meted out to blacks in the South, the story is permeated with a surprising tenderness and confidence in the power of human kindness.

Genre

History

Year wriiten

2002

Publisher       

Simon & Schuster

Plot

Set mostly during the American Civil War, this is the story of young Irish migrant Willie Burke, the black woman he touches to read and the Northern abolitionist whom he loves. As the vortex of the Civil War sweeps away lives, livelihoods and love affairs, the tale explores the moral choices confronting Willie, Flower Jamison and Abigail Downling as the tumult tears apart the genteel culture of the Old South and exposes the brutal and brutalised underclass on whose back it was built. James Lee Burke uses major battles of the Civil War, at Shiloh, Shenandoah and Louisiana, as set pieces to punctuate his story of love, loss and liberation. It is not a history book, but an historical novel, using an epic setting to explore how Willie and his women discover their true characters in this punishing time. While the battle scenes are brutal, as is the treatment meted out to blacks in the South, the story is permeated with a surprising tenderness and confidence in the power of human kindness

Characters

Within the first chapter, Burke establishes his pantheon of players, Willie Burke, the rebellious Irish rascal; Robert Perry, the noble landed gentleman; Abigail Dowling, the principled Northern nurse who sends slaves on the Underground Railway; and Flower Jamison, the illegitimate mulatto daughter of Ira Jamison, the venal owner of Angola Plantation and Rufus Atkins, his ruthless overseer. The romantic triangle of Willie, Robert and Abigail is counterpointed by the almost allegoric antipathy between Abigail and Ira Jamison. In stark contrast with his Dave Robicheaux novels, White Doves at Morning has many strong and well-developed woman characters, including the colourful brothel-owner Carrie LaRose. Part of the pleasure of the story is Burke’s playful mastery of the Louisiana patois.

Resolution

While the ending is sudden, with loose ends wrapped up with an epilogue, the story’s resolution is both narratively and thematically satisfying. It’s a political book, not in terms of the war between North and South, but in the timeless battle between enlightenment and ignorance; By contrasting education and exploitation, James Lee Burke makes a comment that is as scathingly observant of today’s America, with its vast black underclass, as it was of the time in which it is set.

Theme       

At its core, White Doves at Morning is a morality tale about how the worst of times can bring out the best in people.

Recommendation

Absolutely. White Doves at Morning is an epic tale told with wit, skill and sincerity.

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