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NOLA books
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Catherine
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 12:10PM)
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Aug 26, 2007 06:59PM

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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.


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.

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!