Tulane University discussion
NOLA books
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Catherine
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 12:10PM)
(new)
Aug 26, 2007 06:59PM
I took a class at Tulane called "the Literature of New Orleans", which is where I got the majority of my New Orleans reading from. Can anyone suggest any other good books taking place in N.O. or written by authors from there?
reply
|
flag
*
Hi Catherine - What books did you read for class? Some contemporary writers - Walker Percy, Nancy Lemann, Valerie Martin, Richard Ford, Ellen Gilchrist, John Biguenet, Eudora Welty ("No Place for You My Love") . . . Recent books by local writers - Dedra Johnson's SANDRINE'S LETTER TO TOMORROW, Ken Foster's THE DOGS WHO FOUND ME, my short story collection FAMOUS FATHERS & OTHER STORIES.
There are more but it's Monday and my brain's jammed.
Pia, We read "The Moviegoer", "A Confederacy of Dunces", "Yellow Jack", "The Awakening", "The Grandissimes", "A Streetcar Named Desire".....I can't remember the others. We went in chronological order according to the time period of the book. I've posted most of those on this group, I think. I also have a bookshelf called Nola-lit that might have any others I've missed. It was a while ago. Thank you for some suggestions! I will make it a point to read your book (though I don't know when).
What about John Biguenet? He wrote an okay novel titled "Oyster," and a collection of short stories I can't recall right now. But the short stories were very good. And this may be getting a little off base, but Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men" is a must read, regardless of its fictionlized setting. Clearly, Warren had South Louisiana in mind.
Thanks for the suggestions! I will put those on the list.
I know ya'll haven't kept this thread going for some years, but I thought I'd chime in anyway. I highly recommend Nine Lives by Dan Baum. It weaves together nine biographical narratives from some of the cities most interesting characters...It's non-fiction that reads like fiction. I couldn't put it down!
Michael Ondaatje's (author of the English Patient) Coming Through Slaughter is an incredible novel(la?) about turn of the century Nola, told through the story of Buddy Bolden--arguably the cities first true jazz musician. Pieced together from the apochryphal stories that remain about the cornetist, and more solid history about Storyville and the city at that time, this book paints a beautiful and tragic picture.
Lastly, I'm reading Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire as we speak. I don't know if vampire fiction is your thing, but Rice was born in Nola in 1941 (I think), and remained in the city until just before or after Katrina, and as such, the picture she paints of Louisiana, and the French Quarter is true to the sort of beautiful and tragic southern-gothic core of the city...
Hope some of these speak to you!
