It is hard to fit Another Kind of Eden into a genre or to compare it to other novels.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It best fits into other works by James Lee Burke.\u00a0\u00a0 He has written over 40 novels, many of them Detective stories featuring Dave Robichaud, set in New Iberia, Louisiana.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This book fits into the Holland Family Saga and is set in Colorado in the 1960s.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is the story of\u00a0 Aaron Holland Broussard, an emerging novelist who is riding the rails, picking up seasonal agricultural work.\u00a0\u00a0 He settles in Trinidad, Colorado, working for a farming couple, making friends, and finding a love interest.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is a darker side, though, and Aaron won’t back down in the face of evil.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Drugs have arrived in the area and hateful people target visitors, the newly arrived hippies, and anyone who chooses to stand up to them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It turns out that Aaron is a Korean War veteran who suffers from PTSD.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At times he has memory lapses, personality shifts, and deeply buried traumatic memories.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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\u00a0 the ending is at the same time disturbing and unreal. \u00a0\u00a0 It can be seen as an allegory or as a fever-dream, perhaps even a nightmare. \u00a0 \u00a0 What actually happens is unclear. \u00a0\u00a0 There are deaths, resolutions, and\u00a0 most of the main characters go their own way.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As a reader, we are left to interpret the novel’s intent and wonder if this is not an allegory of life’s journeys.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As a fan of James Lee Burke, I read his books with anticipation, but sometimes with trepidation too.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This book brought both delight and dismay. \u00a0\u00a0 4.2\/5 stars.<\/p>\n