Half of Paradise: A Novel Summary
James Lee Burke

Half of Paradise: A Novel Summary

Half of Paradise is the first book written by twenty-something James Lee Burke. Burke would go on to become a prolific novelist.

The book is focused on the lives of three men: Avery Broussard, J.P. Winfield, and Toussaint Boudreaux. The men have little in common except that their actions and circumstances take them to places heretofore unknown. None fares well in the end.

Avery Broussard is the first character mentioned in the book and one of the three main subjects in the book. The book begins with a relatively young Broussard returning home from a six month stint on the oil rigs. Broussard had left the farm in rural Louisiana to see a bit of the world. For six months, Broussard worked on the rigs on the Gulf Coast, but now the job was done. Broussard takes up where he left off on the family farm, doing his best to... View more of the Half of Paradise: A Novel Summary