Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September, 2012

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 Chron