City of Refuge: A Novel

Reviews (See all 31) Write a reviewfor this

• 
  

  Is it only four years since Hurricane Katrina? Tom Piazza brings back the horror of that event in this novel that often reads more like a documentary than a work of imagination.
  It follows two families, one black, one white, through the buildup to the storm and the terrible aftermath. The white middle-class family manages to get out; they have their troubles and their marital discord but they are basically safe. The black family is stuck in the Lower Ninth Ward as the flood waters rise.
  Piazz... (show more)

  Is it only four years since Hurricane Katrina? Tom Piazza brings back the horror of that event in this novel that often reads more like a documentary than a work of imagination.
  It follows two families, one black, one white, through the buildup to the storm and the terrible aftermath. The white middle-class family manages to get out; they have their troubles and their marital discord but they are basically safe. The black family is stuck in the Lower Ninth Ward as the flood waters rise.
  Piazza doesn't try to hide his fury at the hapless administration of George W. Bush and the clueless president himself who allowed this tragedy to unfold. He is much softer on Mayor Nagin and the governor of Louisiana (who I believe goes unmentioned in the book) for their equally appalling failings. Piazza's anger is fully justified and his rage gives the book some of its undeniable power. But his occasional forays into newspaper-style descriptions of the wider context of the tragedy seem to fit poorly, weakening the focus on the characters themselves and their stories.
  Of the characters, the white family to me seem less compelling. The husband wants to return to New Orleans, the wife wants to move to Chicago -- hardly the stuff of great drama. I wasn't much involved in them and their troubles.
  The black family was much more fully drawn. I won't give away their troubles but they were much more of the life-and-death variety. Piazza is very strong when he describes the dislocation and confusion of a young man who has known only New Orleans suddenly finding himself living with a kind white family in Albany, New York. "Are those the Rockies?" he asks, pointing to the distant Adirondacks.
  One criticism: Piazza skips over several days of the aftermath. One character takes refuge in the Superdome but we don't hear what happens there. Next we know, she's in Missouri.
  This is a worthy book, written in white heat, about a great American tragedy, man-made, that we should not forget. Other works of art will doubtless follow but this sets a high initial standard. (show less)

   

   

  by Alan Elsner on Apr 29, 2009 at 01:02PM

  Already read

  Is this review helpful? yes no
   
• 
  

  Piazza opens with two quotes, one from Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, which this book is an homage to. Like that American classic, City of Refuge tells of a forced US migration, both through the eyes of those experiencing it, and with journalistic interludes that further fill in the details. I thought I knew what happened there. City of Refuge showed me I hardly knew a thing, and more compellingly, helped explain why.

  The novel switches between two families, one black, one white, and their exp... (show more)

  Piazza opens with two quotes, one from Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, which this book is an homage to. Like that American classic, City of Refuge tells of a forced US migration, both through the eyes of those experiencing it, and with journalistic interludes that further fill in the details. I thought I knew what happened there. City of Refuge showed me I hardly knew a thing, and more compellingly, helped explain why.

  The novel switches between two families, one black, one white, and their experiences during and after the hurricane. I sometimes thought Piazza gave too much detail, and veered into the didactic, problems I also had with Grapes of Wrath. Like that book, though, this is a chronicle of a national tragedy, and the government ineptitude that made things worse. Like that book, City of Refuge is a novel about social justice. It educates, inspires empathy, and fosters outrage. The writing style wasn’t always to my taste, but the scope and power of the story, and the character of SJ in particular, are such that I’d recommend City of Refuge to almost anyone. (show less)

   

   

  by Kristin Boldon on Mar 08, 2009 at 06:04PM

  Already read

  Is this review helpful? yes no
   
• See all reviews
  Write a review