Down on the Batture

by Oliver A. Houck

The lower Mississippi River winds past the city of New Orleans between enormous levees and a rim of sand, mud, and trees called “the batture.” On this remote and ignored piece of land thrives a humanity unique to the region―ramblers, artists, drinkers, fishers, rabbit hunters, dog walkers, sunset watchers, and refugees from immigration, alimony, and other aspects of modern life.

Author Oliver A. Houck has frequented this place for the past twenty-five years. Down on the Batture describes a life, pastoral, at times marginal, but remarkably fecund and surprising. From this place he meditates on Louisiana, the state of the waterway, and its larger environs. He describes all the actors who have played lead roles on the edge of the mightiest river of the continent, and includes in his narrative plantations, pollution, murder, land grabs, keelboat brawlers, slave rebellions, the Corps of Engineers, and the oil industry.

Houck draws from his experience in New Orleans since the early 1970s in the practice and teaching of law. He has been a player in many of the issues he describes, although he does not undertake to argue them here. Instead, story by story, he uses the batture to explore the forces that have shaped and spell out the future of the region. The picture emerges of a place that―for all its tangle of undergrowth, drifting humanity, shifting dimensions in the rise and fall of floodwater―provides respite and sanctuary for values that are original to America and ever at risk from the homogenizing forces of civilization.

Genres: Nonfiction

220 pages, Hardcover

First published April 19, 2010

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I picked this up, I didn't realize it was published 13 years ago. And yes the Mississippi River is eternal, but...
His essay that refers to Beverly playhouse makes it seem like it's still there instead of burning down over 40 years ago. And he says Moon was the last white mayor of New Orleans so I guess it went to press before his son Mitch got elected. So much if what he talks about is blocks away from where I grew up and yet its also so far from my experience. If I wasn't from the area, I'd probably rate it lower.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book by a phenomenal law professor at Tulane Law School. The book mixes equal parts lecture and storytelling but never bores. It juxtaposes tall tales and stories you could hear from a grandparent with Zen-like observations from the side of the levee---observations of life on the wild and hardly known strip of land known as the batture along the Mississippi River skirting New Orleans. The style is very relaxed and the content evokes passions of sadness, anger, hilarity, wonder, and wanderlust. For anyone who loves New Orleans, Louisiana, or life on the Mississippi, this book is a great and easy read to learn more about the culture the muddy waters have to offer, and how we as humans have affected it through industrialization.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stay with family in New Orleans (by Cooter Brown's and the DaQ Shoppe) about three times a year, and each time I buy a New Orleans or Louisiana book at Blue Cypress Bookstore on Oak St. I've been down on the Batture a few times, so I chose this book. I liked it for the information contained within and for the nice, easy style in which the author delivers. I created a little list of places to visit, including the spillways and Monticello St. The environmental troubles along the river have been very prominent in the news lately (2024), so Houck's books prepares the reader for that. Nice and easy.

[Raymond Just · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deftly told series of recollections and reminisces, both sweeping and intimate, ranging from New Orleans history to its wildlife, to its culture, politics, and everything in between. The voice here is the the thing, with stories that make you feel the author is speaking to you as friend and confidant. Highly recommended for any students of New Orleans history or Louisiana environmental preservation, as well as anyone wanting a taste of what the real New Orleans feels like.

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is what happens when you encourage your Grandmother to write a book of her memoirs before she dies. It's alright but you'd never read it unless you knew the author.

Harsh. I know.

I did rather enjoy parts and caught myself smiling, but generally at the uselessness of the thing. It's a quaint book of a New Orleans law professor's experiences walking his dog on the batture. As a daily batture dog walker myself I was eager to read the book after I heard a local interview on NPR with the author, however most chapters involved Houck walking his dog on the river and being reminded of some random sort of local history (the slave trade, the first American boxing match) and then retelling it.

It was fun to hear someone else talk about the batture shanties and the characters you meet but, like Houck says about Katrina, everyone has a dozen hurricane stories, and who's to say which are more valid than the others. In the end they are what they are.

It would be fun to run into this guy and share a beer or two but that doesn't mean I need to read his book about it.

[Noladishu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good only for the review of some recent history that's too far past for newspapers/internet, but too recent for history books. Houck is way, way too smug.

What's worse is it's riddled with factual errors. The Katrina chapter says 2004. The Bright Star is actually the Bright Field (although was later re-named the Bright Star http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Brigh... ).

One thing I'd be interested in reading, but wasn't in the book was his take on the whole Shintech case. Also omitted was the 2010 Louisiana Senate "Let's burn the TELC to the ground and piss on the ashes" bill (which is extremely similar to the defund Planned Parenthood move).