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Stay Out Of New Orleans: Strange Stories
Stay Out of New Orleans: Strange Tales A crass tour of feral street life in New Orleans in the 1990's. A lucid walk through the shadows of North America's best and weirdest city, a place that bewitches some visitors and infects others. A bohemia stretching back to the dawn of absinthe. A town of hidden doors, hidden courtyards, and open secrets. Each day a fresh crime eager to happen, transcendent, fertile. Death lurking in every bar. No one knew it was a golden age............ See what the flood washed away... Self published in 2012, Stay Out of New Orleans has become an underground New Orleans cult classic and has gone on to sell a couple of thousand copies strictly by word of mouth and carried in but a couple of local stores. Now re-designed and re-formatted these 13 stories of NOLA 1990's street life will continue to find a new audience of readers-those both enchanted and those repelled by the city.
327 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 12, 2020
STAY OUT OF NEW ORLEANS is a collection of short stories (some very short) by P. Curran, which is a pseudonym for Peter Orr, a longtime New Orleans musician and artist. Some of the background to this collection and the author come from the book jacket or rare interviews that can be discovered via Google. More comes from the owner of Frenchmen Art and Books in New Orleans who kindly and earnestly suggested the book. As a result, I have a paperback edition with a drawing and inscription by the author.
There is a reason I mention how I discovered this book, because knowing something about New Orleans increases the resonance, even if your knowledge is only the result of two quick vacations. Also, I guess there is a second reason. If you are in New Orleans, get away from Bourbon Street and take the sweet walk to Frenchmen Street, where you will find great music and a welcoming bookstore.
Curran has created a collection of what he calls "strange stories", which in an interview he described as a British genre from the late-19th and early-20th centuries. "Strange stories" are marked by a heavy dose of the supernatural, kind of Henry James meets Stephen King.
The otherwordly, and not a nice otherworldly, makes more and more of an appearance as the book progresses. So, it may come as some surprise that my favorite of the stories is "Higgins", the first story in my edition and the tale most connected to this world, or at least to New Orleans pre-Katrina. Curran is especially strong in this story, as he follows a lost soul bouncing from one bad choice to another on the brutally real streets. The story is all the more evocative because the true extent of one girl's travails are often just suggested, not detailed. Chris Rose, who wrote the introduction, claims that the stories are more observations than fiction. "Higgins" lends credence to that.
As you follow the stories through STAY OUT OF NEW ORLEANS, some characters appear and re-appear, new characters are introduced and we see what happens to some and others are left indeterminate. And, as I mentioned before, the paranormal becomes more and more present, always ominous and most often evil. It is not a selection of stories that the New Orleans Tourism Bureau would send out. Recognizing the street names and the neighborhoods helps establish the mood, and I imagine that is even stronger for long-time residents of New Orleans. If you've been to New Orleans, even for the briefest of visits, this is a book worth reading. Read the introduction by Chris Rose, too. It will explain a lot and make you think, even if you are pissed off by some of his declarations.
The New Orleans found
here is far from Bourbon Street.
Though tourists still show.
There is a reason I mention how I discovered this book, because knowing something about New Orleans increases the resonance, even if your knowledge is only the result of two quick vacations. Also, I guess there is a second reason. If you are in New Orleans, get away from Bourbon Street and take the sweet walk to Frenchmen Street, where you will find great music and a welcoming bookstore.
Curran has created a collection of what he calls "strange stories", which in an interview he described as a British genre from the late-19th and early-20th centuries. "Strange stories" are marked by a heavy dose of the supernatural, kind of Henry James meets Stephen King.
The otherwordly, and not a nice otherworldly, makes more and more of an appearance as the book progresses. So, it may come as some surprise that my favorite of the stories is "Higgins", the first story in my edition and the tale most connected to this world, or at least to New Orleans pre-Katrina. Curran is especially strong in this story, as he follows a lost soul bouncing from one bad choice to another on the brutally real streets. The story is all the more evocative because the true extent of one girl's travails are often just suggested, not detailed. Chris Rose, who wrote the introduction, claims that the stories are more observations than fiction. "Higgins" lends credence to that.
As you follow the stories through STAY OUT OF NEW ORLEANS, some characters appear and re-appear, new characters are introduced and we see what happens to some and others are left indeterminate. And, as I mentioned before, the paranormal becomes more and more present, always ominous and most often evil. It is not a selection of stories that the New Orleans Tourism Bureau would send out. Recognizing the street names and the neighborhoods helps establish the mood, and I imagine that is even stronger for long-time residents of New Orleans. If you've been to New Orleans, even for the briefest of visits, this is a book worth reading. Read the introduction by Chris Rose, too. It will explain a lot and make you think, even if you are pissed off by some of his declarations.
The New Orleans found
here is far from Bourbon Street.
Though tourists still show.
May 9, 2021
Gritty and dirty; disturbing; hilarious (at times); brilliant. New Orleans, largely from the standpoints of people living on the margins. Tales (offered as fiction) that well could be true, or almost so, or amalgamated from various lives. Compelling read.
July 27, 2013
A very rough but powerful read. Think of a darkly haunted, haunting, world stripped down and set in and around the streets of New Orleans. Throughly engrossing, an especially unsettling story was Fever, and the title story was actually scary, and I don't scare easily.
August 20, 2025
Like any short story collection, it is hit and miss. So the real question is, what about the hits? Oh, they hit hard. Very hard. Now, is this the real New Orleans? Hardly anymore than the other iterations. But it is about a time (1990s), place (French Quarter mostly), and people (scumbags mostly preying on others). Yet, if A Confederacy of Dunces captured the goofy dark humor, this is all about the shadows. That is where the weirdness comes in. Several stories have certain horror elements, a sense of unease and creepiness that is also natural. And that is fully in keeping, for growing up in New Orleans, the belief in something otherworldly was common then and now. And while Toole, Cable, Faulkner, and Curran show what is different, one also gleans what has not changed from their eras.
Is this version of New Orleans gone? No, but it is less common, hovering on the fringes more, and perhaps less anodyne. But as I like to tell people, in New Orleans there is no safety guaranteed. The darkest and worst may happen more often in some places, but it even happens in Carrollton, the Garden District, the West Bank, etc.
Highlights, ranked
Stay Out of New Orleans
Higgins
Loveladies
Dust
Fever
The Living
Mess
Very Old Things
I find the shorter pieces are usually the weaker ones.
Is this version of New Orleans gone? No, but it is less common, hovering on the fringes more, and perhaps less anodyne. But as I like to tell people, in New Orleans there is no safety guaranteed. The darkest and worst may happen more often in some places, but it even happens in Carrollton, the Garden District, the West Bank, etc.
Highlights, ranked
Stay Out of New Orleans
Higgins
Loveladies
Dust
Fever
The Living
Mess
Very Old Things
I find the shorter pieces are usually the weaker ones.
March 24, 2014
Picked up this self published book while at the Librairie Bookshop in New Orleans on a recent visit. I always end up getting one self published book from there on each visit. I really fell head long into these stories.
They range from very grounded stories of the gutter punk scene of the 90s to things more strange. I finished this fast, and I'm still thinking about the stories, so I think that says something.
They range from very grounded stories of the gutter punk scene of the 90s to things more strange. I finished this fast, and I'm still thinking about the stories, so I think that says something.
June 13, 2022
Purchased in New Orleans, started on the way home, and each story evoked such a strong sense of place, I felt I was walking back on the streets I had just left.
July 6, 2024
If Armistead Maupin had an indigent New Orleans cousin from the questionable side of the family with a slight weed habit, he would write this book. It was good. Cult classic.
July 18, 2022
If you haven’t spent time in New Orleans you find these short stories rich with characters and story lines. If you have been though you will recognize these people as not outrageous, not fringe, but rather very much like people you would meet there. Gritty and at times unnerving, one of the most “take me there” books about the Crescent City I’ve read.
January 29, 2021
I bought this book at the Louisiana Music Factory on Frenchman. The synopsis on the back calls the period where "death and ruin lurked behind every door....a Golden Age".
I understand mourning lost grit, but it's hard to live your life in the rat infested corners this book occupies. Either you stop doing crack in your clown suit and decide you're going to be the father your daughter needs, or you don't. The characters usually aren't making tortured art, they're not staying up late into the night sharing intimacies with other runaways, and anyone looking for a bit of warmth is bound to get fire instead. I don't doubt what came before the storm was beautiful and real in a way the Airbnbs and chain stores absolutely are not, but I don't see anything about these particular narratives that shows it. If this was your only introduction to the city you'd think there was no reason to come unless you wanted to do drugs with abusive monsters and die by supernatural causes. It's like Kurt Cobain walks up to you in all his glory and starts to flirt - by showing you infected track marks. I promise, there's more to greatness and soul than this.
What do I want from crusty punks on valium who starve a puppy they use as a begging prop before mounting its decapitated head on a pike? What do I want from murderers who take in runaways from bad homes then abandon them? From people who steal and eat and shit literally only so they can get to their next fix - absent of any inner dialogue about a life that came before or may come after, with no friends or family that exist except to steal from?
I don't want anything from them. Their stories are boring, addiction and vice for the sake of it replacing character development. And in a very practical way, no one wants this. I'm not quite sure how many characters in this book are brown, but this has a distinct tone of being focused on white cesspools. The projects get mentioned, as places these crusty punks stay away from. These kids, these failing adults, come from other cities they sometimes go back to after New Orleans has sucked them dry. And even if they're "from here", they're still from a different "here" than the black kids who don't get a dime for begging on the street with a dog, who can't sweet talk their way into an easy lay in the back of a Garden District bookstore. Glorifying the conditions that create crusty punks ignores what creates those conditions in the first place and yeah, it's a privilege to be able to view it from that lens.
It's a bit like the movie Kids but in New Orleans and without an empathetic character thrown in for balance, a cast of edgelords with landmarks you may recognize.
I understand mourning lost grit, but it's hard to live your life in the rat infested corners this book occupies. Either you stop doing crack in your clown suit and decide you're going to be the father your daughter needs, or you don't. The characters usually aren't making tortured art, they're not staying up late into the night sharing intimacies with other runaways, and anyone looking for a bit of warmth is bound to get fire instead. I don't doubt what came before the storm was beautiful and real in a way the Airbnbs and chain stores absolutely are not, but I don't see anything about these particular narratives that shows it. If this was your only introduction to the city you'd think there was no reason to come unless you wanted to do drugs with abusive monsters and die by supernatural causes. It's like Kurt Cobain walks up to you in all his glory and starts to flirt - by showing you infected track marks. I promise, there's more to greatness and soul than this.
What do I want from crusty punks on valium who starve a puppy they use as a begging prop before mounting its decapitated head on a pike? What do I want from murderers who take in runaways from bad homes then abandon them? From people who steal and eat and shit literally only so they can get to their next fix - absent of any inner dialogue about a life that came before or may come after, with no friends or family that exist except to steal from?
I don't want anything from them. Their stories are boring, addiction and vice for the sake of it replacing character development. And in a very practical way, no one wants this. I'm not quite sure how many characters in this book are brown, but this has a distinct tone of being focused on white cesspools. The projects get mentioned, as places these crusty punks stay away from. These kids, these failing adults, come from other cities they sometimes go back to after New Orleans has sucked them dry. And even if they're "from here", they're still from a different "here" than the black kids who don't get a dime for begging on the street with a dog, who can't sweet talk their way into an easy lay in the back of a Garden District bookstore. Glorifying the conditions that create crusty punks ignores what creates those conditions in the first place and yeah, it's a privilege to be able to view it from that lens.
It's a bit like the movie Kids but in New Orleans and without an empathetic character thrown in for balance, a cast of edgelords with landmarks you may recognize.
March 14, 2018
These stories have a literary bent which obscures the fact none of them are quite finished. The stories deal with macabre and unsettling situations which face tourists in New Orleans, at times with supernatural themes.
October 24, 2022
Very different than expected, which made it even more fun. Reminded me a little of Laundry Day. Makes you want to spend more time at the Dragons Den!
March 1, 2020
New Orleans in the ’90s. Before Katrina. A seedy Bohemia for street hustlers, pimps, punks, junkies, murderers, musicians, and suckers out of town.
An old world of hushed tones and voodoo and taboo tricks. Shadows and shotgun houses, whores and lovers and death. Among the grit, characters strive for a day of food and shelter and work, barely surviving but still laidback, easygoing in struggle, aware of being fully alive in the presence of decay.
Drinking, fucking, shooting pool, shooting dope, groaning in moments of easy pleasure and working in the hustle, knowing every local down in the French Quarter, waking up sweating with a fat head, walking on familiar roads where beads wedge into cracks of concrete, smiling at a steaming scent of Gumbo wafting through the Mississippi winds, pickpocketing a tourist and slipping away, falling in love with the same woman every month only to come home itching, ending up far away from where you were born, called to move to New Orleans through a dream, or from a vision in the arched light of bone angels, or because you had to escape the curse of your hometown, all to make a buck, smoking a joint outside a bar, dressing shiny and traditional to dance at Mardi Gras, living, living, living, like the reaper won’t ever show for you. But when death does come, after exhausting all the possibilities of where you’ve ended up, you hope that your family and friends will celebrate on the night of your grave.
An old world of hushed tones and voodoo and taboo tricks. Shadows and shotgun houses, whores and lovers and death. Among the grit, characters strive for a day of food and shelter and work, barely surviving but still laidback, easygoing in struggle, aware of being fully alive in the presence of decay.
Drinking, fucking, shooting pool, shooting dope, groaning in moments of easy pleasure and working in the hustle, knowing every local down in the French Quarter, waking up sweating with a fat head, walking on familiar roads where beads wedge into cracks of concrete, smiling at a steaming scent of Gumbo wafting through the Mississippi winds, pickpocketing a tourist and slipping away, falling in love with the same woman every month only to come home itching, ending up far away from where you were born, called to move to New Orleans through a dream, or from a vision in the arched light of bone angels, or because you had to escape the curse of your hometown, all to make a buck, smoking a joint outside a bar, dressing shiny and traditional to dance at Mardi Gras, living, living, living, like the reaper won’t ever show for you. But when death does come, after exhausting all the possibilities of where you’ve ended up, you hope that your family and friends will celebrate on the night of your grave.
June 29, 2023
Wow! I love reading books written about New Orleans since i live nearby. I encourage readers to read books about where they live or where they grew up. I smiled whilst i read each story shaking my head up and down knowing exactly which street, store, hotel, etc. the author was describing. The writing was superb! This collection of short stories some of which overlap with characters from the previous stories showed The seedy underbelly of the city. I couldn’t put this book down. I wanted to keep reading. I also re-read some of the stories. (it really is that good). It is violent, in your face, and sexual at times but well worth it. Read it!
August 13, 2023
This book was lent to me by my dear friend, Anna. The collection of short stories all take place in the bizarre and macabre city of New Orleans. As I read this book, I felt the ghosts of the characters running their fingers down my neck. A sense of unease, anxiety, and exhilaration surrounded these reading sessions.
Major cities have the tendency to pull people in and swallow them up into the dark corners and bars often without the mercy of spitting them back out. Curran tells of a city forgotten and lost just like the characters in these stories. I enjoyed the subtle weaving of characters from earlier entries into the later stories.
Major cities have the tendency to pull people in and swallow them up into the dark corners and bars often without the mercy of spitting them back out. Curran tells of a city forgotten and lost just like the characters in these stories. I enjoyed the subtle weaving of characters from earlier entries into the later stories.
July 11, 2021
Hits and misses here. But having just been to New Orleans it was enjoyable to know the streets and locations that serve as the setting for this collection of stories about run aways, drug addicts, the homeless, artists, and oddballs all coming to bad ends in strange ways. I liked it a lot, especially the opening story. It's also cool the way certain characters keep showing up in different stories.
July 22, 2021
One of the first books I've binged in a long time. I was fascinated by New Orleans on a recent day-trip and picked up this volume at a local book shop there. The author views New Orleans through a kaleidoscope that deftly blends fiction and what must be a veneer of reality, as such characters as the Crack Clown, the murderous pig, and the teenage cultists are unbelievable, yet to those attracted to stories about drifters and vagrants and ne'er-do-wells, all too real.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
January 3, 2026
another indescribable book but not necessarily in a good way ~ i enjoy stories set in new orleans because i used to live there ~ but this book is very creepy and cringy ~ i will say, even with the eeriness and the hints of mysticism or supernatural circumstances, i do 100% believe that each one of these stories is 100% true
March 1, 2020
Disturbing, vulgar, dreamlike, and depressing
A few stories in this collection are imaginative and well told. I like gritty writing - but there is little fun to be had here. It is daring writing. There is evident talent, but it might leave you depressed and disquieted.
A few stories in this collection are imaginative and well told. I like gritty writing - but there is little fun to be had here. It is daring writing. There is evident talent, but it might leave you depressed and disquieted.
July 31, 2024
A collection of short stories by a local citizen. he focuses on the young homeless and near-homeless folks in the city, describing what their lives are like - or might be like. He adds in a bit of supernatural as well. Fairly interesting read
April 20, 2025
The first chapter was so good I read the entire book. Sadly, that was the only good part of the book and I struggled reading the rest hoping some of the goodness would return. I live in New Orleans and enjoyed knowing the areas mentioned in the book, but otherwise... meh.
September 28, 2017
This was one freaky book. But I couldn't put it down!
October 26, 2020
A special kind of seediness infused in every tale! How lucky I am to have read this book and The Yellow House to make up for missing Jazz Fest this year.
April 9, 2024
Meh. If you’ve been to New Orleans you’ve seen these stories are lived out daily both before and after the storm. Beyond the shock value of some of the stories not much here I found interesting.
July 6, 2024
New Orleans is one of my favorite cities and reading about all those places I've visited, and some I haven't, helped make this book more enjoyable than it was.
December 28, 2024
This was dark. Really dark.
January 13, 2026
Each story was so beautifully written and so heartbreaking, it definitely showed what New Orleans is truly like for some people and I couldn’t put it down
October 4, 2019
Has a slow start, and is slightly masturbatory in its expression of how local it is, but otherwise a very interesting reed. Weaves a tale interlocking not-quite-fiction stories, built on people and places plucked straight off the streets.
I was introduced to this book from a man who said it was like A Confederacy of Dunces. They do really make their own genre of local fiction.
I was introduced to this book from a man who said it was like A Confederacy of Dunces. They do really make their own genre of local fiction.
April 24, 2021
A collection of gritty, chilling and darkly humorous stories that aren't too far from the reality of the streets of New Orleans.
November 29, 2025
The grit and the grace. No place quite like it. New Orleans, LA.
February 24, 2015
Couldn't put it down!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews