A loose ramble on the history, culture, and legends of the land below New Orleans. Kane portrays a riotous mix of cultures and languages: French, Spanish, African, Portuguese, and even Croatian. He discusses bits of history from the War of 1812 to the 1927 flood and rise of Leander Perez (before he became infamous for other things). He sees things through the lens of class, in keeping with literature and sociology in the 1940s.
There is not as much on race or African culture, and some of what is written would make a 2018 reader pause or even gasp as they clutched their pearls. Such is our time, where many have lost both their sense of historical imagination and an understanding of class. It is the book’s limitation, but in some ways its freedom, since you get to hear about things sometimes ignored today.
To the reader of 2018, its value lies in portraying a world we cannot conceive. It is a world before the lower parishes were defined by oil and erosion, when men walked who had known Beauregard or run liquor from the coast to the cities. Yet, I found Kane’s lazy pacing and story-telling to be a bit dull unless you had an interest in the subject at hand. So the part on abandoned cemeteries and the Civil War drew me in, but not the stuff on riverboat pilots. &Customer review @ goodreads,com
This morning is the first one in the past few days that had a clear sky. Yesterday we were able to do both of our walks but within minutes after finishing the mid day walk there came a shower that would have soaked us. Dodged a bullet for sure.
Not much happening. I have been creating some desktop wallpaper for my new Zorin OS using Gimp. Haven’t used it for some years so it is like starting from the beginning.