Review: Letters from New Orleans by Rob Walker
If you’re thinking of writing a travel zine or one discussing the lofty idea of “space”, first read Letters from New Orleans (Garrett County Press) and ask if you can do it as eloquently as Rob Walker.

Walker, writer of the excellent “Consumed” column in the New York Times Magazine, lived in New Orleans with his girlfriend (here only identified as “E”) from just before the beginning of 2000 until late 2003. The best justification they give for leaving good jobs in New York City and moving south was “… to make a long story short, we just like it here more right now.” That’s the most honest reason I’ve ever read for deciding to pull up stakes and move – not for a job, not for a relationship, not for familial obligations – but just because. Letters began in a very zine-like form, as occasional e-mail dispatches to friends. Eventually, some of the pieces appeared in Slate and other online and print magazines.

Letters from New Orleans is not a book for tourists looking for the clichéd cheap thrills of the city. Although Walker writes about extraordinary New Orleans (e.g. Carnival and Mardi Gras seasons), it is the ordinary, everyday New Orleans that turns out to be spectacular.

For example, Walker explores under the I-10 highway on North Claiborne Avenue, an area that used to be a nice sunny, landscaped respite in one of New Orleans’ bleaker areas. It’s now a sunless, glass strewn, concrete expanse, but people still use it as a public area for sitting, picnicking, and even art. The concrete support columns for the highway have been painted with murals; one column is covered with layers of obituaries clipped from the local papers.

Walker and E try out the traditional four-or-five hour alcohol-laden Friday luncheons at Galatoire’s, and attend services at the St. Paul Spiritual Church of God in Christ to hear the gospel choir. He mourns the demise of Yvonne’s, a corner bar in his neighborhood that he wasn’t even sure was in business until he pushed on the door one day. He wasn’t a regular patron, but still hated to see become a hipster bar: “It’s a small story, I know. Just another little outbreak of gentrification, the kind of thing people like me spend half our time complaining about and the other half causing.” There’s also an in-depth story about the long, slow disintegration of the Desire public housing complex, the failed promises of the Housing Authority of New Orleans, and the few stalwart residents who refuse to leave. One of the most interesting Letters is only tangentially tied to New Orleans – a history and analysis of the song “St. James Infirmary.”

Letters is not ironic, hipster writing. It’s not “oh, aren’t we cool, being such urban pioneers, living in a semi-downscale, semi-dangerous area in New Orleans.” Walker is observational, descriptive and questioning. He tries to address issues of race, since New Orleans is still a very segregated city, as demonstrated at the fancy society balls during Carnival, attended exclusively by white residents of the city, the self-proclaimed royalty:

“The basic transaction seems to be that these aristocrats give us all the gift of Carnival, and in return they get to play dress-up, and belong to exclusive clubs. Their goal is not to recognize and welcome new members into their society; their goal is to protect what they have. In the guise of upholding the past, they live in the past. This is the classic logic of aristocracy.”

I’ve read very few essays, articles, books – almost anything – that really captures a city, a town, or a “place” so vividly as does Letters from New Orleans. Few writers can transfer the essence of a place on paper well. (George Orwell was a master of it; currently Sarah Vowell is pretty good at it, as is Chuck Klosterman.) The book’s designers also deserve credit – the smaller size (5.5 x 7), clean layout, and use of small photographs to accent the text create a very pleasing package. (The fonts even deserve mention, both for the body copy as well as the running heads.)

Letters from New Orleans is for anyone who wants to experience “somewhere else” from the view of a transplanted, temporary local. It brings into focus a New Orleans that is rarely seen, and, unfortunately, will probably never be seen again due to the massive destruction caused by Hurricane Katarina. Perhaps it will inspire other writers to focus on their surroundings when visiting (or relocating to) a place, as opposed to only their own personal troubles and experiences.

Letters from New Orleans by Rob Walker (Garrett County Press)
- posted by Synd-e @ 10:29 PM