Helpful Score: 3
This was not an easy book to read, but returning to New Orleans after Katrina was not an easy experience for Chris Rose, or for anyone else. This is a compilation of columns that Chris Rose published in the Times-Picayune for a year and a half after Katrina's landfall. They are fascinating and heart-wrenching.
Helpful Score: 2
There's a quote in this book that says, "I'm not going to try to lay down in words the lure of this place. Every great writer in the land, from Faulkner to Twain to Rice to Ford, has tried to do it and fallen short." I think, however, that Rose has done just the opposite. Through his humor, honesty, emotion, and stories, Rose paints a captivating picture of New Orleans. He really has captured the "lure of this place," through all of its sorrow and hope. Whether you're from New Orleans or not, I really recommend this book.
Helpful Score: 2
Oh my gosh I LOVE this book. I remember all of these colums after Katrina and if anyone could put down in words how all of us were thinking and feeling at that time it was Chris Rose.
He became a local hero, holding us together with his columns in the paper. One of us would have to drive out to get the paper just to see what Chris had written and the paper would be passed around the neighborhood so that everyone could read his column.
If you were here this will bring back memories both good and bad; if you wern't here it may give some insight into how we were thinking and feeling at that time.
He became a local hero, holding us together with his columns in the paper. One of us would have to drive out to get the paper just to see what Chris had written and the paper would be passed around the neighborhood so that everyone could read his column.
If you were here this will bring back memories both good and bad; if you wern't here it may give some insight into how we were thinking and feeling at that time.
Helpful Score: 1
Chris Rose is a reporter for the Times-Picayune in Louisiana. He continued to write his column for the paper after Katrina devastated New Orleans.
How this man was able to survive and forgo his devastation and continue to see the good and the bad during this disaster is the most striking part of these vignettes about life in the aftermath.
The stories of refigerators that line the roads, appliances being sunk into potholes big enough to do that in, how some people didn't experience any devastation, how some holed up in their homes and didn't face it, how some brought major crime to the area, how some went out of their way to help others, even with just a smile or a touch.
I felt a poignant feeling reading this, as I was reading this as Japan became devastated by it's own horrific weather-related undoing. It makes you ponder what you would do in such a situation.
Cudos to Chris Rose and people like him who are working toward making Louisiana a community again, however slowly that happens.
How this man was able to survive and forgo his devastation and continue to see the good and the bad during this disaster is the most striking part of these vignettes about life in the aftermath.
The stories of refigerators that line the roads, appliances being sunk into potholes big enough to do that in, how some people didn't experience any devastation, how some holed up in their homes and didn't face it, how some brought major crime to the area, how some went out of their way to help others, even with just a smile or a touch.
I felt a poignant feeling reading this, as I was reading this as Japan became devastated by it's own horrific weather-related undoing. It makes you ponder what you would do in such a situation.
Cudos to Chris Rose and people like him who are working toward making Louisiana a community again, however slowly that happens.
Helpful Score: 1
Rose continued cranking out the columns following Katrina - I guess they were considered vital by fellow New Orleans residents. Frankly they left me cold and made me want to ask, 'Is it really all about you, Mr. Rose?' Not particularly well written or well arranged.
Luckily I wasn't living in New Orleans when Katrina came through. I just went down to help friends clean up afterward.
Pete Rose tells it like it was. Ugly, smelly, and heartbreaking---but New Orleans has a heart that won't die! Read this book if you want to know what Hurricane Katina really did to the city and the people; and what happened afterward...
Pete Rose tells it like it was. Ugly, smelly, and heartbreaking---but New Orleans has a heart that won't die! Read this book if you want to know what Hurricane Katina really did to the city and the people; and what happened afterward...
Jeannie H. (ilovebooksanddogs) -
Loved this book, loved this author. Need I say more? Well...yes and here goes:
Chris is a columnist for a paper in New Orleans and writes from his heart about what has happened to his beloved city New Orleans. Who among us can say "New Orleans" and not have a thrill race up our spine? even IF we've never been there, we've always wanted to go there. There is an aura in the South that cannot be replicated anywhere else, the air not only smells different but it feels different. New Orleans is a city full of history, our history and it seems to have been forgotten. Those who call New Orleans home are fighting an uphill battle to restore what they had and loved.
I'd always planned to visit there, to experience Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, I've dreamed of walking along the Old Miss, seeing the oak trees hung with Spanish Moss, this was the stuff of dreams for me who grew up reading the novels of southern writers. Now, knowing it's not the same New Orleans,and never will be again makes me very sad. I not only feel but I know I've lost out on a special place in our world. Imagine how those who call this area home feel. That is what this book will give you, the pain, the horror, the sorrow, the denial, the acceptance and the strength that those who remain have within them. Chris writes of all this and allows us into this special place called "New Orleans".
This book isn't as much about a hurricane, one of the worst in the history of the U.S. as it is about mankind and how they re-act and adapt to changes in their lives. I highly recommend reading this one. This book and Chris himself touched my heart.
Chris is a columnist for a paper in New Orleans and writes from his heart about what has happened to his beloved city New Orleans. Who among us can say "New Orleans" and not have a thrill race up our spine? even IF we've never been there, we've always wanted to go there. There is an aura in the South that cannot be replicated anywhere else, the air not only smells different but it feels different. New Orleans is a city full of history, our history and it seems to have been forgotten. Those who call New Orleans home are fighting an uphill battle to restore what they had and loved.
I'd always planned to visit there, to experience Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, I've dreamed of walking along the Old Miss, seeing the oak trees hung with Spanish Moss, this was the stuff of dreams for me who grew up reading the novels of southern writers. Now, knowing it's not the same New Orleans,and never will be again makes me very sad. I not only feel but I know I've lost out on a special place in our world. Imagine how those who call this area home feel. That is what this book will give you, the pain, the horror, the sorrow, the denial, the acceptance and the strength that those who remain have within them. Chris writes of all this and allows us into this special place called "New Orleans".
This book isn't as much about a hurricane, one of the worst in the history of the U.S. as it is about mankind and how they re-act and adapt to changes in their lives. I highly recommend reading this one. This book and Chris himself touched my heart.
I loved this look at New Orleans during and after Katrina. A very personal look.
Boring and too much about stuff that had nothing to do with the hurricane. It was more about before the storm, even though its titled AFTER....Not a good read.
