New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writings from the City

Reading this book makes me ache to go back to the only place i've ever felt at home. He gets it. It's not sugar coated or sensationalized. He talks about the good the bad and the beautiful weirdness that is New Orleans. The stories are interesting and well told. I laighed and cried reading this book and I really wanted to be part of this man's cirle of friends. Very good read. Especially if you are already interested in NOLA or if you have some sort of connection to the place.

I picked this book up for a research project but it turned into a wonderment! I've fallen in love with the city, in that exciting kind of romance of meeting an exciting stranger, and all the while knowing that our relationship can't end well. When driving across town, I had my wife read it to me. It's flash article format makes it great for lots of quick reads. My wife enjoyed reading it too. Nice job Andrei!

"New Orleans is Blache DuBois" the essayist tells us and in a few lines, he gives the evidence for something that we may have suspected. Here is a city that brags about its great literature and then begs you not to read it-or at least not take it seriously. Come buy our life, it says, just don't look at all the death. And so, unlike many other love songs to particular places, Codrescu's is sad. Perhaps some other cities will evoke the same sense of folly and loss- Venice is a likely candidate-but you can't imagine a similar book about New York or Prague or even Rome. This is a book of essays whose roots in radio are obvious. You can almost hear them spoken aloud. They are also remarkably personal-the author sees America as a displaced Rumanian-turned-American. The perspective is valuable and he doesn't deny the reader its benefits. Read him following the National Guard as it responds to a flood on the Mississippi near Hannibal, Mo. to be undeceived about us. Read his obit for Jim Monaghan, romantically crusty barkeeper to be gently hoodwinked again. These are stories about a city, but more fundamentally stories about displacement and encountering one's second home town. All in all, a great and provocative entertainment. Lynn Hoffman, author ofbang BANG: A Novel which is set in the author's second home town.

Sometimes it takes someone from elsewhere to really appreciate a place. I have long been a fan of Andrei Codrescu's NPR commentaries and knew that he lived in New Orleans so when I saw this book I knew it would be good. It is. Codrescu, like so many of us who choose our new "hometown" loves everything about New Orleans and sees it with both loving and honest eyes. Like all great lovers he loves the flaws as much as he loves the beauties. He writes about his years on carnival krews, about hours spent prowling the French Quarter, about Marie Laveau the legendary voodoo queen and other New Orleans characters, about food and the cemeteries where people meet as if they were parks. He writes about not being able to get out of his hammock --- all with wry humor, grace, and appreciation. And he writes with anger about Katrina and its aftermath. I have only visited New Orleans but love it and was happy to be transported back there through the words of someone who notices everything and sees it honestly. I particularly appreciated some of his literary references. WARNING: this book can cause you to buy a lot more books. But, if you love New Orleans, you will treasure them, too.

I am a true fan of New Orleans. I read everything I can get my hands on about this city. Andrei Codrescu does an amazing job bringing you right back to this great city. You can almost smell the city as you read it. It is hard to put this book down. This is one of the best books I have ever read about New Orleans, My Love.