In Search of "The Last Beaucoeur"

a book review of The Coffee Shop Chronicles of New Orleans- Part 2: The Last Beaucoeur

Reading "The Last Beaucoeur" photo by James Thiebaud

Having adored The Coffee Shop Chronicles of New Orleans, Part 1 ( see my review “Finding Home” http://kristinfouquet.blogspot.com/2011/01/finding-home.html ), I have been eagerly awaiting Part 2.

In Part 1, the lovable, witty protagonist B. Sammy Singleton is attempting to write a guidebook to the coffee shops of New Orleans. Easily distracted on a good day, he becomes obsessed with discovering the whereabouts of his close friend Charles “Catfish” Beaucoeur after a recent disappearance. We are introduced to Catfish in the beginning, but for much of the book he is as elusive as a ghost. The first part ends with a poem, “Old Glory,” penned by Catfish. The poignancy of the words leaves the reader with an intense desire to know this man; Part 2 gratifies this wish.

The prologue to The Coffee Shop Chronicles of New Orleans- Part 2: The Last Beaucoeur is a surreal hallucination which seems to foreshadow the ending. Eerily, the book begins and ends on Friday, August 26, 2005, just days before Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Louisiana. The backdrop is a city in frenzy with uncertainty as New Orleanians asked themselves the question: Stay or go? The preparations and evacuations heighten Sammy’s urgency to find Catfish. Lummis writes deftly, positioning the reader alongside Sammy in his confusion, anxiety, and desperation.

The story is told in glimpses from Sammy’s childhood, but predominately through memories of Catfish’s lifelong friend, Lee Ann Rush. Lummis expertly merges fact and fiction, evident in the key character of a Magazine Street antiques dealer. Via Lee Ann, readers are finally rewarded an intimacy with Catfish, and a long-awaited yearning for Sammy as well.

Without giving the details of these secrets away, we learn the painful reasons why he periodically disappears along with the hurt and guilt he harbors for sins he did not commit. Lummis has done his research and these revelations are immensely powerful.

I’m ready for Part 3.

Find Part 1 and 2 here: http://www.coffeeshopchronicles.com/

Kristin Fouquet, September 2012

Comments

Perpetual Poetry: Words Inspiring Words, a review

"Reading Karen Lillis" copyright 2014 Kristin Fouquet Perpetual Poetry: Words Inspiring Words a review of The Paul Simon Project by Karen Lillis I have a confession to make. I am not a poet. I write fiction and I believe writing poetry is a completely different process. I love reading good poetry, but I am in no way a poetry scholar. These are the reasons I usually do not review poetry chapbooks. The Paul Simon Project by Karen Lillis is only my second exception to this rule. Influenced by Simon’s words and music on the album Still Crazy After All These Years , Lillis duplicates the song titles for her poems in this collection. Some follow a similar path as the subject of the song; others venture in their own direction. The album’s title song inspires a poem which mimics the melancholy and sentimentality of the original. Yet, she pumps it up with a contemporary edginess and gender reversal. In “My Little Town,” Simon sings,

You Were Perfectly Fine by Dorothy Parker

"Martini" kristin fouquet This is my favorite hangover story. A raise of the glass to the inimitable Dorothy Parker. You Were Perfectly Fine by Dorothy Parker The pale young man eased himself carefully into the low chair, and rolled his head to the side, so that the cool chintz comforted his cheek and temple. “Oh, dear,” he said.”Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear. Oh.” The clear-eyed girl, sitting light and erect on the couch, smiled brightly at him. “Not feeling so well today?” she said. “Oh, I’m great,” he said.”Corking, I am. Know what time I got up? Four o’clock this afternoon, sharp. I kept trying to make it, and every time I took my head off the pillow, it would roll under the bed. This isn’t my head I’ve got on now. I think this is something that used to belong to Walt Whitman. Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear.” “Do you think maybe a drink would make you feel better?” she said. “The hair of the mastiff that bit me?” he said.”Oh, no,

Photographs in Exist Otherwise, Issue #6

“Masks are made of different kinds of material: cardboard, velvet, flesh, the Word. The carnal mask and the verbal mask are worn in all seasons. “ - Claude Cahun Happy Bastille Day! It was on another French Holiday, Mardi Gras, in 2022, I used my old Kodak Brownie film camera to capture the festivities. I'm delighted to have three of those photographs, "Mardi Gras Birdman," Mardi Gras Flock," and "Mardi Gras Toast" published in Exist Otherwise, Issue #6 with the theme of Masks. Many Thanks to editor, cc bovarysme!

Le Salon Annex

Search This Blog