Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans

Roy Blount Jr. is a fantastic author with a great sense of humor and a very creative story telling language. I would recommend other writings of his to anyone who likes fun, folksy, and intelligent writing.

I own the book and the CD. This book takes you right down the streets. Roy Blount Jr. makes you feel like you are right there with him. This really makes you smile. I love driving and listening to his book.

This book, a walking tour of the Big Easy, is another installment in the publishers' Crown Journeys. For me, it was a trip back to a city that I love and that means so much to me. It's all here, from beignets at Cafe du Monde to the street kid who approaches the obvious out-of-towner with this line: "Betcha' I can tell you where you got your shoes?" In between we stroll through the sex and sin of Bourbon Street and the verdant splendor of Audubon Park and the Garden District. This book will suffer, of course, due to some unbelievably bad timing for the author and the publisher. Still, I found this read to be like visiting with an old friend. The New Orleans depicted in this slim volume is the one I remember and love, the one I believe will soon be again. In spite of the destruction and death of Hurricane Katrina there is fresh hope: Cafe du Monde began serving coffee and chickory again after the longest delay of business in their 150 history. Also, the American Library Association announced days ago that they will go ahead with plans to shop the Crescent City for their annual meeting. The opening and ending of the book, with its ominous foretelling of the Big One and what it would do to the city wasn't enough to chase me away from the laughs to be found within. I'd tell most anyone to pick this book up.

I love New Orleans, but only know it as an infrequent visitor. I love to read books about New Orleans for more in depth, inside information. That is just what the author offers in this compact book. He offers up the flavor, the mixed history, the impressions you'd get walking down street of one of the most well-known, least understood cities. The author doesn't offer justification or explanation, he just tells it like he has experienced it. I like it that way.

I never thought a 'travel book' could make me laugh and nod in agreement. Maybe this isn't really a travel book after all. Blount captures what the city is really like in an almost poetic way from the architecture to the food to the people to the smell. It's all one big intertwined experience; Blount's writing style reflects this making "Rambles Around New Orleans" the perfect subtitle. The read is a very reflective and visual one and if you haven't been to New Orleans, you may miss the beauty of some of Blounts descriptions. For instance, much of one's experience in New Orleans derides from the group of friends brought along or made there. Chapter ("Ramble") 7 entitled Friends is something of a recount of how different individuals impacted the author while in New Orleans. If you hadn't been to New Orleans and realized that how much you like the city depends on who you were with; you may miss the point of this chapter because it is deliberately only implied. This book is the best description of New Orleans I know. With that in mind, it's not for everyone. Blount speaks to the reader as a New Orleans veteran. Having some memories of New Orleans makes this read come alive.