The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story

Wonderful book about New Orleans....very witty and fast reading. Love the author! Couldn't put it down....read it in one night.

Julia Reed recounts in loving and maddening detail the acquisition and beginning the restoration of her newly purchased home in New Orleans' historic Garden District. She first arrived in New Orleans to cover another campaign of sometime governor Edwin Edwards and was immediately seduced by the ambience and way of life. Although living in New York, she found herself coming back more and more. Eventually, she and her husband, tired of never being in one place for very long, decide to sink in roots, buy the house and embrace life in their favorite city. How were they to know Hurricane Katrina was just weeks away? Aided by an unusual cast of characters, contractors, handymen, pretenders, plumbers, tradesmen and hangers on, Julia and her husband John begin by gutting the place and removing all the "improvements" all previous owners had put in place. Restoring remodeling (plus Katrina) the former slave quarters/ cottage to its one time glory proves to be a daunting endeavor, even for a woman who has lugged her favorite fabric and paint samples through 15 plus years of moving. Every person who enters the home becomes part of the family as well as part of the story. Despite the untimely arrival of Katrina and the contractors (which is worse?), the house survives and life flourishes, though not quite as envisioned. The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story is a winsome slice of southern life and a real treat. Take the afternoon off, get a sweet tea and enjoy!

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.

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.

Julia Reed has done it again and its better than her first book, Queen of the Turtle Derby!! The House on First Street is not only about her colorful long suffering adventures at the hands of questionable home renovators but a wonderful love story about a city and its people. Warning, if you've been to New Orleans and loved every memory, you'll fall in love again by page eight. Reed is a columnist for Vogue magazine and if you're a dedicated reader like me, you turn to articles written by her and Andre Leon Tally first. Evident in all of her works are unique observations of people mingled with a droll sense of humor. Think Eudora Welty mixed with Molly Irwin. Don't be fooled by the title since Reed provides remarkable insight to Southern views of life, religion, politics and food. Readers will learn how only in the South could there be a city like New Orleans. Most interesting to me were her observations of New Orleans after Katrina and failed levees left most of the city underwater. No one is spared from her tart observations: well meaning and slightly misguided SPCA volunteers, confused and dazed officials from FEMA, supportive fly overs by President Bush and local politicians who worried more about how their hair looked on CNN than displaced residents. All are skewered in a wry manner that leaves you chuckling. While Reed is honest about the losses and greed of others after the storm, she finds and tells you about the glimmers of hope from everyday people who are rebuilding the city. If after reading this book you don't want to go to New Orleans, eat some barbecued shrimp, drink beer out of the bottle, dance in the streets and sing Louis Armstrong songs then I don't what to tell ya! Buy it, be outraged, laugh out loud, make up a batch of gumbo and buy a ticket to New Orleans!