Leni Zumas's writing crackles. Her books are sharp, bleak, funny, and possibly dangerous. When her collection of short stories, Farewell Navigator,...
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Dan Baum follows the lives of nine disparate New Orleanians -- from a bedraggled ex-convict to a high society white lawyer -- over four decades and bracketed by two spectacular hurricanes to demonstrate how life was fundamentally changed, if not completely destroyed, by Hurricane Katrina. While many books have covered the storm and its effects on the Big Easy, none have focused as sharply on the individuals injured, killed and left homeless by the hurricane that leveled the Gulf Coast -- and how they rose again, no matter how hopeless it may have seemed, to resurrect the only city they could ever call home.
I'm nominating this book as the best of the decade, not just because I won a Daily Dose prize for my comments in February 2009, but for the strength it gave me when I needed it so badly. My longtime boyfriend died two months after I wrote this review, and while I knew it was coming - he'd been terminally ill for a couple of years -- reaching back for the ultimate lesson of this book, "the unmistakable stamp of love in its many and varied forms," helped me survive a very difficult time. I know Nick Harkaway didn't write this book with me in mind, but the Haulage & HazMat Emergency Freebooting Company -- not to mention the mimes and ninjas -- sustained me through some very dark days and helped me emerge from my own personal fire along the Jorgmund Pipe. Thank you, Gonzo, and thank you, Nick, for restoring my Livable Zone.
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In a world where the horror of nuclear war has been superseded by a bomb that literally makes the physical world disappear, Gonzo Lubitsch and his nameless best friend head up the Haulage & HazMat Emergency Freebooting Company, a ragged band of troubleshooters who quell problems in the aftermath of the Gone Away War. Through their lives pass ninjas, mimes, pirates, parents and specters surpassing the most active imagination, leading to revelations that shock the reader and stun the soul -- but permeating all is the unmistakable stamp of love in its many and varied forms. The Gone-Away World is a literary masterpiece, and Nick Harkaway is a genius practitioner.
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Jane Ballard has commented on (3) products.
Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleans by Dan Baum
Jane Ballard, March 9, 2010
Dan Baum follows the lives of nine disparate New Orleanians -- from a bedraggled ex-convict to a high society white lawyer -- over four decades and bracketed by two spectacular hurricanes to demonstrate how life was fundamentally changed, if not completely destroyed, by Hurricane Katrina. While many books have covered the storm and its effects on the Big Easy, none have focused as sharply on the individuals injured, killed and left homeless by the hurricane that leveled the Gulf Coast -- and how they rose again, no matter how hopeless it may have seemed, to resurrect the only city they could ever call home.The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
Jane Ballard, January 1, 2010
I'm nominating this book as the best of the decade, not just because I won a Daily Dose prize for my comments in February 2009, but for the strength it gave me when I needed it so badly. My longtime boyfriend died two months after I wrote this review, and while I knew it was coming - he'd been terminally ill for a couple of years -- reaching back for the ultimate lesson of this book, "the unmistakable stamp of love in its many and varied forms," helped me survive a very difficult time. I know Nick Harkaway didn't write this book with me in mind, but the Haulage & HazMat Emergency Freebooting Company -- not to mention the mimes and ninjas -- sustained me through some very dark days and helped me emerge from my own personal fire along the Jorgmund Pipe. Thank you, Gonzo, and thank you, Nick, for restoring my Livable Zone.(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
Jane Ballard, February 17, 2009
In a world where the horror of nuclear war has been superseded by a bomb that literally makes the physical world disappear, Gonzo Lubitsch and his nameless best friend head up the Haulage & HazMat Emergency Freebooting Company, a ragged band of troubleshooters who quell problems in the aftermath of the Gone Away War. Through their lives pass ninjas, mimes, pirates, parents and specters surpassing the most active imagination, leading to revelations that shock the reader and stun the soul -- but permeating all is the unmistakable stamp of love in its many and varied forms. The Gone-Away World is a literary masterpiece, and Nick Harkaway is a genius practitioner.(8 of 11 readers found this comment helpful)