“Down In New Orleans”
August 27, 2007 by nonotes
It would appear that today is the official publication date of Down In New Orleans: Reflections from a Drowned City, by certified friend of LfNO, Billy Sothern. Just yesterday I read a very surprising assertion somewhere or other suggesting that there hadn’t been much storytelling from people who lived through Katrina. Well, if you’re looking for such stories, here’s one. Although really here the personal story is almost a subplot, woven into the story that Sothern (a public-interest lawyer) tells about the underlying problems that preceded Katrina, and those that have helped make its aftermath so trying. He even got a nice blurb from Dave Eggers. Check it out.
P.S. a bit more info (readings & appearances) at Nola Nik.
A couple of years ago I did some research into the song "St. James Infirmary," wrote up what I found, emailed that essay to friends and posted it on my web site (as part of a series of "Letters From New Orleans," as I was living in that city at the time). Based on the feedback, I wrote a second version of the essay, and asked for more feedback. Based on that, I wrote a 
