Wayfaring Stranger

A Novel

By: James Lee Burke

Narrated by: Will Patton

2015 Audie Award Finalist for Thriller/Suspense

In his most ambitious work yet, New York Times bestseller James Lee Burke tells a classic American story through one man’s unforgettable life.

In 1934, sixteen-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends with Weldon firing a gun, unsure whether it hit its mark.

Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland barely survives the Battle of the Bulge, in the process saving the lives of his sergeant, Hershel Pine, and a young Spanish prisoner of war, Rosita Lowenstein—a woman who holds the same romantic power over him as the strawberry blonde Bonnie Parker, and is equally mysterious. The three return to Texas where Weldon and Hershel get in on the ground floor of the nascent oil business.

In just a few years’ time Weldon will spar with the jackals of the industry, rub shoulders with dangerous men, and win and lose fortunes twice over. But it is the prospect of losing his one true love that will spur his most reckless act yet—one inspired by that encounter long ago with the outlaws of his youth.

A tender love story and pulse-pounding thriller, Wayfaring Stranger “is a sprawling historical epic full of courage and loyalty and optimism and good-heartedness that reads like an ode to the American Dream” (Benjamin Percy, Poets & Writers).

Holland is just ok

Where does Wayfaring Stranger rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

A better question is where does this rank compared to the author's previous novels. In short, not as high. As usual, the writing and performance by narrator are top notch and one of the best on Audible. However, I found the overall story a bit implausible and the main characters not as likeable as the past works. The author spends a huge amount of time on the female love interest of Holland's business partner. Holland himself dishes out constant verbal abuse to Roy Wisehart, (rich playboy) and the character seems to always come back for more - not very likely. JLB's writing is better suited to a detective mystery story plot so much better because of the astute observations he is able to make about humans and our folly.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

High level or writing and observations of human weaknesses.

What does Will Patton bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Absolutely love this narrator. Give the book an extra star.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, and that is the problem with this one. But, it is still a good listen.

Stranger, You'd Fare Way Better By Moseying On

"There's a man goin' 'round takin' names.
An' he decides who to free and who to blame.
Everybody won't be treated all the same.
There'll be a golden ladder reaching down.
When the man comes around."

Johnny Cash, "The Man Comes Around"

Here, as in his last novel, Burke has come to deify his protagonist, inserting him with a smug and pious Homunculus that floods the pages with internal dialogue judging and imprecating every character encountered and bombing the reader with bromides and worn out witticisms. Inside our hero is insufferable sanctimony (“All our dreams and hopes become as naught, and evil men are allowed to hang their lanterns on our tombstones. What greater folly is there?”), while outside, he encounters archetypal villains as he runs the whole gamut of emotions from A (sullen) to B (self-satisfied): “You’ve got another problem. Like most white trash, you’re disrespectful to your betters and proud of your stupidity and ignorance.”

O, the faint whiff of Faulkner, rolling over: “If you're wired a certain way, you'll always be in morion, clicking to your own rhythm, all of it in four-four time, avoiding convention and predictability and control as you would a sickness, the whole world waiting for you like an enormous dance pavilion lit by colored lights and surrounded with palm trees. I'm not talking about the dirty boogie. The music of the spheres is right outside your bedroom window.”

Huh?!?! Burke, approaching 80, may be harking back to early 50's Louisiana when his cousins, Jimmy Lee Swaggart and Jerry Lee Lewis (both a year older than James Lee), were raising hell only a couple of hours to the north.

Wordy

Good story but really abrupt and disappointing ending. Wonderful and engaging time frame, although hard to keep the time straight throughout. Great performance.

Burke paints beautiful pictures,characters w words

I love listening to Patton read Burke's stories. Burke weaves all his story threads together so beautifully and movingly. My library only has abridged audio versions. Burke's artistry cannot be fully appreciated, not sure why that's even an option. Burke will carry you away. Patton completes the picture.

Beyond Good and Evil

James Lee Burke paints his story with colors and detail so vivid the reader is treated to a journey as he takes us breathlessly to the edge. Will Patton's performance makes us care and feel for the characters as we go along for the ride. How fortunate we are for their collaboration.