Customer Reviews

The Gar Diaries

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Louis Bourgeois' The Gar Diaries, is a refreshing break from the modern memoir's obsessive navel gazing. Bourgeois didn't have that luxury; he was otherwise occupied -- listening to imaginary friends tell him to eat cockroaches until he vomits, bludgeoning his neighborhood friend with a hammer, listening to his father threaten to kill him (and later watching the man get stoned in the Louisiana marsh), searching for truth amid draconian nuns and old black men with mustard colored eyes and, ultimately, coming to terms with a harrowing mishap that left the author disfigured.

And Bourgeois' violent childhood is just the beginning. There is no fluff here. Bourgeois is a poet. He knows writing. That, coupled with the turmoil of his early life, makes for a lethal combination.

Here, I need to say that I know Louis Bourgeois. But I never much cared to get to know him. We are different. I believed him to be aloof and arrogant, like a French artist who kept his left hand neatly tucked inside his blazer pockets while waving a cigarette with his right. Holding forth about the sorry state of our people, our writers, our culture.

But as I read The Gar Diaries, as I flinched at each brutal, wrenching scene, I better understood the man writing the book. I identified with the armor he built. I empathized with his love of the quirky geography. I came to see why he had an unusual worldview. And I finally understood why I never saw a cigarette in his left hand.

In the end, I felt like I might want to get to know him better. With memoir, I couldn't ask for much more.


Neil White
Writer & Playwright
Oxford, Mississippi

I was drawn to read this book because Louis is my never-met cousin and I wanted to read memories of his that would remind me of time I spent in the South, including Slidell, when I was a child. I was not disappointed! My favorite chapter is any one with fishing references, but mainly the one with my Aunt Claire, his grandmother. I really enjoyed the style, so direct, and the short chapters whole unto themselves. Whether any of it is truth or fiction-as other reviewers have intimated-I do not know. It is not my memory. My own memories of the South are happier-but that was my memory. I felt my lack of experience with the many philosophical references, so I am engaged to work on that.
Should not good reading do that-either make you enriched or cause you to seek more? Yes, there are dark areas, not a book for pollyannas!

I've never been to Bourgeois' Louisiana, but after reading this riveting and haunting memoir I feel as if I know this land, these people, as I know myself. Even if you have no regional ties to LA, or the South, the poetry of this work will enthrall you. Hands down, this is one of the most beautiful works of prose I've read in a very long time.

I've always wanted to read somebody's diary--the real thing, a diary not meant to be read. Everything is censored, especially books written by authors about themselves. The temptation to make oneself look good, the temptation to try to argue for understanding is too great for most writers. They can not shine on their lives a true light. So, as for this book, "The Gar Diaries" finally, I felt, I got the chance to see what happens behind closed doors. I got to see through walls. It satisfied the voyeur in me, the one who wants to see and know everything. And the world this writer writes of is worth knowing.

"Poetic and pungent in detail" reads the first line of a review by Kathy Rhodes, Of the "Muscadine Lines." I can not think of a better way of discribing Louis E. Bourgeois writing! This is the third book of his I have read. I am continually drawn back into the darkness that is the author's perspective of life and his upbringing in the marshes, swamps, and bayous of Southern Louisiana. Poetic! With a darkness that is truly pungent, and peculiar, but always there. I am intrigued by each small chapter, stopping myself from rushing through them. They are to be read carefully and examined as you would a strange and unusual, perhaps misshaped find... And it is! The author is still a work in progress... But what progress! This book is a true gem! Digest it slowly!

You ought to be ashamed of yourself for writing such lies about people that considered you to be their childhood friend. Let me clarify one lie in the book that has me really upset. Richie Schaefer did not recieve a dishonorable discharge from the Army-in fact he recieved honors from the Army, was a platoon leader, contimplated making a career out of the military and ultimately recieved a HONORABLE discharge and is a very successful, loyal, and honest person. It is such a shame that you have to make up lies about other people for your monitary gain. We live in a small town with alot of upset people-shame on you.

I give this book a very negative review. In this book the author, Louis Bourgeios, used a fake name for himself but a true name in one of his stories titled "Dwight Maxwell." The story about Dwight is nothing but lies and the author did go to school with Dwight and he knows better. The author admits that his couple of years at Sixth Ward Jr. High were tormenting, probably because he was as sick minded then as he is now. Mr. Bourgeois stories depict nothing but anger, killing, death and hatred for god. Reading the stories in this book was astonishing. Not only does he use slander in the specific story "Dwight Maxwell" he also protrays his hatred for god throughout. Mr. Bourgeois has a very nice family and not as he leads everyone to believe. His slander has caused a lot of hurt to a small community.