Neon Rain by James Lee Burke is alleged to be one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, only The Greatest Books of All time site – its algorithm really – would only see it as 6362nd, so I should be the referee here, after all, this is where I am the (demi) god, this is my space and I can quote William Boyd, or further down According To Mark, to let you go after you finish this headline, I found it captivating, if not exhilarating. This is about the five thousand other reviews you can read, on magnum opera from the GOAT and other pages, plus films from The New York Times’s Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other lists if you visit my blog or YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

Neon Rain by James Lee Burke is alleged to be one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, only The Greatest Books of All time site – its algorithm really – would only see it as 6362^nd, so I should be the referee here, after all, this is where I am the (demi) god, this is my space and I can quote William Boyd, or further down According To Mark, to let you go after you finish this headline, I found it captivating, if not exhilarating. This is about the five thousand other reviews you can read, on magnum opera from the GOAT and other pages, plus films from The New York Times’s Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other lists if you visit my blog or YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

 

8 out of 10

 

This is a good book, even if The Greatest Books of All Time has it as low as 6362, notwithstanding the Guardian critic which has listed this and another work by James Lee Burke among the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, and more importantly, it kept me along, despite the fact that the plot seemed difficult to believe at times

 

I am reminded of this passage from Kingsley Amis https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-letters-of-kingsley-amis-edited-by.html ‘Nathaniel West Locust I feel as I do with Virginia Woolf I want to keep saying 'No, he didn't', No it didn't happen as you describe it', No, that isn't what he thought,  No, that's just what she didn't say…’

The plot is an interesting web, we have secret agents, mobsters, even people (well, most of those here are savages really) from Nicaragua, the Sandinistas are present, gang rape, torture, one soldier has his head placed in a cage with rats, so that he is forced to help trap his comrades in a mine field, plenty of horror

 

Dave Robicheaux is the hero, a New Orleans Police Department officer, he was once a U.S. Army infantry lieutenant who fought in the Vietnam War, and he ‘becomes involved with drug dealers, mafia chieftains, and a former army general with shady arms dealings in Central America…’ but some of it seems incredible

Only there is another major work: According To Mark https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/according-to-mark-by-penelope-lively.html where you have this –“the novelist has an infinity of choices, He chooses what is to happen, to happens, and in what way he will relate what happens, the picture he constructs is complete on its own terms…when he says this is the story and the whole story we must accept it…perhaps novelists are the only people telling the truth’ concluding hence that the writer is god”

 

I thought of extending the privilege, the reader is also a (demi) God, in that he can accept or reject the plot, personages, and more, in this case, as mentioned above, the narrative is very good, if not enchanting, so after this conclusion, I veer off the subject, as usual, and write about the experiences at the club

This may get to be a crossfire, I write about him, and he will spill the beans regarding all, or most of us: he is an actor, script writer and would be director – maybe he even helmed something, I am not sure – alas, I do not know his name, and we went beyond the point where it seems polite to ask him who (the hell) he is

 

We are supposed to have seen him perform, expect I only know this ad he made, for a beer brand, looked him up for a movie I knew he was in, without finding the name, he was just an extra (like in that series with Ricky Gervaise) so we are stuck, for the time being, besides, the man is nice, but our politics clash

Earlier, we went to the Jacuzzi, where he surprised and upset me by regretting he did not vote for this local version of Orange Woland, we went to this smaller place, where a woman started attacking…women, when I insisted that the American Gorilla is an awful misogynist, she goes ‘well, women are bad’, I replied that maybe she is, that does not mean we can make it a rule…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’