READING IS FUCKINMENTAL: Swamped

SWAMPED

Life ain’t so easy in the Big Easy these days, but the city’s literature still shines.

Jesus H. Christ on a Popsicle stick, New Orleans has been hammered again. Hurricane Gustav shat upon the Crescent City, and although estimates are still rolling in, we’re lookin’ at billions in damage. That’s a damn shame. I love N.O.—every time I slum my way across the Big Easy, I’m treated to the best food and ambience in America (along with one or two brushes with death just to make things interesting—like the time a homeless guy built like Mike Tyson nearly strangled me with a piss-colored dishcloth, but that’s another story.)

Then there’s the music. Lordy. If you’re a fan of older tunes with roots in the city, I suggest the Chess New Orleans compilation. Give those CDs a spin as you read John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, without a doubt the best and most famous New Orleans novel. The Chess recording—mostly songs from the 1950s—will set the mood for Toole’s book. The two go together like red beans and rice. Of course, good reads about New Orleans are legion—more books have been written about/set in the Big Easy than just about anywhere in the American South. Recently I read Leonce Gaiter’s Bourbon Street, a period crime novel that nicely accompanies the Chess recordings as well.

Now, Gaiter’s book ain’t perfect, not by a long shot—for every metaphor that pops there are two that are duds. And the language can get clichéd and pulpy at times. But he builds some decent atmosphere. A decent end-of-summer read before moving on to the heavy duty stuff. BTW, if you find yourself book shopping in New Orleans, by all means stop by Faulkner House Books. Owner Joseph DeSalvo has some highly collectable first-editions. Be prepared to spend serious dough.      

Jason Matthew Smith is a Texan who never developed an accent, thanks to a steady diet of television reruns during his formative years. He now lives in Utah, where everyone thinks he sounds just like John Astin, the original Gomez Addams.