Lay Down My SWORD and SHIELD (A Holland Family Novel)

Hack Holland is a man whose grandfather and father cast long shadows. His grandad Hackberry Holland was the one who arrested and sent John Wesley Harden to prison after knocking him off a horse with a shot to the head with a rifle stock. His father was a politician.

Even with an illustrious grandfather, when Hack joined the Navy, he went as a Navy corpsman (medic) assigned to a marine detachment fighting the North Koreans. His position is overrun, and the survivors are transported to a Chinese POW camp. This horrendous experience, filled with pain, and conditions designed to create self-loathing in the prisoners, Hack survives and gets to go home. He goes to law school, and and wins the heart of a rich girl, who sees Hack as a man with a rich history and a potential to "go places."

Hack becomes a very accomplished lawyer. What his grandfather was in the old west, he is in the courtroom. He has, at the time of this story, never lost a case. But there are strong unresolved issues from the war. Hack is suffering from a "Mr Hyde"-sized case of PTSD, before this was really a thing to be diagnosed. The Chinese had done their job well; Hack is filled with inner conflict, anger and self-loathing. Hack is an alcoholic. His wife shuts him off every time he tries to tell her what the POW camp did to him.

Somehow, someone directs him to run for U.S Congress from the great state of Texas. He despises fundraising, shallow people and politicians, and drinks harder and acts obnoxious and insults people at the events. This is his wife, Verissa's great dream: to be able to grasp power, to be the wife of a politician. Meanwhile, Hack drives everywhere at 90 mph, drinks Jack Daniels like it is his personal quest to keep JD's stock price up, spends his time with whores, and in a drunken haze tries to share his POW experiences with whatever woman will listen--except his wife.

Then he gets a call from a former marine whom he served with in Korea. The buddy of his, a Hispanic man, got arrested for assaulting a law officer on a migrant farmer's union picket, witnessed by two Texas rangers. The whole arrest and trial was a sham, though his friends gets five years in Huntsville. But Hack, for all of his flaws, is loyal to his buddy and files an appeal to get a retrial, even as his friend is being transported to prison. He gets a not-at-all friendly warning from the small Texas town police to keep his snotty big city lawyer ways out of their business. Once he gets his friend a retrial, and a bond hearing, the bond is approved and his friend is to be released within 24 hours. But the unthinkable happens. His friend is murdered before he gets out, one of those unrelated bits of prison violence.

Hack is driven to get involved, and meets the lovely activist Rees Velasquez, whom he falls for. As his professional and political life unravels, he gets deeper into the migrant farmers union resistance, and gets in more trouble with the law.

In the end he finds that the forces that urged him into politics were doing so to use him for their own purposes. hack turns hi back on his social-climbing wife, his Texas oilmen clientele, and the political forces trying to make a slave out of him. In the end, he finds his peace with the woman he loves, and a life that is true to himself and his woman.

Burke's ability to write descriptive prose is top-notch, probably as good or better than any of the classic authors of old. The only issue I had was that I thought he never would stop being a tormented drunk with nightmares and a hot temper. But, Burke makes it work and the and is satisfying

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.

First in the Hackberry Holland series revolving around an alcoholic lawyer trying to find himself after his release from a Korean POW camp while trying to live up to his family legend.

My Take
Keep in mind that Burke wrote this in 1971 at the end of the Vietnam War.

Burke spends most of the book setting Hack up for his transformation. Steeping us in his degeneracy--the alcohol and whoring. The engrained expectancy of his social class. A shallow peek in the cesspool of politics and campaigning.

It takes the desperate plight of an army buddy to force the change onto Hack while the finish is "the love of a good woman". It sure didn't hurt that he had "the hate of a snotty one" back home.

Hack is not a lovable, let alone a likable character. He's so busy schmoozing and drinking with long visits across the border in the brothels, that I spent a lot of time wondering why I was pushing myself to read it. To be honest, if I hadn't read Feast Day of Fools (Hackberry Holland, #3), I very likely would have put it down. It does, however, provide a brutal look at the violent treatment of farm workers and negroes as they tried to survive in the white man's world of the early 1960s.

I get the feeling that Burke needed to release a lot of anger when he wrote this. Hack rages throughout, drowning his fears with booze, hoping to get through a night without the nightmares of the war. I'm curious if Hack began questioning the people--their motives and thoughts--of his social milieu because of his experiences in Korea and the friendships he made with his fellow soldiers. Men outside his social class.

The Characters
Hackberry Holland is running for office and is partners in a law firm with his brother Bailey. Verisa is his socially conscious wife more concerned with her parties and barbecues.

Art Gomez was Hack's buddy in the Navy and he's been railroaded into prison. Rie Velasquez has volunteered with the United Farm Workers carrying on a family tradition of protest.

Senator Samuel Dowling. The man who was using Hack to fulfill his own political debts. Cecil Wayne Posey was the public defender who did nothing for Art; I'd certainly like to do something for Posey and all the jerks in that town, the prison, the police department, the Texas Rangers...jesus, the list could go on forever. I'd like to think we've been making progress since then...

The Cover
The cover is quite patriotic with its flag waving across the middle of the cover, a sunset shining through it with steeples rising in the background, a rifle with helmet standing upright in the foreground.

Lay Down My Sword and Shield refers to Hack giving up. He's been questioning the people in his life and the war. The sincerity of politicians like Dowling and the people with whom he associates is way more than questionable. By the time we survive Hack's ephiphany, I think we all are ready to lay that shield down as well.

James Lee Burke has been writing for a long time. His latest release is "Feast Day For Fools," and he once again brings Hackberry Holland back into the picture. But there was one problem. I'd yet to read a Hackberry Holland novel yet, and I still have to get cracking at Billy Bob Holland too! I'd picked up "Rain Gods" in a discount store, only to find out I'd stumbled onto book #2 with Hack. So, how could I possibly find where it all began? To my surprise, of all the books that our local library doesn't have, it actually did have "Lay Down My Sword and Shield," and that was reason enough for me to check it out. Back in 1971, did Burke have it then like he does now? For the most part, the answer is yes.

Hackberry Holland loves his whiskey, he loves his women, he's an ex-POW, and he's the best lawyer in Texas that you don't want to go up against in a court of law! And he's also an unwilling participant in the political game. But an old buddy of his from the war needs his help, Hack decides to step up, despite the urgings of everybody else. With his marriage in jeopardy, and a lot of other drama going on, Hack does what he feels is right, and nobody likes it. Hack really doesn't care.

Through it all, we hear of Dave's experience as a POW, while booze flows steadily, and another woman is a possibility. In the midst of everything, Hack continues to step on toes that don't like being stepped on.

Written back in 1971, I did think that some of this was long-winded, but not all of it. All I could really think was that this was still all James Lee Burke, and that's why he's the writer that he is today. He's amazing, gritty, has a poetic edge to his darkness, and he keeps the reader's attention. I think Burke is more than good enough to not only read Dave Robicheaux, but to focus on Hackberry Holland from time to time as well. And I'm looking forward to diving into the Billy Bob Holland stuff as well!

Lay Down My Sword And Shield by James Lee Burke

This book details the rebirth of Hackberry Holland. He returned from the Korean War, rebuilt his life and now he is recreating himself. The hard panned setting and historic family background contribute to his reassessment of his identity.

Describing the book doesn't really do justice to the story or it's fluidity. The author reminds me of Pat Conroy and his poetry like prose. The descriptions of the countryside and people are thorough and beautiful. Hack's experiences as a POW in Korea are horrific. His sublimation of both experience and emotions would fit quite well with PTSD victims in today's conflicts. His drinking appears to be fuel by displaced anger. Hack's reactions to his environment and his refusal to be what his family expects him to be as opposed to what he wants to be is a thumbnail of the book's plot.

We tend to forget how recent equal rights are. There are parts of the book that seem practically fantastic that are supported by facts and recollection of the times. I suspect younger readers may even find some of the incidents hard to believe. Burke's book was extraordinarily done.

I highly recommend the book.

There are so many Hackberrys in the Holland family that it is difficult to determine which one Burke is writing about. You will see what I mean. I read the later Hackberry books, and I am still confused about which generation is which, but all Hackberrys have their won value set from which they will not deviate. Nevertheless, this is good story. My favorite parts were when Hackberry was reminiscing about his past, especially his time spent in a Korean POW camp.

Bound: SunPost Weekly March 4, 2010
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James Lee Burke Drinks Deep from the Heart of Texas
John Hood

Hackberry Holland pisses me off. As a matter of fact Hack pisses off a lot people, so I doubt seriously he's worried about some cat down in Miami. Hell, the Texas mouthpiece probably doesn't even notice just how pissed off he makes me. Why would he? He generally doesn't notice how pissed off he makes anybody else either. And that includes his close friends and his immediate family. Okay, so he does notice. But he sure doesn't seem to care a whit.

Then again, Hack's pretty pissed off his own damn self, so he probably figures he's got a right to piss off everybody else too. With his near dead drunkenness and his relentless disregard, the man almost reeks of entitlement.

Of course Hack being to the manor born and not wanting anything to do with it or its privileges has a lot to do with his foul disposition. And then there's that heavy haunting from his days as a North Korean P.O.W. But Hack's being groomed to inherit his rightful place among the powerful - in his case, as a U.S. Congressman representing the great state of Texas. And Hack's as excited about that as he about everything else in his guided life. In other words: he isn't.

But when a former fellow warrior gets in a jam and calls on his ol' pal, Hack Holland sees something to lash out against. When Hack gets lashed back - and good, he's got himself a cause.

If I write this implying Hack Holland is a real life anti-hero doing some strange and violent version of the Texas Two-Step, well, you'll have to blame James Lee Burke. See it was JLB who brought the brawling lone star to life in the best-selling Rain Gods. Little did many folks know though that Hack had appeared long beforehand, in a muddy and bloody book entitled Lay Down My Sword and Shield (Gallery Books $15). That was back in '71, and despite the good writer's hitlist status, it's been pretty much out of print since.

Now it's back on the racks. Anyone who's ever read anything by James Lee Burke will know his characters come fitted with torn flesh and broken bone so vivid you too often forget it's fiction. And if you know this, then you'll wanna know more, much more, about their origins - and their horrors.

The title to Hack's first showing is, I imagine, taken from the traditional spiritual "Down by the Riverside," a song that seems to be at once uplifting and soul crushing. If I get it straight, it's about the joy of surrender. And if I know anything about surrender; there is no joy in it whatsoever.

But that's another story, for scholars far more astute than I am. As for James Lee Burke's Sword and Shield, well, I can tell you this: those depths that you think you've descended to go a whole lot deeper than you thought. And down there, at the very bottom, where even a single breath has to be ripped from the earth; that's where redemption begins. To go there at all is a hell few can fathom. To come back though, kicking and screaming and clawing your way to a place where you can at last hold your head up and look yourself in the eye. That's heaven.

And here in this story the man who would become Grand Master showed the whole wild world he was already capable of going deep, real deep, and still reaching great heights.

James Lee Burke is one of my favorite authors, as he does so well with character development. This novel included more history than I prefer, but it was nicely woven into plot of story. I miss guessed the ending, as his stories are never cookie cutter template. A very good read.

With LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND SHIELD Burke conjures up more than a few devils for his lead character Hackberry Holland and how he battles them and works his way beyond the scarring process is a treat for those of us who appreciate good storytelling and fine writing.
Burke's writing here reminds me a lot of the early Elmore Leonard (especially with the opening chapter) but has a signature style all its own. It's a story of self destruction and redemption one slow and painful step at a time and it is well worth adding to your reading list.

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.

Although this is an early James Lee Burke novel, it has all of the class and flair that I have come to expect and enjoy from his work. He is probably the best exponent of this genre that I have read. His writing has an ease, and fluency about it, and his economy of words does not detract from the clarity of his descriptive passages. An excellent read, which I would recommend to JLB fans old and new.

I appreciate that people have different tastes but this is the only suspense type book that I just could not bother finishing. I put it down three times and then a few days later decided to give it another try. Got about 2/3 through and decided I had much better things to do and books to read. The central figure is totally without virtue, as I'm sure the author intended. I'm also confident that if I finished the book, which I won't, I'd find some redeeming features shining through. So?? I found it predictable and "hack-neyed".
Spend your time on some other book/author.