SOMETHING GORGEOUS is Junior Burke's debut novel. Set in the world of Fitzgerald's Gatsby, Something Gorgeous weaves historical figures with imaginative characters: "Faye Kingsley had blue eyes. She would say they were green, simply because green was her favorite color. It was as though by telling so obvious an untruth, she was daring people to deny her something. And many people, even boys and young men who got close enough to gaze at her face, came away saying that Faye Kingsley's eyes--at certain angles, in certain lights--were indeed green..."

Something Gorgeous

Literature & Fiction

Burke, Junior

Contemporary

Farfalla Press

"... with the smell and smoke and taste still harsh in his nostrils, eyes and throat, he needed to warn others, not just his own kind but all other non-humans. Death was in the air." When Todd Wendt, recovering from the tragic death of his wife, is sent to oversee operations at a regional cement plant in Colorado, news reaches him of a series of vicious animal attacks. Over time, it becomes clear that the attacks taking place in this small mountain town are far from random: Todd, and his company are being targeted...

A Thousand Eyes

United States

Cosmic Egg Books

"Jimmy Dean, clip-on shades and motorcycle boots, walked late onto the set of the General Electric Theater. Cast and crew were there, as was Ronald Reagan, coproducer and actor-host. Jimmy was in character, although not precisely the one he'd signed on to play. He was deep into James Dean, New York stage actor, big screen Technicolor star . . ." It's December 1954. During a live television performance of the General Electric Theater, a young James Dean brandishes a pistol at fellow actor (and weekly show-host) Ronald Reagan. Dean goes off script, and what happens next kicks off a noirish alternate history, a "sliding doors" narrative that takes real events in a different direction. The Cold Last Swim features two cultural icons: one who would be dead within a year, immortalized as a symbol of cool rebellion; the other, in a little over a quarter century, would become leader of the free world, the standard bearer of traditional and even fundamentalist values. Each reflects fifties America: Reagan is firmly established among the open freeways and unblemished skies of sunny Los Angeles; Jimmy, emerging from the black-and-white shadows of a rainy New York street. Told largely from Jimmy's viewpoint, but incorporating a diverse cast of period characters, The Cold Last Swim is classical Greek drama: Reagan's Apollo, god of light, warmth, and temperance; Jimmy's Bacchus, license, alienation, and impulse. In this era between the mid-fifties and mid-sixties, we recognize the seeds are being sown for the cultural gulf that divides America today. Reading group guide available to download from publisher's website.

The Cold Last Swim: A Novel

Literary

Gibson House Press

A progressive, alternative university is targeted for takeover by conservative forces in this satiric tale. 
Aaron Motherway is a Hollywood screenwriter who, while recovering from a traffic accident, is tapped to run the arts program at Parami University, located in Pearl Handle, Wyoming. 
What Aaron doesn’t know is that he is being set up to fail by various duplicitous forces, and he finds himself immersed in a culture war infused with sexual misconduct, embezzlement, political opportunism, and potential mass murder, played out in a climate of comedic dysfunction and absurdity. 
His charming and able assistant has his back, fending off a demented poet and venomous colleagues. And he gains the loyalty of some very challenged students—a murderer, a lobster wrangler, and an apostate. 
But there are surprises in store for Aaron before the story reaches a dramatic conclusion. 
Buddha Was a Cowboy is a metaphor for many of the issues engulfing and dividing America today, and a darkly humorous take on the current cultural landscape.

Buddha Was a Cowboy: A Novel

Humor & Satire

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Burke, Junior. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Burke, Junior

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Burke, Junior. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Something Gorgeous

A Thousand Eyes

The Cold Last Swim: A Novel

Buddha Was a Cowboy: A Novel