Synopses & Reviews
1 Dead in Attic is a collection of stories by
Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, recounting the first harrowing year and a half of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Celebrated as a local treasure and heaped with national praise, Rose provides a rollercoaster ride of observation, commentary, emotion, tragedy, and even humor in a way that only he could find in a devastated wasteland.
They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair. And stories about refrigerators.
Dead in Attic freeze-frames New Orleans, caught between an old era and a new, during its most desperate time, as it struggles out of the floodwaters and wills itself back to life.
Review
"The Crescent City's bard." Harry Shearer, Huffington Post
Review
"The most engaging of the Katrina books...packed with more heart, honesty, and wit....Rose was more interested in telling the searing stories of his shattered city than assigning the blame for its demise." The New Republic
Review
"These are impressionistic cries of pain and mordant humor...they so aptly mirrored the sense of surreal dislocation experienced by New Orleanians that they turned Rose into a voice of the tortured city." The Washington Post Book World
Review
"Read together as a book, the litany of torment and tragedy is numbing." Dallas-Ft. Worth Star Telegram
Review
"As primary source material, this is top-drawer stuff." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Reading 1 Dead in Attic is like walking hand in hand with Rose through his stages of grief: crying, raging, questioning, and eventually smiling as he describes the unbreakable soul of the Big Easy." Christian Science Monitor
Synopsis
Originally a self-published sensation by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, 1 Dead in Attic captures the heart and soul of New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Synopsis
1 Dead in Attic is a collection of stories by
Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, recounting the first harrowing year and a half of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Celebrated as a local treasure and heaped with national praise, Rose provides a rollercoaster ride of observation, commentary, emotion, tragedy, and even humor—in a way that only he could find in a devastated wasteland.
They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair. And stories about refrigerators.
1 Dead in Attic freeze-frames New Orleans, caught between an old era and a new, during its most desperate time, as it struggles out of the floodwaters and wills itself back to life.
About the Author
Chris Rose is a columnist for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, an essayist for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and a frequent commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition. In 2006, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary in recognition of his Katrina columns and was awarded a share in the Times-Picayune staff's Pulitzer for Public Service. Rose lives in New Orleans with his three children.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction
Who We Are
Early Days
Facing the Unknown
The First Time Back
Survivors
Life in the Surreal City
Hope
Rita Takes Aim
The Empty City
God and Strippers
The More Things Change
Enough to Feed an Army
Tough Times in the Blue Tarp Town
Blue Roof Blues
The Smell
The Elephant Men
Mad City
1 Dead in Attic
Despair
The Ties That Bind
My Introduction to New Orleans
The Funky Butt
The Hurricane Kids
Traveling Man
Have Barbie, Will Travel
Prep Boys and Jesuits
Good-bye
Groundhog Day
Coming Home
Life in the Refrigerator City
Civil Unrest
Refrigerator Town
Lurching Toward Babylon
The Cat Lady
Caving In
The Magnet Man
The Last Ride
Lights in the City
Let the Good Times Roll
Our Katrina Christmas
Tears, Fears, and a New Year
Misadventures in the Chocolate City
Chocolate City
Tutti-Frutti
He Had a Dream
He's Picking the Pairs for Nola's Ark
Rider on the Storm
Car 54, Where Are You?
Not in My Pothole
Survive This
Love Among the Ruins
September Never Ends
The Muddy Middle Ground
Misery in the Melting Pot
The End of the World
A Huck Finn Kind of Life
Our Very Scary Summer
Songs in the Key of Strife
The End of the Line
We Raze, and Raise, and Keep Pushing Forward
Echoes of Katrina in the Country
The Purple Upside-Down Car
Second Line, Same Verse
Don't Mess with Mrs. Rose
Shooting the Rock
The City That Hair Forgot
A Rapturous Day in the Real World
Big Daddy No Fun
Peace Among the Ruins
Artful Practicality
"She Rescued My Heart"
Miss Ellen Deserved Better
Things Worth Fighting For
Rebirth at the Maple Leaf
Melancholy Reveler
They Don't Get Mardi Gras, and They Never Will
Reality Fest
Love Fest
O Brothers, Where Be Y'all?
Funeral for a Friend
Thanks, We Needed That
Say What's So, Joe
A Night to Remember
Eternal Dome Nation
Falling Down
On the Inside Looking Out
A City on Hold
A Tough Nut to Crack
Hell and Back
Letters from the Edge
Where We Go From Here
Children of the Storm, It's Time to Represent
Thank You, Whoever You Are
A New Dawn
Acknowledgments