The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story

I admit it, this book made me green with envy. Like the author and many others, I've always been drawn to New Orleans and have dreamed of living there for years. At the same time this book will make you blue at the damage done by hurricane Katrina to this lovely, complicated city and sadly, blue over the future of our beloved New Orleans. The author definiely entertains with her story of how she ended up in New Orleans. I loved reading about so many familiar places and characters and also could relate to her home remodeling nightmare. What is humorous in hindsight, can be awful to experience, and remodeling in New Orleans is doubly difficult. Kudos to her loyalty to the city, her spirit and her hope for a better future. I hope we read more from this author.

The book and story in themselves are completely entertaining and
informative. The reader realizes a much better understanding of some
of the events and aftermath of Katrina. Also the life and times of
Ms. Reed are there for all to enjoy. I read the review in the Ny Times,
purchased it from Amazon.com, and couldn't put it down.

I have visited New Orleans a number of times, both before and after Katrina, which certainly helped me to appreciate and understand a little of Julia Reed's references and locations within the city. Without this, I believe a reader would be pretty lost. Even with my knowledge, I found myself getting confused a few times, not about the locations, but because of her tendency to jump from one subject to some rather detailed thought or personal memory that had a vague connection in her mind. This, along with her constant, detailed recollections of dining and boozing, eventually became rather tedious and annoying to me by the end of the book. Those were the bad points, which did not entirely ruin my experience in reading her book. They just made it more difficult to enjoy.

But I did enjoy it, for the most part, though it was not a book that I couldn't put down. I read it over a number of days which I believe helped me to absorb it a bit better. As I pointed out, there was a lot of jumping between one time span to another, from her days as a youth, throughout the earlier days in her career (which led her to choose to settle in New Orleans), and then many different references to her friends and acquaintances, and her personal experiences, usually including the details of their dining and drinking, associated with those relationships. I felt it was a bit fragmented.

Although much of her lifestyle would be considered very uncommon to most, I still found it an interesting read. She had and has a privileged existence and her viewpoint is not that of ninety percent of the population. Her experiences during the return and rebuilding after Katrina were pretty elitist and rare. I can't think that those that had lost everything would be rejoicing about a few bottles of wine or a restaurant reopening, but I'm sure these seemingly shallow actions do not completely reflect her day to day experiences. It was interesting to read about an "insiders" experience, even if it was a rich, rather self-absorbed, socialite's one (though she claims not to be). It is what it is.

I will probably reread it and recommend it to those of you familiar to New Orleans that think you may find it interesting.

Being a native of N.O. and having moved away 20+ years ago it was great
to re-connect

I enjoy memoirs. I enjoy history as well as current events. I thought I would love this book. I wanted to love this book. But, it fell short in so many ways.

The beginning was promising-- before the storm. I enjoyed reading about Ms. Reed's trials and tribulations with her ne'er-do-well contractor. Having had my share of ne'er-do-well contractors parade through my own home, I found her descriptions of the experience and fury apt and hilarious.

The tone and scope of the narrative changed as Ms. Reed described the preparations for and aftermath of Katrina. I read, appalled by what I was reading. Appalled by the decimation and disregard for a people and a way of life.

I guess what I am getting at is this: As two separate books, the storyline may have worked better. I would have liked to have read more about all her house renovations and how it came together after the storm. However, that subject never reappeared in a major way. I would have liked to have read more about the storm and the community activism spurring on the clean-up. As I said, this book would have worked better as two separate books; I do not think it was well edited.

I will not be adding this book to my collection as one that I would want to read again or even recommend to others. I may, however, pick up the author's other titles at the library. I enjoyed the narrative but hated the editing and I don't want to risk the money on another potentially disappointing book.