The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story | Julia Reed

The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story | Julia Reed | like a trip to New Orleans, but arm chair

books:

The House on First...

	The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story Julia Reed Ecco, 2008 - 208 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Julia Reed went to New Orleans in 1991 to cover the reelection of former (and currently incarcerated) governor Edwin Edwards. Seduced by the city's sauntering pace, its rich flavors and exotic atmosphere, she was never entirely able to leave again. After almost fifteen years of living like a vagabond on her reporter's schedule, she got married and bought a house in the historic Garden District. Four weeks after she moved in, Hurricane Katrina struck.

With her house as the center of her own personal storm as well as the ever-evolving stage set for her new life as an upstanding citizen, Reed traces the fates of all who enter to wine, dine (at her table for twenty-four), tear down walls, install fixtures, throw fits and generally leave their mark on the house on First Street. There's Antoine, Reed's beloved homeless handyman with an unfortunate habit of landing in jail; JoAnn Clevenger, the Auntie Mame?like restaurateur who got her start mixing drinks for Dizzy Gillespie and selling flowers from a cart; Eddie, the supremely laid-back contractor with Hollywood ambitions; and, with the arrival of Katrina, the boys from the Oklahoma National Guard, fleets of door-kicking animal rescuers and the self-appointed (and occasionally naked) neighborhood watchman. Finally, there's the literally clueless detective who investigates the robbery in which the first draft of this book was stolen. Through it all, Reed discovers there really is no place like home.

Rich with sumptuous details and with the author's trademark humor well in the fore, The House on First Street is the chronicle of a remarkable and often hilarious homecoming, as well as a thoroughly original tribute to our country's most original city.

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if you have a drop of the south in your blood or aspire to...

The House on First Street is the newest entry on my favorites list. Julia Reed is clever, funny, sometimes profound, always truthful (or as truthful as anyone from the south can or should be)and she has a perspective on both a way of thinking and a national tragedy that is different enough to be enviable. This is the first book, in a long time, that prompted me to put aside other things and read it straight through. Then I loaned it to a friend who did the same. Then I shipped it to a friend, the slacker, who took 3 days to read it. It has become my favorite birthday and hostess summer gift. From the first few pages where she describes her childhood job of finding lost purses for possibly indiscreet ladies to the last shocker page I laughed out loud and had to call another southern friend to read aloud at least a dozen times. (she had to buy it for her library). Can you tell how much I loved it. When will we have another book by Julia Reed?

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like a trip to New Orleans, but arm chair

Spent a hot, humid summer afternoon reading this book..it was a rendevous with the past and the now New Orleans. Well woven story and will re- kindle remembrance of times there before Katrina. It is a fast, entertaining read.

New Orleans After Katrina

Reed, Julia. "The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story", Ecco, 2008.

New Orleans After Katrina

Amos Lassen

I was very anxious to read Julia Reed's "The House on First Street" because I am a New Orleanian transplanted to Little Rock and I grew up in the neighborhood that the book is about. Besides having lived through Katrina, I am always curious to see how others made it through the storm.
The book starts with a section on the author's life in Greenville, Mississippi and Manhattan and then we arrive at New Orleans and how she came to get to the house on First Street and Chestnut. New Orleans is the kind of city that becomes part of those living there and it catches hold and does not let go. Reed does not just write about Katrina. She writes about the people of New Orleans and the city itself. We get wonderful insight on the way New Orleanians look at life, religion, politics and food and I felt like I needed to be singing "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans" as I read.
Of course the book really pulled me in with Reed's views on the city after Katrina and she absolves no one. She talks about FEMA and its failures, about SPCA volunteers who meant well but were so shaken by the enormity of the storm that they often lost their way, about flyovers from the President and other politicos, and about the spirit of the people who experienced the tragedy. She has something to say about everything having to do with Katrina and she spares no one--especially those who were more concerned with the way their hair would look on newscasts. She does so with humor but with a sense of tragedy because it is so true.
Reed looks at the losses and the greed of many after the storm but she also finds rays of hope from those that have returned and are rebuilding the city. As I said, there is something about New Orleans that pulls people in and those that have left the city for whatever reasons find ways to return even if only to visit. Reed captures the mood and the spirit of the city and her writing style allows you to feel as if you are in New Orleans standing right next to her. I won't get back to New Orleans for at least a year but that's ok--I have Julia Reed to read and reread until then.

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Couldn't put it down

I just finished Julia Reed"s book in two sittings and am hungry for more. A delightful, easy read that gives incredible insight into the travesty of the storm, the perseverance of the people who went back and still believe in the politically defunct, perilous city that is New Orleans....and why they do. It is also an irreverent look at Louisiana politics and a passionate tale of her love for the many people she's come to know there including her prince of a husband. All of this is woven within a true coming of age story and a debacle of a renovation. This book perfectly illustrates that with an ever present sense of humor and a delicious bottle of wine most of life's big storms (or natural disasters) make way for rebirth. Bravo!

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New Orleans & Katrina - From a Different Viewpoint

I have to be honest; I enjoyed parts of The House on First Street, but not all. Perhaps it is because I lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, when Katrina hit, on August 29, 2005. I have my own harrowing survival story to tell. So the Katrina parts of the book weren't that new or impressive to me. It was OK, and kind of nice to read about how the wealthier persons of New Orleans "survived" Katrina.

I was entertained by the pros related to the author's time spent living in her French Quarter apartment, and it sounded like she had the time of her life. New Orleans was, and always will be, a very unique and special place in an otherwise judgmental and harsh south. The author did bring to mind a few otherwise lost memories of mine; one was the "Ramos Gin Fizz." I hadn't thought of that drink in years!

This book has about 200 pages and is a quick read. I'd recommend it for its travel value, if nothing else. Beyond that, I just can't get excited about it.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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