Moving back and forth in time from the 1930s to the 1960s to the present, this luminous first novel uncovers the heartbreaking legacy of the Eagen family of New Orleans, Irish Catholics of "mixed blood" in a city where race defines fate. A haunting novel of family loyalty and relations between the races.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This well-crafted first novel about a New Orleans family offers cogent observations about race relations.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This promising first novel, which has already garnered attention in literary circles, moves from the 1930s to the 1960s as it tells the story of a "mixed blood" family in race-conscious New Orleans.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best books I've read,
By A Customer
This review is from: Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery (Paperback)
I completely disagree with the Kirkus review.It would be nice if all books that were coming out today were as beautifully written, as innovative and as heartwarming--eventually--as this one. Oftentimes, you get a book that's been given outstanding reviews and it isn't worth a damn. This is quiet and new and seems to renew itself from one page to the next, getting better and better. It only took me a few days to finish this but I would like to read it again and again, because I have a feeling there are so many things I didn't get the first time around. This is one of the best books I've ever read---I find it hard to believe that anyone can even write--think, even--like this.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT book!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery (Paperback)
Being an avid fan of books placed in New Orleans, I picked up this book and was very pleasantly surprised! That a man can write a book so well from a woman's perspective is amazing to me. I thought the characters were very well written and the interplay of the races in the South was excellent.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful read,
By A Customer
This review is from: Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery (Paperback)
I also don't agree with the Kirkus review, I am enjoying this book enormously. The author does a great job of giving the different narrators of the story unique voices. He also has rare insight into the heart of a woman. I am looking forward to other books by this author.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
THE DAY WE LEFT my stepmother, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway collapsed, and the new life my father had imagined, spiriting his children back to his childhood home, fell away from us as quickly as that bridge, the whole world thrown off-balance like a gyroscope hammered into the wrong shape, the lake coughing up our family's secrets in the form of an old bent-backed black servant. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
nigger cemetery, blue station wagon Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Miss Catherine, Miss Meredith, New Orleans, Magazine Street, Mollie Moore, Saint Francis, Lowell Henry Eagen, North Carolina, Thomas Eagen, Murphy Warrington, Sharp Street, Jesus Christ, Miss Mollie, Hotel Dieu, Lake Pontchartrain, Belle Chase, Camp Street, Elizabeth Ann, Miss Barbara, Virgin Mary New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
THE DAY WE LEFT my stepmother, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway collapsed, and the new life my father had imagined, spiriting his children back to his childhood home, fell away from us as quickly as that bridge, the whole world thrown off-balance like a gyroscope hammered into the wrong shape, the lake coughing up our family's secrets in the form of an old bent-backed black servant. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
nigger cemetery, blue station wagon Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Miss Catherine, Miss Meredith, New Orleans, Magazine Street, Mollie Moore, Saint Francis, Lowell Henry Eagen, North Carolina, Thomas Eagen, Murphy Warrington, Sharp Street, Jesus Christ, Miss Mollie, Hotel Dieu, Lake Pontchartrain, Belle Chase, Camp Street, Elizabeth Ann, Miss Barbara, Virgin Mary New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 3
books:
17
books
cite this book:
See all 17 books citing this book
- The Wrecked, Blessed Body of Shelton Lafleur by John Gregory Brown in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Christopher Columbus (Big Book) by Janie Spaht Gill on page 75
- King Lear (The New Folger Library Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare on page 64
- The Booklover's Guide to New Orleans by Susan Larson on page 37, page 57, and page 119
- The Booklover's Guide to New Orleans by Susan Larson on page 37, page 57, and page 119
- Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments by Michael Dirda on page 210
- Frommer's New Orleans 2002 (Frommer's Complete Guides) by Mary Herczog in Back Matter
- in Back Matter
See all 17 books citing this book
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