Pointless, sporadic, and free ... and essential.
The Letter From New Orleans — “pointless, sporadic, and free”— began as a bunch of emails to interested parties, from New Orleans. The book Letters From New Orleans, includes all the Letters, as well as additional material.
Subjects covered in Letters From New Orleans include: Celebratory gunfire, rich people, religion, the riddle of race relations in our time, robots, fine dining, drunkenness, urban decay, debutantes, the nature of identity, Gennifer Flowers, the song “St. James Infirmary,” and mortality.
"These stories now function as 21 silent little jazz funerals: exuberant, celebratory and tragic."
The New York Times
"This three-year meditation on life — and death — in New Orleans is as wistful as absinthe, as funky as a muffuletta at a joint off Tchoupitoulas."
author of Desire Street: A True Story of Death and Deliverance in New Orleans
"In addition to Walker's modest aim--to entertain and educate a small audience about his favorite city--Letters succeeds as a collage of eloquent impressions of New Orleans and reads like thoughtful dispatches from a learned friend."
Booklist
"Its insider-outsider perspective and street-level historical explorations make it essential for anyone interested in New Orleans."
"Rob Walker is a wonderful writer with a gentle yet comprehensive inquisitiveness, the rigorous, observant eye of a journalist, and the light, poetic touch of an artist. He has managed to make New Orleans-a city that has been documented and written about for centuries-seem completely fresh and unfamilar and wholly compelling. Letters from New Orleans is a lovely book, and so much more."
author of Fraud
