Customer Reviews

Mystic Pig : A Novel of New Orleans

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

 

 

My first visit to NOLA. Stopped at Faulkner House, a bookstore in the French Quarter and asked for a fiction book that takes place in NOLA. I bought Mystic Pig on their recommendation and I am delighted.
The story is told by two narratives, a 40-something FQ restauranteur and a 12-year-old boy who is very bright. The two narratives happen at the same time but only cross paths at two points. Yet both narrators are on paths of self-discovery, deeply affected by the death of a poet, known to each, who becomes the catalyst for both.
Along the way, the city and some of its recipes moves the tale forward. The cooking was a delight. The descriptions of how NOLA works knitted together the atmosphere of NOLA that I experienced when I was there.
This is a special read that you won't want to put down 'til the end, wish that it would go on, and will want to take with you on your next visit to NOLA... ENJOY!

This is one of the best novels I've read in quite a long time. I could go on here for paragraphs and still not convey why. In short, though, the writing itself is stark, simple masculine poetry. The characters, to a one, are richly yet economically defined. More compelling to me, though, are two particularly elements. First, the thread of secret lives that runs through the book, which is covered in several ways (some spectacularly inventive). The compartmentalized life of the lead character (Nat) speaks to me as a reader. The other element that particularly stands out is an email dialog between two characters which rings truer that any electronic dialog I've seen in fiction anywhere. As one who's conducted life on line for nearly two decades, this alone won me completely over. Yet there's so much more in this fairly short novel. It was so rich that I had to consume it in small bites, lest it end too quickly. As a reader, and a writer, I urge you, go buy this book. And Mister Katrovas, I user *you*, please, continue writing.

I was initially enthralled with Katrovas' style of writing and before I knew it, I was enthralled with the story itself. As Nat's secret life unfolded painfully and deliciously bit-by-bit, I was lost to the prose and to the story and to the city and to the recipes. As the story progressed, it became a page turner, a pathetic and beautiful mystery that I had to see to fruition before I slept. Finish I did and fell asleep thinking of the many different levels on which this book worked on me. And shortly thereafter, I was dreaming of gushes of water and huge crawfish coming out of my vaccuum cleaner hose and I know there is a connection but I don't know what. I will discover what next time I read "the Mystic Pig", for I shall reread it. There is more to discover in this book than can be discovered in one reading, I think. Mr. Katrovas, as far as I am concerned, you are a welcome new voice to fiction.

There are a lot of good and great reads out there but there a few that stop you in your tracks. This is a book that makes you reevaluate, and then reaffirm, your belief in people, friendship and love. New Orleans may be the location but the novel takes place in your heart. And although it's a story that deals with death and its immediate and long-term ramifications, it has a delightful vein of noir humour running through it. It's thought-provoking, immediately engaging and quietly affirmative in bridging the self-destructive barriers we create for ourselves. Really it's about acceptance, humanity and above all, passion. Written lyrically and simply in Katrovas's masculinely-poetic style that clarifies emotions and embeds empathy simply and cleanly, this is a city-break that you won't want to end.