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LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND SHIELD by James Lee Burke

LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND SHIELD

by James Lee Burke

Pub Date: Jan. 18th, 1971
ISBN: 1439165459
Publisher: T.Y. Crowell

A two-fisted-pants-hitching-cookie-cutter-day-dream for liberals who wince at being "so-called" — this is the story of Texan Hack Holland, a Korean war veteran and lawyer with natural gas on his old-family property and problems. He hates the Texas Democratic establishment that would put him up for Congress; his wife is a tight-lipped climber; and he is weighted with guilt about informing on fellow prisoners after torture in a Chinese prison camp. He drinks a lot. When his better nature surfaces and he takes part in a Chicano protest, meets a beautiful Spanish girl, Rie, and goes down every time under red-neck clubs while swinging and cursing, happy resolutions are only a matter of time and infinite Jack Daniels. He turns down the political bosses and uncovers a nefarious deal; his wife divorces him and he marries Rie who bears him twin sons (yah!); and his Korean story is aired at last to lift his very problematical guilt. At the close he joins the ACLU and tends his horses.