The first meeting of the BooBooks book club will convene this coming weekend, starting on Sat., Oct. 22.
That’s not the only reason it promises to be a special event, however. This will also be a rare instance of reading a book after a calamity which that very book predicted. Every line of this book presages the consequences of Katrina. We will discuss this, not only with the wisdom of hindsight, but also from the eerie perspective of foresight.
In preparation for that, I want to mention a few things:
- Come, whether or not you’ve read the book. I will provide a kansas Cliffs Notes version–quick and dirty–both as a review for those of you who have read it and to bring the rest of you up to speed.
- In addition to everybody else who is welcome. . .if you also happen to be a biologist, marine biologist, ornithologist, environmentalist, or just plain somebody who knows Louisiana, y’all come. We could use your knowledge to make sure we get our facts right.
- Those of you who have read it know there are many people and places that Tidwell talks about and if you’re like me, you really want to know what happened to them during or after Katrina. Did they survive? Where are they now? What about their towns, their boats, their families? If any of you readers feel like being investigators and trying to locate some of that info, I think we’d all be very grateful. I’ll do what I can to find out, too.
From the publisher’s website, written in 2000:
ABOUT THIS BOOK 
Mike Tidwell knew nothing of the disappearing bayou country when he first visited the Cajun coast of Louisiana, but the evidence was all around him: the skeletons of oak trees killed by the salinity of the groundwater, whole cemeteries sinking into swampland and out of sight, telephone poles in deep, standing water. Thanks to human hands, the storied Louisiana coast was eroding, subsiding, and joining the Gulf of Mexico—making it the fastest disappearing landmass on Earth. Yet no one seemed to know how to talk about the problem. Tidwell, a celebrated travel and environmental writer, decided to begin the much-needed conversation, and this vivid, elegiac book is the result.
Tidwell introduces us to the surprisingly varied population of the area: the Cajun men and women who work the seasonal shrimp harvest, the Vietnamese fishermen, the Houma Indians driven to the farthest ends of the bayou by the first European settlers. He describes the food, the music, the culture, and the life of all those who live along the bayous. And under his keenly observant eye, the bayou itself becomes a compelling character—reminding us of how much we stand to lose if we fail to address the problems facing this most vibrant of places.
Part travelogue, part environmental exposé, Bayou Farewell is the richly evocative chronicle of the author’s travels through a place and a way of life that are vanishing virtually before our eyes.
*
QUOTES
“Stunning, beautifully written, the best book on Louisiana I have ever read. Tidwell has captured the soul and heart of the Cajun people and describes the loss of their Acadian culture, their beloved wetlands, and their way of life more accurately and poignantly than any other writer I know of.”
-James Lee Burke, author of White Doves at Morning
“A remarkable book…. Tidwell knows how to tell a good story, and he tells this one smartly.”-The Times-Picayune
“Shocking…. The calamity that lies ahead is…underscored by Tidwell’s bittersweet rendering of…a way of life that is slowly dying.”-San Francisco Chronicle
“Passionate…. Tidwelll’s first-person reportage is engaging and well-written… A clarion call for Americans to focus on an unfolding environmental disaster.”-The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
*
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Mike Tidwell is the author of four previous books, including In the Mountains of Heaven, Amazon Stranger, and The Ponds of Kalambayi. A former National Endowment for the Arts fellow, Tidwell has published his work in National Geographic Traveler, Reader’s Digest, Washingtonian, and many other publications. His frequent travel articles for the The Washington Post have earned him four Lowell Thomas Awards, the highest prize in American travel journalism. He lives near Washington, D.C., with his wife, Catherine, and their son, Sasha.
My copy showed up on Saturday, and I’m going to start reading it TODAY.
Are we going to discuss it in chapter order, or by topics & issues?
I’ve never been in a book club before.
I’ve never been in a bookclub before, either, though I’ve spoken to lots of them. We are going to invent our own way of doing this, by gum. We may not all be Independents, but we are surely all independent.
As for how we’re going to discuss it, I think I’ll kick start it with a couple of questions, and then we’ll see what direction it wants to take. If it turns out that most people want to go chapter by chapter, that will be just fine, because that’s how I’m going to organize my kansas Cliffs notes.
Do you have a preference, kb? And are their topics/issues you’d esp. like to discuss?
No, No — I was just wondering if I should skip around as I read!
I guess I read too many technical manuals….
to publish a diary with some of the questions in advance so that people can do some prep and it might make it easier to get the conversation going at the very beginning if people have had a little time to think about what they want to say.
Good idea, AndiF. Let’s see if I carry it out. 🙂
keep Thursday’s cafe under control, so you can concentrate.
Oh, god, no kidding! Was that wild last week, or what? How can so many sober people have so much fun? Well, okay, I’m assuming the sober part.
My vote might be for groups of chapters.
I was lax in my preperation, so I’m going cliff notes. Thanks Kansas. Promise you will not grill me like that Contracts Prof in The Paper Chase though, okay?
Is it an all day Saturday thing?
It’s an as-long-as-it-lasts thing, BJoe. I’ll probably post it late morningish and then we’ll see how much interest there is. You know how it is with diaries here, they can go on for days.
I’m so glad you’re going to drop by. And the only thing I ever grill is shrimp or vegetables. I’ll furnish coffee that morning and a keg for the rowdy late-afternoon crowd if they demand it.
I’ll brew up enough chicory coffee in the French press to make cafe au lait for everybody.
Who’s bringing the beignets?
Excellent! And not only beignets, but also red beans and rice, gumbo, and lots of Tobasco sauce.
Or, possibly, Tabasco Sauce. He explains the history of that in the book but wouldn’t you know it’s one thing I didn’t make a note of. Those of you who are still reading, would you mark that, please?
I love tabasco…how else do you eat a fried egg sandwhich if not with lots of tabasco on it?
I gained three pounds just reading these responses.
Those of you who have read it know there are many people and places that Tidwell talks about and if you’re like me, you really want to know what happened to them during or after Katrina. Did they survive? Where are they now? What about their towns, their boats, their families?
I keep wondering that every night when I sit down to read it.
I’ll be there this weekend; I vote for having some sort of questions in advance to help us participate in a discussion too.
I can’t stop wondering. . .did Tim Melancon make it through? What about Papoose, and Charlie Broussard, and Father Pilola, and Terrebonne Parish, and Leeville, and Griffins Restaurant, and Port Forchon (the last town on the bayou), and Route 1, and the tiny Cajun town of Chauvis, and all the rest?
I have been trying to locate a website for the author and haven’t had any luck yet. Have any of you found one? (This should teach me that authors need websites, eh, KB?) )
Gasp!
I had the sudden illusion that something stepped out of this page and tapped me on the shoulder!
Kind of like when the fella in Purple Rose of Cairo stepped out of the movie & started talking to Mia Farrow.
uh, Yes, as a matter-of-fact, authors should have websites!
And now the reverse — someone from the audience steps into the movie and does a star turn as a pushy broad.
So how come you haven’t been able to browbeat her into doing a website?
And just in case either of you are looking for inspiration, here’s a link to one of my favorite author sites.
Very cool website. Unlike any I’ve seen before, which is, god knows, a compliment.
That’s why we call it BooBooks.
I might pop in here or there. But I will have to get in on the next book! lol
I’ll ask for suggestions for Next Book next Monday in the cafe, or maybe in a diary, and then we’ll vote on Tuesday so everybody will have maximum time to order and read. I don’t know how y’all feel about this, but I’m going to encourage books most of us haven’t read yet–like the current one–rather than ones, such as Reading Lolita in Tehran, that lots of us have read already. But the group rules.
As an adjunct- I would recommend Bill McKibben’s -‘The End of Nature’-he predicted this disaster long ago. One of the bestest reasons to have a good library and contribute !
My local library only has four of kansas’ books!!!
SHOCKING!
Gotta get busy here!
I love McKibben. Such a good and bold writer, or at least what I’ve read of him lately.
That library of yours. . .kisses and hugs to them, even if it’s only four! Not all my lit’ry children were created equal, poor things. Email me if you have any questions.
I liked the ones I borrowed very much- nice twisty,turny plots. And I am usually a deep reader- meaning if it isn’t 1000 pages long,I slough it off.
Apparently nobody is gonna sign up for ‘The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire’. teehee 🙂
I like McKibben, too. I may just drop in on October 22 and read the happenings. Too busy right now with class tomorrow, but I like the books!
The BooBooBoo Club? Cool.
I’ll pop in. Have cheesecake on hand.
Your cheesecake wish, our cheesecake command!
This is looking to be an exceptionally yummy book club.
Bring your own napkins.
Kerry St. Pé, featured in the book, is the director. Here’s the program website.
Also referenced in the book: website here.
Thanks, RH.
I’ll definitely be here. I haven’t read the book but it sounds fascinating already and can’t wait to find out more.
I, too, keep wondering about the people in the bayou country and all the little towns in Louisiana and Mississippi that were disappeared. All we’ve heard about is Nawlins, probably because it’s logistically easier to report from a population center but also, I suspect, because there’s been official discouragement from going out into the countryside for whatever real stories are there.
As for the folks who make their living on the water: If the shrimp boats in Louisiana are anything like the ones I saw a couple of years ago in the Florida Panhandle area, I wouldn’t plan on ordering shrimp cocktail anytime soon.
The boats there were tattered looking, poorly maintained, and of dubious seaworthiness. Not through lack of seamanship by their owners, but because those guys don’t make much money. One boat had a large sign posted on the cabin, just where you’d see it as you came aboard. It warned that you did so at your own risk, since the captain carried no insurance. Imagine going to sea under those conditions.