Off Magazine Street

I'm still reading the book and enjoying it. I have a place in my heart for New Orleans.

I bought this book because I really loved the movie "Love Song For Bobby Long." I, too, was an English major and I totally identify with Bobby and Byron, both in their high-falutin dreams and in their failure to move forward in their fields (writing, teaching, etc.). And I have a deep love for and knowledge of the city of New Orleans, which I felt the movie did a fair job of depicting. So, for me, the book had large shoes to fill. The first part of the book disappointed me because [SPOILERS TO FOLLOW:::] it differed SO MUCH from the movie. Lorraine in the book is the polar opposite of the person described in the movie; not only did she not own a house or leave anything to her daughter in her will (including a dress that her daughter could wear), but she was far more pathetic than the the boys she left behind: Bobby and Byron. But once the book introduced Lorraine's daughter into Byron and Bobby's lives, it started to loosely resemble the movie and, as I'd originally hoped, provided more insight into and a different perspective on the main characters. That's when I fell in love with the book, and I swear, from that point on, I literally could not put it down until I'd reached the end, and even then I didn't want it to stop. I guess that's how I know I've read something really special -- the end of the book feels to me like the loss of a dear friend, and I mourn for it. I can honestly say that I love this book every bit as as much as I love the movie based on the book, and I can't recommend one over the other. I DEFINITELY recommend that everyone read Capps' book AND rent the DVD. This story is a Love Song for Everyone, not just Bobby Long.

I struggled with this book at first, but time spent with the characters ends up being well spent. Yes, it is an unusual book. Yes, it blurs the boundries on what is considered "decent". Just one thing to remember... the author puts a few clues in front of us at the beginning...the Tao is what it's all about. If you have any interest in taoist "philosophy" then you will easily understand. No the book is not like the movie "A Love Song For Bobby Long". In its own way its far more moving.

Meaning that he almost perfectly portrays the characters he writes about. He captures the setting, the southern element, the drunken states, the misery, the intellect, and the love that the main characters have to offer. This book is depressing but at the same time eye opening and somehow inspriring. This book offers a great, accurate picture of what New Orleans can be to folks outside the tourist realm. I've met the author and can honestly say this guy has some stories to tell...and has done quite well telling this one.

This genre-bending author enthusiastically attacks reality in a unique blend of anti-heroes, misfits and innocents, equally at home knocking back shots with Tennessee Williams or Ernest Hemingway. Byron Burns is one of the fair-haired boys of his home town, Eames, Alabama. Unfortunately, he becomes the proverbial black sheep of his family. Along with Bobby Long, another favorite son, the friends take the low road once they hit college: an indiscriminate feast of wine, women and song, inseparable on their long slide into oblivion. Now in late middle age, Byron and Bobby have spent so many years besotted that they have begun to act like the stumbling derelicts that litter the streets of every city, blacking out from one drink to another. Moving to New Orleans, the men are joined in their cheap hotel room by Lorraine, a grossly obese mental patient Bobby has known for years, years before she submitted to the comfort of food to fill an emotional vacuum. Lorraine's 16-year old daughter is not much better off, already pushed to the edge of an indifferent society. No one is particularly surprised when Lorraine dies, her larger-than-life heart strained beyond capacity. It is through Lorraine's death that Bobby and Byron's lives are transformed, in a subtle twist of fate, when her daughter, Hannah, appears on their doorstep, such as it is, with questions about her mother and not much hope to squander. Hannah's arrival sparks long-buried ideals that Byron and Bobby have so far successfully obliterated with an excess of alcohol and philandering. Content in their careless waste of days, the men are entertained by the literary fragments of their younger years as teachers, reciting poetry and reading long passages from beloved novels. Hannah is a source of intense curiosity, wrapped in her nubile innocence, especially for the outspoken Bobby. The ultimate transformation of these two men, the awakening of their abandoned finer selves, is something neither is prepared to acknowledge. Neither is Hannah thrilled by these middle-aged reprobates, although, given her lack of choices, they seem to be the only game in town. Hannah stays in New Orleans with Byron and Bobby, gradually drawn in by their ineptitude and seduced by the treasure of knowledge they men so generously share. Add in the neighborhood derelicts from "the outdoor living room" and the scene is set for an excess of debauchery, really just a bunch of lonely, misspent men who drift together, attracted like Bobby and Byron to the glow of Hannah's youth and potential. Like Eliza with her two Dr. Doolittles, the story unfolds in a series of drunken antics, but within the framework of family, albeit a highly unusual one. Not just a humorous tale of redemption, Off Magazine Street is a lesson in compassion. Judgment too easily rendered permits us to throw away those who have slipped from acceptable social mores. Ronald Everett Capps reminds us to look deeper, past the obvious, into that vast reservoir