It is hard to fit Another Kind of Eden into a genre or to compare it to other novels.     It best fits into other works by James Lee Burke.   He has written over 40 novels, many of them Detective stories featuring Dave Robichaud, set in New Iberia, Louisiana.       This book fits into the Holland Family Saga and is set in Colorado in the 1960s.    It is the story of  Aaron Holland Broussard, an emerging novelist who is riding the rails, picking up seasonal agricultural work.   He settles in Trinidad, Colorado, working for a farming couple, making friends, and finding a love interest.    There is a darker side, though, and Aaron won’t back down in the face of evil.     Drugs have arrived in the area and hateful people target visitors, the newly arrived hippies, and anyone who chooses to stand up to them.    It turns out that Aaron is a Korean War veteran who suffers from PTSD.    At times he has memory lapses, personality shifts, and deeply buried traumatic memories.    The story is told by Aaron and most of the tale is told from his point of view, but there are times when the narrative is unreliable, and  the ending is at the same time disturbing and unreal.    It can be seen as an allegory or as a fever-dream, perhaps even a nightmare.     What actually happens is unclear.    There are deaths, some resolutions, and  at the end most of the main characters go their own way.    Aaron found the area, the people, the work, and his life a kind of Eden, but there is part of Hell in every paradise too.    As a reader, we are left to interpret the novel’s intent and wonder if this is not an allegory of life’s journeys.    This book will not work for everyone, but all of the author’s books feature some of the best writing we can find and enjoy.    As a fan of James Lee Burke, I read his books with anticipation, but sometimes with trepidation too.    This book brought both delight and dismay.    4.2 out of 5.0 stars4.2