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Letters from New Orleans
Rob Walker traded his New York life and set up shop in New Orleans. Soon after, Walker began sending 'The Letter From New Orleans' to interested parties. This book contains all fourteen pieces, along with additional material and photo spectra. It covers subjects including: celebratory gunfire, rich people, and the riddle of race relations today.
220 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2005
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360 people want to read
About the author
Rob Walker
25 books113 followersRob Walker is a journalist covering design, technology, business, the arts, and other subjects. He writes the Human Resource column for Lifehacker, and has contributed to The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Atlantic, TheNewYorker.Com, Design Observer, The Organist, and many others. His book The Art of Noticing (Knopf) comes out in May 2019. He is on the faculty of the Products of Design MFA program at the School of Visual Arts.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
December 3, 2011
I don't think Rob Walker understands the city. I'm a native and I don't think I understand the city completely, so that isn't really why I'm only giving it two stars. The reason? He doesn't explain why New Orleans is a city worth staying in despite the bad points -- probably because he doesn't really believe it is worth staying in -- HE left, after all -- and that is what makes this book fall flat. There is so much more to New Orleans than this. I know, I know, it's just a series of letters, but the city has a soul and a heart which was not often revealed in this book.
August 10, 2015
Thirtysomething dude moves from NYC to New Orleans and proceeds to report back to his friends and family on it. Then decides to provide analysis on things like New Orleans neighborhood gentrification, historical strife and culture. This goes about as well as you'd expect, but maybe my expectations for Thirtysomething dudes from NYC are pretty low.
Basically: 200 pages of "Don't get me wrong, I love living in New Orleans, but..." followed by an example of what the author considers odd or picturesque that explains why this country thought Manifest Destiny was a fine idea. There are also tiny black-and-white photos sprinkled throughout the book that would've been awesome if they were big enough for any details to be discernible by the naked eye. Or the squinting-through-glasses eye. Instead, they're all meticulously 2"x2" squares set in the middle of blank white pages.
(Somewhere, off in the distance, a professional book designer just threw an ancient copy of Adobe Pagemaker through a wall.)
There's a briefly interesting interlude near the beginning involving a Miami Vice critical studies reader, robots that shoot fire and Richard Linklater's Slacker, but it's not remotely enough to save the rest of the book.
"In most metropolitan areas, housing projects are hidden away in the fringes. In New Orleans, many are woven throughout the city. One is just a couple blocks from the tourist-beckoning French Quarter; I pass two complexes every time I drive to the gym."
"Q: Why did you choose New Orleans?
A: Once 'Page Six' was available online, it became possible to live anywhere. There's no reason that the new Avenue C might not be beyond the East Village, beyond Williamsburg or Long Island City. It could be anywhere. Right?"
Basically: 200 pages of "Don't get me wrong, I love living in New Orleans, but..." followed by an example of what the author considers odd or picturesque that explains why this country thought Manifest Destiny was a fine idea. There are also tiny black-and-white photos sprinkled throughout the book that would've been awesome if they were big enough for any details to be discernible by the naked eye. Or the squinting-through-glasses eye. Instead, they're all meticulously 2"x2" squares set in the middle of blank white pages.
(Somewhere, off in the distance, a professional book designer just threw an ancient copy of Adobe Pagemaker through a wall.)
There's a briefly interesting interlude near the beginning involving a Miami Vice critical studies reader, robots that shoot fire and Richard Linklater's Slacker, but it's not remotely enough to save the rest of the book.
August 28, 2009
The real New Orleans from an insideoutsider's p.o.v. I wish I could write like this.
December 29, 2017
In "the land of dreams"
I've never drunk and eaten my way through an hours' long lunch at Galatoire's. I don't own a white suit nor do I normally hang out in jazz clubs. Sleazy bars may possess charms, but I seldom indulge. I've never dug the Comus or Zulu krewes or jumped for mass-produced Chinese beads in the streets. This is all because I'd never been to New Orleans when I read this book and I still haven't done those things. But I've done the next best thing---read Rob Walker's LETTERS FROM NEW ORLEANS. What I liked about Walker's emailed letters to his family and friends that later got collected into a slim volume is that they offer a view of the city that is far more sombre and penetrating than the one we used to get before Katrina turned the place into a bad news hub. Yeah, "The Big Easy" definitely had its downside even before floods killed hundreds and destroyed the low-lying sections. Murder in the projects was not unknown pre-Katrina, corruption, decay, and poverty ruled much of New Orleans behind the tourist glitz. Your quaint atmosphere of down-at-heel tradition rested on the stunted lives of a lot of black folks who were caught in an old web. I never had a great desire to visit the place, not thinking someone else's misfortune very picturesque. Still, reading Walker's letters, I felt that I got the feel of it---small details, a chance conversation that you might not have elsewhere, strange characters in electric blue suits, church music. He doesn't intrude much into his descriptions, yet you feel that he liked the place, he didn't judge it with the amused or jaundiced eye of many others. Small incidents reveal many facets of the city---the controversy over a fired waiter, explorations of a freeway ramp, attending a jazz funeral, a burning teddy bear at an annual bonfire. I liked the conclusions Walker drew--not sweeping, drastic ones, but more like collections of observations and questions left to the reader. The small black and white photographs that fill the book are strangely obtuse. They hint at things rather than illustrate them grandly and perhaps that sums up this charming little book. A few years later, I did visit the city and felt the charm.
P.S. If you ever wanted to know stuff about the song "St. James' Infirmary" but were afraid to ask, rest easy. It's all in here.
I've never drunk and eaten my way through an hours' long lunch at Galatoire's. I don't own a white suit nor do I normally hang out in jazz clubs. Sleazy bars may possess charms, but I seldom indulge. I've never dug the Comus or Zulu krewes or jumped for mass-produced Chinese beads in the streets. This is all because I'd never been to New Orleans when I read this book and I still haven't done those things. But I've done the next best thing---read Rob Walker's LETTERS FROM NEW ORLEANS. What I liked about Walker's emailed letters to his family and friends that later got collected into a slim volume is that they offer a view of the city that is far more sombre and penetrating than the one we used to get before Katrina turned the place into a bad news hub. Yeah, "The Big Easy" definitely had its downside even before floods killed hundreds and destroyed the low-lying sections. Murder in the projects was not unknown pre-Katrina, corruption, decay, and poverty ruled much of New Orleans behind the tourist glitz. Your quaint atmosphere of down-at-heel tradition rested on the stunted lives of a lot of black folks who were caught in an old web. I never had a great desire to visit the place, not thinking someone else's misfortune very picturesque. Still, reading Walker's letters, I felt that I got the feel of it---small details, a chance conversation that you might not have elsewhere, strange characters in electric blue suits, church music. He doesn't intrude much into his descriptions, yet you feel that he liked the place, he didn't judge it with the amused or jaundiced eye of many others. Small incidents reveal many facets of the city---the controversy over a fired waiter, explorations of a freeway ramp, attending a jazz funeral, a burning teddy bear at an annual bonfire. I liked the conclusions Walker drew--not sweeping, drastic ones, but more like collections of observations and questions left to the reader. The small black and white photographs that fill the book are strangely obtuse. They hint at things rather than illustrate them grandly and perhaps that sums up this charming little book. A few years later, I did visit the city and felt the charm.
P.S. If you ever wanted to know stuff about the song "St. James' Infirmary" but were afraid to ask, rest easy. It's all in here.
July 8, 2017
In 2008, a few years after Hurricane Katrina I spent a lot of time in New Orleans working with various nonprofits that were working on the rebuilding process (yes it was still a mess three years later and a lot of rebuilding was going on). A lot of people either strongly love or strongly hate New Orleans. I both strongly love and hate it. It's dirty, it's uncomfortably hot and humid, and it has become unsafe over the years. But it is also gorgeous, the architecture is great, the food is amazing, the people are kind and helpful, the festivals and parades and music and parties are fun. I don't think I'd ever be able to live there, but I do think back on my time there fondly. This is a series of letters a man wrote about moving to New Orleans with his girlfriend after living in Manhattan for years. I could relate to a lot of things in this book. The letters stop in 2003, so this is pre Hurrican Katrina which is a different way for me to look at New Orleans since my main focus while I was there was fixing what the Hurricane left behind and since it was still fresh in the memory of the people there most people wanted to talk about that. I've read a few books dealing with New Orleans since I was there and most were post Katrina accounts from the city. It was fun to read about the city before everyone had a Katrina story to tell (of course Katrina stories are worthwhile in a lot of cases it was just nice to not read about that when reading about New Orleans for once).
December 20, 2021
Occasionally funny, occasionally insightful, but perhaps not adding up to all that much in the end.
I've only been to New Orleans one time, when I was maybe 16, to attend the Lutheran National Youth Gathering. It is, to put it mildly, not the best age nor the best reason to visit the city.
Walker appeared to go out of a desire for change, I guess. It's never exactly clear what his project is. This book is a collection of emails he sent to his friends after moving from NYC to New Orleans. It touches on all sorts of topics, from Mardi Gras, to gentrification, to jazz, to public funerals. It was penned in the few years before Katrina. In a way, it's too bad that the author left before the storm. He does have a good eye for observation, and I would have been interested in his view of the impact and lingering effects.
It's certainly punchy and readable, and the book is quite short, but I don't see anything from this slight volume staying with me.
I've only been to New Orleans one time, when I was maybe 16, to attend the Lutheran National Youth Gathering. It is, to put it mildly, not the best age nor the best reason to visit the city.
Walker appeared to go out of a desire for change, I guess. It's never exactly clear what his project is. This book is a collection of emails he sent to his friends after moving from NYC to New Orleans. It touches on all sorts of topics, from Mardi Gras, to gentrification, to jazz, to public funerals. It was penned in the few years before Katrina. In a way, it's too bad that the author left before the storm. He does have a good eye for observation, and I would have been interested in his view of the impact and lingering effects.
It's certainly punchy and readable, and the book is quite short, but I don't see anything from this slight volume staying with me.
August 16, 2020
I have had this for quite a while and pulled it out because I wanted something short to read to get caught up on my 2020 Reading Challenge. True story. As I read, I moved around from one writing to another as Walker cross-referenced, meandering much like these pieces do. The two most significant things I noticed were several typos - it’s a character flaw - and how in each piece he said something which struck as me fundamentally true yet often forgotten.
August 27, 2024
This book has good stories and some not as good. Walker is a good writer, but I was hoping for more New Orleans uniqueness and romanticism, and less plight of the city. I know this city is magical, and I really wanted more of that from this book. I am glad I read it, but I was left wanting.
April 29, 2012
The most amazing thing to me about this little, well-written book is the absence of Hurricane Katrina. This is OBVIOUSLY not a criticism of Walker, as the letters and essays that comprise the text took place 2-5 years before the Katrina tragedy and the book itself was in publication before the storm. Instead, what it demonstrates is how much our cultural experience with New Orleans has shifted since that terrible event. Just about every noteworthy piece of writing out of New Orleans since 2005 has used the storm as its central force or at least had to tip its hat before segueing into the primary discussion of the piece. Walker's book is among the best and last books to be published that was untouched by the storm and in that sense serves as a valuable artifact of a time that feels far more ancient than it really is.
The book itself is well-written - Walker's immensely talented - but uneven. The most enjoyable parts to me were the brief actual letters. As the book develops, there are magazine-worthy think pieces (including one commissioned by but not actually published in Mother Jones) mixed in, and as Walker's email audience grows, you get the feeling that he's increasingly considering these letters as not simply notes to friends but pieces to be consumed by audiences of strangers. That's when the book loses its luster for me, but also when Walker seems to become more thoughtful about his role in New Orleans.
The more enjoyable brief and intimate letters that comprise the first half of the volume are also noteworthy in their lack of reflection. We get a lot of posturing about Walker and E as this faux third type of person in New Orleans: in some cases not tourists but not residents, in other cases a narrative bridge between whites and blacks. Walker stays far enough from self-congratulatory writing to avoid being obnoxious, but he could certainly probe his own thoughts and motivations more.
Finally, what I anticipated reading when I purchased this book was a somewhat linear narrative about a couple who arrived in New Orleans, experienced the city, and ultimately decided to leave in 2003. We get a little about the decision to move to New Orleans, and some lovely vignettes, but the relationship between Walker and E fades in importance in the second half, and then the book abruptly ends after another quasi-sociological investigation. All we know about why Walker left is that it is a mystery, and one that seems to defy the very purpose of writing the book.
The book itself is well-written - Walker's immensely talented - but uneven. The most enjoyable parts to me were the brief actual letters. As the book develops, there are magazine-worthy think pieces (including one commissioned by but not actually published in Mother Jones) mixed in, and as Walker's email audience grows, you get the feeling that he's increasingly considering these letters as not simply notes to friends but pieces to be consumed by audiences of strangers. That's when the book loses its luster for me, but also when Walker seems to become more thoughtful about his role in New Orleans.
The more enjoyable brief and intimate letters that comprise the first half of the volume are also noteworthy in their lack of reflection. We get a lot of posturing about Walker and E as this faux third type of person in New Orleans: in some cases not tourists but not residents, in other cases a narrative bridge between whites and blacks. Walker stays far enough from self-congratulatory writing to avoid being obnoxious, but he could certainly probe his own thoughts and motivations more.
Finally, what I anticipated reading when I purchased this book was a somewhat linear narrative about a couple who arrived in New Orleans, experienced the city, and ultimately decided to leave in 2003. We get a little about the decision to move to New Orleans, and some lovely vignettes, but the relationship between Walker and E fades in importance in the second half, and then the book abruptly ends after another quasi-sociological investigation. All we know about why Walker left is that it is a mystery, and one that seems to defy the very purpose of writing the book.
Read
September 15, 2011Pre-Katrina, Rob Walker, a staff writer for the THE NEW YORK TIMES, documented a three-year sojourn in New Orleans--including holiday festivities featuring bullets, not fireworks--by writing e-mails to his friends. Many forwarded them to their own cyber-pals and posted them on websites. Walker collected the e-mails in LETTERS FROM NEW ORLEANS, Land the book not only became a cult bestseller, but also a model for David G. Spielman’s THE KATRINAVILLE CHRONICLES (see review of this book here also).
July 13, 2014
This was a very interesting book that gets to the heart and soul of New Orleans. It is particularly interesting to me now that I have a son, daughter in law and grandson who live in New Orleans.
Also of interest is the fact that this book was written before Katrina. Now everything you read has to tie in Katrina but it's still the same city with many of the same characteristics, both good and bad.
Anyone who has a relationship with this city will find a lot to glean from this collection of letters.
Also of interest is the fact that this book was written before Katrina. Now everything you read has to tie in Katrina but it's still the same city with many of the same characteristics, both good and bad.
Anyone who has a relationship with this city will find a lot to glean from this collection of letters.
June 17, 2008
This book is a collection of letters from a Texas-born NYC journalist who moves to New Orleans with his girlfriend. He writes to friends, family and anyone who is curious about his NOLA experience. Many of them made me homesick. Several reminded me of things I had forgotten about or revealed parts of New Orleans I never knew. And a couple made me cry. Great little book. I would definitely recommend it.
July 14, 2009
I really enjoyed this book. at first glance, I thought it was a post-Katrina collection, but actually written by a guy who lived there from 2000-2003.
I loved the way he describes first moving to New Orleans and the comments about New Orleanians being ' so completely unselfconscious '. He had me with that. and the rest of his observations made me think of my first experiences in the city and how much I miss it.
I loved the way he describes first moving to New Orleans and the comments about New Orleanians being ' so completely unselfconscious '. He had me with that. and the rest of his observations made me think of my first experiences in the city and how much I miss it.
August 23, 2008
very interesting reading about New Orleans. Very personal observations pre-Katrina. I wondered what the author would have to say these days?
my one criticism would be that it felt thin. Not in pages, in details. If all "chapters" would have been like "St. James Infirmary" the book would have been 3x more enjoyable.
my one criticism would be that it felt thin. Not in pages, in details. If all "chapters" would have been like "St. James Infirmary" the book would have been 3x more enjoyable.
December 9, 2010
Good book. I think the author captured much of the spirit of New Orleans. A little eerie in that much if not all, was written before Hurricane Katrina. By the end, I think the author soured on New Orleans in the way that people not from there sometimes do after living there awhile, but all in all, not bad.
May 26, 2008
I love this man's appreciation for my city. If you want an accurate depiction of life in New Orleans, read it, and then read Confederacy of Dunces. Then write me with your questions and i'll do my best to illuminate, expand, expound and explain.
July 3, 2008
Having just been in New Orleans last month, this was a really interesting book to read. It dragged a bit towards the end, but I suppose if you read it more in pieces, rather than straight through, that problem would be alleviated.
June 1, 2014
I just can't get enough of New Orleans. Rob Walker captured so many of the city's features, both enchanting and baffling. Given that the book was written prior to Katrina, there is an eerie quality to reading it in the present day.
July 19, 2015
There's a passage in this book (which was written pre-Katrina) lamenting the lack of government help for the poorest parts of the city, and Walker comments on how at least in a bigger disaster the government would eventually help. A rather optimistic view, it seems, in hindsight.
October 11, 2008
i really like the toni morrison exchange idea- i think we should get it started.
April 13, 2009
An interesting, thoughtful, entertaining series of letters about living New Orleans.
August 4, 2010
This was a good beginners guide to living in New Orleans. If you haven't been and want to know more, this is a good starter kit.
May 18, 2011
I didn't get anything out of this that Treme didn't communicate with a better soundtrack. The disarming Postscript was a nice touch, though.
November 13, 2012
Nice collection of essays about one of my favorite cities.
December 29, 2007
Loved this book. Quick, easy read. Wonderful description of New Orleans. Written pre-Katrina.
April 3, 2017
The letters from New Orleans give an insider's view of the city. Even though it is the number of years old now, I found most of what Walker spoke about to be quite relevant today. I read much of it on the plane down to New Orleansand felt like I knew a lot about the city when I started to wander through it.
June 18, 2018
I really didn't think that I would like this book...but once I started reading I was fascinated by the stories of this interesting city and its residents. This experience was like watching some strange and unusual behavior, but you just can't take your eyes off of. The most intriguing premise for me was references to everyone having a real self-the one that we and God above knows and then the one that we present to everyone...and which is real. I think everyone has two or more sides (and usually one we don't want ANYONE to know about,lol)....but an interesting read...plus the idea of moving to new place and figuring out how to integrate within a totally new environment is always interesting. Good stuff!
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews