No Place, Louisiana

I chose to bring this book with me on a recent trip to Nova Scotia. It was a constant companion during my meals, my walk on the beach, any chance I got, until I finished. And then I was sad to be done. The story has such an underlying universal lesson anyone can appreciate. Talk to the ones you love, learn to hear what they don't say. Put family before material posessions, Make every day meaningful: Thank-you, Martin Pousson!

I bought this book because I heard that Mr. Pousson's novel was as powerful a debut as Dorothy Allison's or Frank McCourt's. I had no idea how touched I would be, on an emoitional level, after I finished the novel in one sitting! Inspired by the book, I wanted to call every member of my family and say "we must work on our communication,before it is to late!". I am from a small town in central Illinois and found his characters and story surprisingly,universally familiar. The writing is so perfectly fluid and flowing, always moving forward,sometimes subtle- sometimes shocking, but always honestly. He, as a writer, has his own unique signature in every chapter. I simply say this. "Buy this book!" I bought it, and then literally bought several more for each member of my family to read. I cannot wait for Mr. Pousson's next novel!

What a treat, this novel of pierced expectations and longing. Through precise and soaring prose, the author ably renders the whistling flight of human yearning and the earthy depths of disappointment, the transactions between the sexes, between the generations, between cultures. Set against the lush and swampy strains (you can almost hear Bob Dylan's "Man in the Long Black Coat" twanging in the background) of the Cajun South, the reader is afforded an unforgettable journey through the broken and defeated, through the unspoken contracts of family. The Louisiana atmosphere is so rich, you can smell it, taste it. An enlightening cultural education. If you want to read truly excellent prose (which seems harder and harder to locate these days) check out Pousson; the freshness of subject matter goes without saying. Pousson's voice, imbued with compassion and hope, is worth paying close attention to. Already looking forward to another installment.

It moves in quietly, unexpectedly - it sets a mood, like the afternoon before a hurricane blows into town - still, expectant, but crackling with tension - right before the roofs are blown off the houses and all hell breaks lose. "No Place, Louisiana", like the real storm at the film's center, conveys a ferocious and angry energy that is propelled by swift, simple and decisive prose. It is the stunning debut from Martin Pousson, a Louisiana-born writer who falls in line behind the great Southern authors of our time, with a vision of Acadia that is resonant in its every detail. This is the story of Louis and Nita, the most unlikely match ever made - opposing forces from the start that could only create domestic thunder and lightning when they collide - yet this is a storm that brews quietly for the lentgh of a marriage, bringing forth two childern who get swept up in the quiet rage and stifling madness of two headstrong and stubborn parents. It is an elegant and well-balanced book, that lets Nita and Louis tell their stories in subtle, shifting perspectes, from one to the next - from their first date, to their wedding, then to their endless search for the perfect house, the perfect neighborhood, the perfect life - from Nita's revultion at letting her husband touch her, to Louis' adoration and longing for his beautiful and distant wife - and finally to their children, a perfect son and a rebellious daughter, who become the battlegroud for their parents unfulfilled desires. It is a book that looks at the tragedy of the American Marriage, at the gulf that exists between husbands and wives, and between parent and child, while creating a portrait of a time in American history, of the American South, that is perfectly rendered, portraying the poverty and racism along side the beauty and elgance of Cajun language, culture and custom. A true revelation.

This debut novel really creeps up on you in a good way, and it lingers in your thoughts long after you've wended through its final, devastating chapters. Although the writing style is more economical and sparse than in Bastard Out of Carolina, there are many similarities to that classic novel, including its soul-searching female protagonist trying to escape a legacy of abuse amid hardscrabble circumstances and desperate uncertainties. There's a lot of darkness and grit on display here here, but it's eminently rewarding and never so downbeat that you want to turn away from it. Pousson's memorable heroine Nita is an unforgettable character, richly nuanced, unflinchingly real, completely original, ferociously alive. What I took from Nita and her restless, fidgety family chronicle reminded me of the Stones classic "You Can't Always Get What You Want." You can try sometimes, but you might find...you get what you need. Kudos to Pousson for also delivering one of the most eye-opening depictions of modern-day Cajun life ever conveyed in a novel. You could call it Southern Gothic but that's almost too easy, and too limiting. He's dealing with far swampier terrain; something short, sharp and shocking that's hard on the soul, but good for it all the same. Cajun living to a fault. And the novel's regional cadences positively sing... In No Place, Louisiana, Pousson has conjured up a hardscrabble triumph that leaves you thirsty for his next effort.