The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story

... so how could her book be anything but 5 stars??? ;) Julia was one of the few saving graces in Anderson Cooper's countless negative reports on Nola post-Katrina.

Ms. Reed tells an interesting and very personal story about life before, during, and after Katrina, and I loved it. She's an entertaining storyteller, and has a lot of inside info on the New Orleans political and social scene -- plus, she's an obsessive foodie with good taste and an even hand. She lives large, but can also say to herself, "Get over it; it's just a rug."). I enjoyed reading about her parents and can appreciate her mother's (rhetorical) question, as the floodwaters were rising, about whether or not 11 a.m. was too early to start pouring wine.
This memoir is at times hilarious, and at times heart-breaking, which makes for a great read. Ultimately, it is about the most important things in life: family, friends, and food, and their presence (real or in spirit) through good times and bad.

As a former resident of New Orleans I was intrigued by this book. While living there, my husband and I renovated a house damaged by a previous hurricane, so I could identify with many of the problems Julia Reed faced. I think we would have had to abandon ship after as many setbacks as she had. However, she seems to have had a much bigger bankroll than we had. She is witty, smart, and certainly tenacious. Her references to local restaurants and people were particularly enjoyable because most of them were so familiar to me. I'm not sure how much they would mean to one who had never lived there.

This is an entertaining book that includes a lot about one of my favorite cities. In some ways, it's even interesting to see Hurricane Katrina from a different perspective since most of what we've seen is from the point of view of the unfortunate citizens of New Orleans. However, there are lines you just don't cross when writing about a disaster that caused so much suffering. While Ms Reed gives us an informative peek of the city before and after the hurricane, much of that is overshadowed by her outrageous degree of pomposity. I believe the average reader would have understood that she is one of the privileged few without her self-serving passages about herself, her mother & father, her husband and so forth. We get it, Julia; you are a liberal and you think you do a lot for those not in your class. We appreciate that; but true philanthropists rarely brag about their efforts.

I have enjoyed Julia Reed's writing in Vogue magazine for years--yes, some people do buy it for the articles-- and was curious to see if this book was up to snuff. Indeed, it is. Reed paints wonderful, poignant pictures of the life she built for herself in New Orleans, and makes the best case I've seen for why we need to rebuild after Katrina. This book is to New Orleans what Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is to Savannah squared, because New Orleans needs all the help she can get right now!