Elysian Fields

by Mark LaFlaur

Winner of rare "double crown" starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. • Publishers Weekly Featured Fiction selection. • Simpson Weems is a 36-year-old aspiring poet whose life has been on hold — to the breaking point. All he needs to fulfill his potential is to move to San Francisco, but he’s torn between his long-held dream of being a great artist and obligations to his ailing mother and his emotionally volatile brother, the all-demanding Bartholomew. Will someone in his family have to die before he can get to California? And how might that be arranged? ¶ Written “on location” in New Orleans and set shortly before Hurricane Katrina, Elysian Fields combines menace, the comic strangeness of Flannery O’Connor, and hints of magical realism to convey vivid, original characters and a Crescent City that is both recognizable and more offbeat and seductive than visitors usually see. ¶ PRAISE FOR ELYSIAN FIELDS “A wholly involving story with Faulknerian characters in a fully realized setting. [A] tale of brotherly love and menace. . . . LaFlaur’s descriptive talent shines. Fertile imagery drips like Spanish the old buildings collapsing, ‘as though the humidity-sodden bricks were returning to mud,’ while ‘cloud stacks glowed like the battlements of heaven.’ [Main character] Simpson’s mental landscape is equally vivid, drawn with such empathy and depth that readers will forgive his perpetual indecision and may even root for him to carry out the removal of his near-deranged brother.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) • “[R]eaders will find the author’s portrayal of New Orleans convincing and his characters fascinating and fully developed. . . . Life in the Weems family of 1999 New Orleans is anything but Elysian in this engrossing Southern Gothic snapshot.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) • “A stunning debut . . . shades of Tennessee Williams, Faulkner and John Kennedy Toole. . . . LaFlaur gently and expertly pulls readers along with his characters, never flinching in the face of their foibles . . .” —Antigravity magazine (New Orleans) • “[A] wonderful debut novel, a southern gothic that is at times comedic, at times heartbreaking . . . In places Elysian Fields is as heavy as summer air in New Orleans, but it most definitely has a sense of humor. . . . [A]n impressive debut that will leave readers looking forward to LaFlaur’s next offering.” —Self-Publishing Review

Genres: Fiction

392 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Mark LaFlaur grew up in the South, mostly in Louisiana. He earned an MFA degree at Louisiana State University, where he worked on the literary magazine Exquisite Corpse. He has written for The Village Voice, San Francisco Chronicle, The American Scholar, Los Angeles Times Book Review, and Boston Review.

He has worked in book publishing in New York and San Francisco and in New Orleans, where he wrote Elysian Fields. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005 he founded Levees Not War, a New York–based, New Orleans–dedicated blog focusing on infrastructure and the environment, which led to his second book, What Fresh Hell? The Best of Levees Not War: Blogging on Post-Katrina New Orleans and America, 2005–2015. He is a senior production editor for a major book publisher and lives with his wife, Janet, in New York City.

Reviews

[Cary Boswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of New Orleans locales and history. A family relationships tale of how one's dreams can be thwarted, yet lead to forgiveness.

[Libby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This picaresque novel tells the tale of a hapless would-be poet, Simpson Weems, living in New Orleans and wanting to go to San Francisco where he believes his artistic life would really begin. However, he's tethered by his widowed mother Melba, who has troubling symptoms, and his obese dysfunctional younger brother, Bartholomew, who spends most of his time eating and praying. Also a childhood assault has left him with only one testicle, which has rendered him a sexual virgin because of his unresolved feelings (and perhaps low sex drive) resulting from this event. Although there are some black humorous aspects (his attempts at writing, for example, which any would-be writer can identify with), atmospheric descriptions of New Orleans and some of the other characters, and a storyline that keeps one reading (although it was clear to this reader that Simpson would never leave New Orleans), I felt the author was a talented writer but the book could have used more editing.

[Jeremy Deibel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rarely get this worked up about an independently-published book by an unknown author. Mark LaFlaur's "Elysian Fields" may be the best, funniest novel set in New Orleans since the publication of "A Confederacy of Dunces." It almost reads as that book's plot spun on its head: what if the irascible Ignatius Reilly had a long-suffering brother, who had his own story to tell? Simpson is one of those characters I sometimes want to throttle (really? Moving to San Francisco to "work" as a poet?) but I can't help but relate to and empathize with him. His nutjob brother Bartholomew is a trip...imagine if Ignatius looked up to Christ and the (Catholic) saints instead of Boethius, and you get the general idea. This is not merely a fine debut novel, but a great and welcome addition to New Orleans fiction.

[Laurie Burlison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just ok

Based on other reviews, I hoped this would be a good read. The premise is good, but the plot never really took off. It was quite wordy, yet said very little. I don't know; I needed more depth.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learn to make the best out of your situation. Sometimes family sucks.