If you love New Orleans, you've really, really got to read "The House on First Street," Julia Reed's wonderful new memoir of her Garden District house, and living in the city for the first year after Katrina. From my review in Saturday's Wall Street Journal:
But mostly "The House on First Street" is about coming of age in a midlife crisis brought on not by menopause but by meteorology. Learning how to be a wife, a homeowner, a neighbor and a citizen in Katrina's hellacious crucible made Julia Reed, by her own account, grow up and settle down -- but, crucially, without ceasing to be a bon vivant. And this is what gives "The House on First Street" its distinctively Louisiana character. You get the idea that there is no bad thing that cannot be overcome, or at least endured, if you confront it with enough booze, food and good company. (This is the only book you'll read about a natural disaster that ought to have had recipes.) Ms. Reed is not just being a good-time Charlotte here. This is dedication to the good life as a spiritual strategy for communal survival.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
I Ms. Julia Reeds Apple laptop please contact me 504-939-2731
please help me return it to her
Julia Reed is absolutely the best latest writer of Southern stuff. My favorite things all rolled into one--cooking, decorating, gossiping, partying, etc. I could go on and on, and she does. Funny? No. Hilarious. I LOVE her. I hope she writes a book a year for the next twenty.
In case she gets this email, I'd love to correspond with her, just to say thanks for the laughs and the memories.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.