The Cajun coast of Louisiana is home to a way of life as unique, complex, and beautiful as the terrain itself. As award-winning travel writer Mike Tidwell journeys through the bayou, he introduces us to the food and the language, the shrimp fisherman, the Houma Indians, and the rich cultural history that makes it unlike any other place in the world. But seeing the skeletons of oak trees killed by the salinity of the groundwater, and whole cemeteries sinking into swampland and out of sight, Tidwell also explains why each introduction may be a farewell—as the storied Louisiana coast steadily erodes into the Gulf of Mexico.
Part travelogue, part environmental exposé, Bayou Farewell is the richly evocative chronicle of the author's travels through a world that is vanishing before our eyes.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This lyrically intense travelogue will provide historians of the not too distant future with a guide to a vanishing landscape and a lost culture. Tidwell (Mountains of Heaven) graphically recounts catching rides on shrimp boats and crab boats through the dark water swamps of southern Louisiana into the heart of Cajun country. Here, among the great blue heron, spoonbill, gar and gator, the reader meets bayou folk-from the honest and generous fishermen, who provide the author with room, board and transport for his work as a deck hand, to the disheveled backwoods healer who intrigues and tantalizes the writer with his shamanistic spells and incantations. It is these portraits of people on the edge of survival, living in a world where the land is sinking into the sea at a rate of 25 acres a day, that truly engage the reader. A variety of ecological factors have contributed to the subsidence of the Mississippi Delta. With good intentions to stop deadly floods, the Army Corps of Engineers constructed a vast network of levees and dams along the river, preventing the annual devastating floods of the past. Unfortunately, this also ended the yearly buildup of silt, necessary for the reinforcement and continued existence of the fragile marshlands in the low country. The nutrient-rich, but light, sandy soil cannot withstand the ceaseless eroding forces of ocean tide and winds. The author's descriptive powers, especially of people, provide the reader with enduring snapshots of a water-bound way of life that is sinking into history.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
An award-winning writer on travel and the environment regrets the devastation of Louisiana's Cajun coast.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A very well read friend of mine in recommending this book said it is not only a wonderful book about Louisiana and its people, but maybe the best book he has ever read period. On such a recommendation I immediately ordered a copy.
And now I see why my friend loved the book. what's not to like.
The author highlights the serious coastal erosion problem we have in Louisiana by getting invovled with a lot of the people affected by the pending disaster. He visits them in their homes and rides with them on their oyster and shripmp boats.
One gets a real insight into the Cajun culture.
After reading the book I realized that I hadn't been down in the bayous for awhile. So, I made a point to get down there and reexperience the unique place that it is. Bayou Farewell is that kind of a book.
One thing, though, if you have been consdiering changing carreers to become a crabber, you might oughta read this book first. Crabbing is a rough way to go.
And now I see why my friend loved the book. what's not to like.
The author highlights the serious coastal erosion problem we have in Louisiana by getting invovled with a lot of the people affected by the pending disaster. He visits them in their homes and rides with them on their oyster and shripmp boats.
One gets a real insight into the Cajun culture.
After reading the book I realized that I hadn't been down in the bayous for awhile. So, I made a point to get down there and reexperience the unique place that it is. Bayou Farewell is that kind of a book.
One thing, though, if you have been consdiering changing carreers to become a crabber, you might oughta read this book first. Crabbing is a rough way to go.
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A beautiful and sad book about the disappearance of Louisiana's bayou country, and with it, the way of life of the people who live there, the Cajun, Houma and Vietnamese fishermen and shrimpers who provide us with an amazin 30% of America's annual seafood harvest. Thanks to levees on the Mississippi, oil company canals, and other interference with nature, coastal Louisiana is losing land the size of Manhattan every year. The land is sinking, the barrier islands disappearing, and with them go protection against hurricanes, resting places for migratory birds, and a seafood-rich ecosystem.
That it is possible to halt the destruction of this habitat is known. The Atchafalaya River, Louisiana's second largest, still pours silt from its mouth to form new land, and small diversion projects are helping. But more and major diversions of the Mississippi, to allow it once again to build up the coast instead of dumping its silt over the continental shelf, must happen and happen quickly before it is too late.
Before, in the words of one shrimper, "Dere won't be no more nothin' left anymore, forever".
That it is possible to halt the destruction of this habitat is known. The Atchafalaya River, Louisiana's second largest, still pours silt from its mouth to form new land, and small diversion projects are helping. But more and major diversions of the Mississippi, to allow it once again to build up the coast instead of dumping its silt over the continental shelf, must happen and happen quickly before it is too late.
Before, in the words of one shrimper, "Dere won't be no more nothin' left anymore, forever".
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mike Tidwell - the celebrated author of In the Mountains of Heaven, Amazon Stranger, and The Ponds of Kalambayi - has written a compelling book on the Cajun coast of Louisiana, that, in light of Hurricane Katrina, could not be more timely. Unbeknownst to Tidwell when he began this expose, the coast was already eroding and joining the Gulf of Mexico, making it the fastest disappearing landmass on Earth.
Tidwell's travelogue introduces us to the eclectic group of people who populate the area: the Cajun men and women who work the seasonal shrimp harvest, the Vietnamese fishermen, and the Houma Indians who were driven to the farthest ends of the bayou by the first European settlers. He describes the food, the music, the culture, and the lifestyle of those who call the bayou home.
The book was intended as a reminder of how much we stood to lose if we failed to address the environmental problems facing this unique region. Due to Katrina, it may now serve as a recollection of what we have now lost.
Tidwell's travelogue introduces us to the eclectic group of people who populate the area: the Cajun men and women who work the seasonal shrimp harvest, the Vietnamese fishermen, and the Houma Indians who were driven to the farthest ends of the bayou by the first European settlers. He describes the food, the music, the culture, and the lifestyle of those who call the bayou home.
The book was intended as a reminder of how much we stood to lose if we failed to address the environmental problems facing this unique region. Due to Katrina, it may now serve as a recollection of what we have now lost.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
i learned alot
this is a book packed with information on a topic i was unfamiliar. it was written pre-katrina, and basically predicts the fallout of that hurricane. Read more
Published 22 days ago by crow
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read
I grew up in Louisiana and I must say that Tidwill captures the soul of this region. Even though this book was written before Katrina, it is even more relevant today. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Brigitte
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Warm and Poignant Telling of Wetlands Awareness, Conservation and...
As a Photojournalist I've traveled to the Louisiana wetlands every year now for five years. This year I visited the wetlands three times and most recently with The Restore the... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Joel K. Lucks
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sad story of a beautiful, dying culture
This is a beautiful tribute to the bayou land culture of south Louisiana. I grew up in Thibodaux. Bayou Lafourche runs through Thibodaux. Read more
Published 8 months ago by HeidioftheRockies
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bayou Farewell
Wonderful well written book with stories and personal experiences with each ethnic group in the bayou. It was exciting to feel one on one of the fishing boats. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Sister T. Considine
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Tragic Death of Louisiana
Tildwell takes a unique approach to the subject of coastal erosion of Louisiana. An "outsider", he travels to the coast and embeds himself in the local fishing communities. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mark Folse
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wake up call
This book is so important that I have read it twice and will probably read it again. We need to wake up to what we are doing to our coast line especially along the La. Read more
Published 19 months ago by M. Ellis
5.0 out of 5 stars
A small masterpiece
Tidwell's engrossing little volume captures the history and spirit of the "baya" country pre-Katrina. Read more
Published 24 months ago by R. L. Huff
5.0 out of 5 stars
College Bound
I really liked this read. Quick and yet informative. I recommended it to others. I had not understood the background of Katrina and the Mississippi until this book.
Published on March 10, 2011 by Tonya Ray
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent overview of the land loss issue of South Louisiana
I was born and raised in Thibodaux, Louisiana which is just up Bayou Lafourche from many of the author's travels. I found his book spell binding and also very informative. Read more
Published on September 13, 2010 by Monique Callagy
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