Book Clubbing In New Orleans

My book club just finished reading and discussing A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. One of the interesting aspects of this long rollicking tale of the misadventures of the slothful, voluble, erudite and very fictitious Ignatius J. Reilly -- is the city in which the tale is set: New Orleans. And the question arose, what fiction can we explore where the city New Orleans is in some sense a major character.

Numerous authors have set their tales in this soulful city. To single out just a handful: Kate Chopin’s late 19th century story of a woman’s unorthodox choices The Awakening, Leslie by Omar Tyree, a story of voodoo, drugs and murder, and Faulkner’s early 20th century impressions of the French Quarter, New Orleans Sketches. Moving right into the 21st century, we have French Quarter fiction: the newest stories of America's oldest bohemia; an anthology of the best works by living writers on the heart of New Orleans – stories in all genres: romance, mystery, and more!

A collection of short stories by James Lee Burke evokes the horror Katrina visited on the city: Jesus Out to Sea: Stories. A number of darkly comic crime novels by Poppy Z. Brite are set in the New Orleans restaurant world – take a look at Soul kitchen. And there is even more New Orleans noir in the so-aptly titled New Orleans noir. There are noteworthy crime and mystery series set in New Orleans: Sold Down the River by Barbara Hambly, part of a series featuring Benjamin January, a freed slave in the 19th century. And the mystery series by Shamus award winning author David Fulmer about a Creole private detective Valentin St. Cyr. In Lost River, St. Cyr tries to put things right in Storyville, New Orleans' legendary red-light district.

And don’t forget the vampires! It was in 1976 that the enormously popular Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice first hit the shelves. Made into a movie just a few years later, it is the tip of the iceberg for the vampire craze sweeping our media. Not specifically set in New Orleans, but with a definite Louisiana setting, True Blood is a big HBO hit based on the Charlaine Harris’ vampire tales about Sookie Stackhouse, a Louisiana barmaid with psychic powers and romantic relationships with supernatural folk. Read the first book in the series, Dead until Dark.

- Karen S.