Customer Reviews

Voodoo in New Orleans

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Any book you see on Voodoo today, is either talking about Santeria or Haitian Voodou. Even the "New Orleans Voodoo Tarot" is mostly Voodoo from OUTSIDE of New Orleans. Here you will find the most mature research on Marie Laveau, which is worth the modest price of this book, alone. But you also get history that you will not find anywhere else. Tales of an entire lineage of conjure men and root doctors, the real heart of Louisiana Hoodoo. This book introduces you to men like Doctor Koku, Rooster, Papa Melon, Don Pedro and many others. If you want to see both sides of the New Orleans Voodoo coin, this is the only book that pulls back all the curtains of it's history.

If you are looking for an in-depth, scholarly work on the religion and practices of Voodoo in New Orleans this is, sadly, not the work for you. While interesting in a voyeuristic, sensationalist sense, Tallant's far-too-obvious biases and penchant for letting his interview subjects give sound bites like "Old Marie Laveau looked just like the devil herself, and she's settin' [sic] on a throne in Hell today," means that the image of Voodoo as a religion and/or money-making practice is frustratingly one-dimensional. Tallant seems content to let his interview subjects discuss the "devil-worshipping" without giving a well-rounded picture of what actually was being worshipped. He quotes newspaper articles with an almost pornagraphic fervor, and neglects to analyze the exoticism encoded into their language.

The book is good as a fun, tabloidesque read, and those people who have studied Voodoo religion will be able to puzzle together rites and loa blithely corrupted due to Tallant's distance from actual services. It is also a fine study in biases of the time, but should never be read without a very LARGE grain of salt.

I really don't understand the negative reviews of this book at all. Even Anne Rice recommends it and what better recommendation about voodoo history in New Orleans can you get than Anne Rice!?! Yes, the story is old, but it's a fantastic look of the smaller details of a hidden culture. I love New Orleans, and Tallant's book is well researched. Why do you think it's been reprinted since the 1940s. That's staying power, people. The history of Marie Lavaeu is worth the money. This is not a book to tell you how to practice voodoo or to give you a romanticized version of the religion. This is a book which tells the evolution of a special society within a very special city. Now excuse me while I go fetch another praline! Buy it. It's a great read. [From a person who knows and loves New Orleans and hoodoo too!]

I really enjoyed this book although there were no "secrets of voodoo" revealed. Shows a lot of intriguing information about Marie Laveau and Doctor John. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the history of voodoo.

"~This is an older book but you will find it's still very informative. There's plenty of stuff about Marie Laveau but they talk about other historical figures, too. The stuff on Dr. John, who you don't hear much about in other books, is particularly interesting."~ focusing on these days.

Regardless of what anyone feels about this book , it is a time stamp in Hoodoo history. The man needs credit for attending Hoodoo meetings and facing up to the Queen's of the time for interview requests. It answers some questions and opens big cans of worms with others, some parts are of course folk tales but it leaves many doors open to speculation on a few serious points about Hoodoo & The Original Voodoo Queens of New Orleans.

Tallant's book is informative for those new to the topic of voodoo and/or Marie Laveau. However, much of the information in this book is included in his novel The Voodoo Queen, which is far more interesting. Read that instead!

I couldn't put this book down. It was originally published in the late 40's early 50's and the writing reflects this but it is so interesting. The book is full of historical anecdotes, newspaper reporting, other references. I have visited New Orleans five times pre-Katrina and I so very much wish I had read this book before going. I love New Orleans for it's marvelous blend of cultures and history. This book also communicates the struggle of Black Americans with mixed heritage. Their genius, strength and determination that is a huge part of American culture. It was a fascinating and enjoyable read.

I should preface by saying that I do not know much about VooDoo. However, from what I have gleaned so far, this book is unusual in that it gives first-person accounts of VooDoo that date back to the late 19th and early 20th century. Those who urge us to read other, perhaps more "accurate" accounts of VooDoo, seem to be referring to books which have been written far more recently, such as within the last 20 years. This book was first published in 1944 and thus has the advantage of being able to include accounts and testimony of those who actually encountered "Marie II", aka the daughter of the original VooDoo Queen of NEw Orleans, Marie Laveau.

The descriptions of VooDoo given in this book are not flattering. VooDoo rituals are invariably described as involving the sacrifice of live animals, sometimes done in a cruel or beastly fashion, such as when live animals are torn apart by human teeth: "LIve pigeons and chickens were sometimes introduced into the rites, to be torn to pieces with the fingers and teeth of the dancers." (p. 13) Live black cats are often immersed in boiling water, or slain at midnight in a graveyard. Numerous VooDoo "killings" are described. The VooDoo Queen herself is reduced by some witnesses to a glorified Madame: "The way I see it, that place wasn't nothing but a fancy kind of whorehouse, and Marie Laveau was the Madame." (p. 85)

The practice of VooDoo is depicted as mainly having to do with types of manipulative, and quite often overtly harmful magic and spells that fly directly in the face of what has come to be many a modern occultists' ethical guideline: "An ye harm none, do what you will." VooDoo curses fly back and forth between persons who apparently do not have the psychological maturity to imagine that the misfortune they experience might be a result of their own behavior, or simply chance. In the VooDoo-saturated society of turn of the century black New Orleans, VooDoo work and "fixing" is superstitiously perceived to be at the back of every unfortunate event, and VooDoo itself is viewed by observers such as author Tallant as having power primarily over those folk who are sufficiently simple-minded to be susceptible to the self-fulfilling prophecies that suggestions of a curse can evoke. The author points out that VooDoo power apparently had little effect upon many whites, who, when finding a VooDoo "conjure ball" on their doorstep, simply swept the trash away with a contemptuous sneer. By contrast, Tallant suggests that those blacks who believed in a curse, seemed to kill themselves with their own fear.

Curious readers of this highly engaging well-written, "I can't put it down" book will come away with unanswered questions, such as how it is that so many of the VooDoo spells worked, when directed at those who knew nothing of them. They may wonder with trepidation and awe, what exactly was seen, when Feltie Butler's widow observed "3 slimy snails and a little green frog" jumping out of his mouth, just before he died a "HooDoo death." Or why Corinne Mothershed saw 8 little blue snakes leap out of her MOther's mouth, before her mother apparently died by a similar VooDoo curse. However, given the generally scary picture that's painted of VooDoo by this book (we don't see much healing or life-affirming work going on), many readers are likely to conclude that if this is VooDoo, then they'll want to distance themselves from VooDoo and its curious power.

I do not know where Mr. Tallant obtained the information on voodoo and Marie Laveau, but it is the most reliable. I would consider myself fortunate just to speak to this man. I try to conduct research on the subject, and have found much, still not anything compared to Robert Tallant. I like to retrieve the gris gris mentioned in his books, and would like to have more.