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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:The Unnatural History of Cypress Parishby Elise Blackwell
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Louis Proby is an old man now, sitting in his study in New Orleans awaiting
what they say is a huge storm, Hurricane Katrina.
As he watches the skies darken, he remembers his earlier life, as a watchful, curious
young man filled with hunger and desire in Cypress Parish, the life that was
washed away when the Mississippi River flooded in 1927.
He remembers exactly how the Parish was sacrificed to those watersbecause
the city fathers said it was expendable. They said that flooding Louiss home was
necessary to save New Orleans.
He has long known that was never the truth. The Parish could have been spared.
And he has always known the part his father played in that decision. But what
he thinks on now is the dearest cost extracted from him on the day they dynamited
the dikes and let the waters flow. He thinks on his first love, Nanette Lanon. Review:"On the eve of Hurricane Katrina, the now elderly narrator, Louis Proby, remembers the great floods of his small Louisiana town in 1927, recounting an intimate, resonant history of the era of Huey Long and Marcus Garvey. Louis, 17, is the son of Cypress Parish's superintendent, William Proby, who ascended the local logging ranks and regularly has to compromise himself in deals with the hardscrabble laborers and casinos in order to keep order in the town, as Louis painfully witnesses. Louis is a dutiful son, smitten with a pretty girl from a French family, Nanette Lanon, and intent on becoming a doctor, as per his father's plans. Offered the job of driving lumber company official Charles Segrist to and from New Orleans, Louis is granted entre into the grand seedy clubs of the Crescent City and learns a little not just about prostitutes, alcohol and back deals with Isleos bootleggers Olivier Menard and Orlando Funes, but also of plans to blow up a Cypress Parish levee and thus flood the area in order to save New Orleans. Blackwell (Hunger) elegantly chronicles Louis's conflict between protecting his first love and his obligations to his father, though Louis finds he betrays both." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"When Katrina struck Louisiana in 2005, Elise Blackwell was deep into a novel about the flood that struck Louisiana in 1927. 'This still spooks me,' she says, and that uncanny repetition of disaster forced her to revise what she'd written. Though it makes no explicit reference to contemporary politics, her novel inspires plenty of unsettling reflection on the moral failure of leaders who can remove... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Synopsis:As the waters of the Mississippi rise in 1927, the moneyed powers of Louisiana must decide which Parish to flood in order to save New Orleans. About the AuthorElise Blackwell is the author of a prior novel, Hunger. Originally from southern Louisiana, she holds an MFA from the University of California-Irvine and is currently on the English faculty at The University of South Carolina. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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