“I hate bullies. I hate them. I’m not good enough with words to describe how much I hate them.” ~ Andrew Vachss
By Catherine Austin Fitts
I once fell in love with a man because he reminded me of Burke.
Burke lives in a world I understand. He sees the game; the game that emerged from a century of slow burn on the streets of places like Philadelphia and New York City.
Burke says: “Your family are the people who won’t turn you in.” Burke is a man who created such a family – a family that can’t be bought: Max, the Mole, Michelle, the Prof, Clarence
The man I loved got bought away by the boys. A few months before it happened, I got a warning from a very politically connected person that I should start dating a 33 degree Mason or else I would be targeted. I said that there had to be a part of my life that was mine, in which I could love whom I pleased. For a time I lived inside the joy of love that transcends divide and conquer. It turned out to be a fantasy, but I felt it for long enough to know that it could be real.
In the end, prestige and money buys almost everyone. Not necessarily because they are lacking in integrity. Integrity says they must honor their obligations. Most everyone has duties and obligations.
Burke is the creation of Andrew Vachss, the most successful author you have never heard of. Between 1985 and 2008, Vachss wrote 17 novels around private investigator and street avenger Burke, his dog Pansy, and his family. After twenty-three years, Vachss put the series to bed, continuing to write other novels. I have read or listened to the audio of all the Burke series – some more than once. Nothing snaps me out of a bad mood faster than spending time on the streets of Vachss’ imagination with Burke and his pals. I spend time inside the love that transcends divide and conquer.
Vachss started as an attorney representing abused children in New York. Appalled by what the children and he were experiencing, he tried to enlist popular support. Frustrated, he wrote a non-fiction book. It did not sell or attract attention. He decided to try fiction. Publishers declined the material, saying it was too absurd. Vachss finally got his first classic, Flood, published and proceeded to build a loyal, large following by word of mouth. He has been marketing by word of mouth ever since from his website, The Zero. where he describes his work:
“Andrew Vachss has reinvented detective fiction for an age in which guilty secrets are obsolete and murder isn’t even worth a news headline. And in the person of his haunted, hell-ridden private eye Burke, Vachss has given us a new kind of hero: a man inured to every evil except the kind that preys on children.”
The Burke series is the ultimate fantasy – that a group of people can live with a loyal family outside the matrix and create a cash flow stinging bad guys and bringing street justice to a world that thirsts for it. There is a reason that writing this fine has not been converted to Hollywood films and celebrity fame. These are tales that powerful people do not want told.
Before you run out and buy your first Vachss book or audio, I warn you that Vachss may not be for you. His writing is terse, raw, gritty, tough stuff. If you have never known that life, you may want to enjoy the benefits of not knowing it now. Some people find it depressing exploring this part of the world. I find it uplifting for a few hours to face the evil of this world in the company of men and women skilled at giving the devil what is long overdue – in more ways than one.
