Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Simon & Schuster (2007), Paperback, 384 pages
Description
"1 Dead in Attic is a collection of stories by Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, recounting the first harrowing year and a half of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Celebrated as a local treasure and heaped with national praise, Rose provides a rollercoaster ride of observation, commentary, emotion, tragedy, and even humor--in a way that only he could find in a devastated wasteland. They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair. And stories about refrigerators. 1 Dead in Attic freeze-frames New Orleans, caught between an old era and a new one, during its most desperate time, as it struggles out of the floodwaters and wills itself back to life."--Page 4 of cover.
Media reviews
The physical and psychic dislocation wrought by Hurricane Katrina is painstakingly recollected in this brilliant collection of columns by award-winning New Orleans Times Picayune columnist Rose (who has already hand-sold 60,000 self-published copies).
User reviews
LibraryThing member amaryann21
This book is only 364 pages, which I usually read in a day or two at most. This book took me three months. Rose is a journalist and this is a compilation of columns he wrote post-Katrina. It's raw. So raw that I had to be very careful how much I read, because it was too heavy sometimes. But it's
But the spirit, what makes New Orleans, didn't die and it's here, in this recounting of disaster, that I see again how much New Orleans means to those who love her. The moments of finding her soul again, despite the destruction.
If you love NOLA, this is important to read. It's part of her now.
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IMPORTANT. If you've been to New Orleans, even now, 10 years later, it's not over completely. There are still neighborhoods that are dead and will not recover. But the spirit, what makes New Orleans, didn't die and it's here, in this recounting of disaster, that I see again how much New Orleans means to those who love her. The moments of finding her soul again, despite the destruction.
If you love NOLA, this is important to read. It's part of her now.
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LibraryThing member whitewavedarling
First, I wouldn't recommend reading this in one sitting. I left it at my boyfriend's house, and read it when I had time on weekends. As a collection of newspaper columns, it lends itself well to occasional reading. Obviously from the subject, it is not lighthearted. It is, however, at many times
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inspiring, and nearly always touching. Rose is a talented writer, and this is an in depth look at what happened in the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans. Rose sets politics aside, and looks at the people, examining the inspiring just as closely as the heartbreak. The reader also sees Rose himself go through the process of healing, to the extent that it can be found, which is in itself a journey worth taking and examining. Whether you are a longtime visitor of New Orleans, have been there only one (like myself), or have never been there at all, this book is something outside of available description. It is worth reading, for anyone. You'll find yourself touched, as could be expected, but also reassured for the state of humanity in general, and you'll learn a great deal along the way. This book is highly recommended, for anyone. Show Less
LibraryThing member Widsith
This sounds like a ridiculous criticism given the subject matter, but I found this book far too sentimental. Chris Rose was a beat reporter at the Times-Picayune when Hurricane Katrina smashed into New Orleans, and in the aftermath he started writing these short columns about how the city was
In an open letter to ‘America’, published in September of '05, he introduces the area in a way that gives you a good idea of his general tone:
I suppose we should introduce ourselves: we're South Louisiana.
We have arrived on your doorstep on short notice and we apologize for that, but we were never much for waiting around for invitations. We're not much on formalities like that. …
We're a fiercely proud and independent people, and we don't cotton much to outside interference, but we're not ashamed to accept help when we need it. And right now, we need it. …
When you meet us now and you look into our eyes, you will see the saddest story ever told. Our hearts are broken into a thousand pieces.
But don't pity us. We're gonna make it. We're resilient. After all, we've been rooting for the Saints for thirty-five years. That's gotta count for something. …
So when all this is over and we move back home, we will repay you the hospitality and generosity of spirit you offer us in this season of our despair.
That is our promise. That is our faith.
There's really two options when writing about very serious and traumatic situations: either you become as dry as humanly possible (on several occasions I've sat in newsrooms next to people who were openly sobbing as they typed up their notes, but to read their report you'd think they were observing what happened from a distant satellite, not covered in blood and shit in the middle of what was happening – and the story became devastating through that distance); or, you go full gonzo and do a first-person subjective immersion à la Tom Wolfe or Hunter S Thompson.
Rose chooses not to attempt the former, and is not able to do the latter because, as he says, he himself suffered nothing more serious that a broken drainpipe on his house. So he's stuck in this awkward no-man's-land, inhabiting a kind of borrowed communal misery, buttressed with folky false modesty and clichés of determination, which is completely understandable and even admirable but which doesn't make for powerful journalism.
I feel really bad criticising this, since it's obvious that Rose was utterly traumatised by Katrina – ‘it beat the shit out of me,’ he says – and indeed, a lot of what is in here reads less like a chronicle of a ruined city, and more like a chronicle of someone succumbing to PTSD. (Rose in fact became addicted to antidepressants during this period and separated from his wife.) Still, I wish there had been a little more journalistic examination of the situation – the class and race issues which Katrina brought into such sharp relief are almost entirely absent here.
These columns do make for a revealing snapshot of what a city looks like after a big disaster (so much of what was in here reminded me of being in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake), with the lines of refrigerators on the streets, the fallen trees, the smell of masonry dust and decomposition, the hair-trigger emotions of everyone left. It's partly an audience problem. These pieces didn't connect well with me as an outsider, but when Rose wrote them, they were aimed at his fellow Louisianans, and for that audience who understood exactly what he was going through they probably worked really well.
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recovering and how the community was coping; they're supposed to be snippets of personal commentary rather than journalism per se, which perhaps explains the register. Nevertheless, for me the saccharine emotionality of Rose's writing detracted from, rather than reinforced, the impact of what he was describing.In an open letter to ‘America’, published in September of '05, he introduces the area in a way that gives you a good idea of his general tone:
I suppose we should introduce ourselves: we're South Louisiana.
We have arrived on your doorstep on short notice and we apologize for that, but we were never much for waiting around for invitations. We're not much on formalities like that. …
We're a fiercely proud and independent people, and we don't cotton much to outside interference, but we're not ashamed to accept help when we need it. And right now, we need it. …
When you meet us now and you look into our eyes, you will see the saddest story ever told. Our hearts are broken into a thousand pieces.
But don't pity us. We're gonna make it. We're resilient. After all, we've been rooting for the Saints for thirty-five years. That's gotta count for something. …
So when all this is over and we move back home, we will repay you the hospitality and generosity of spirit you offer us in this season of our despair.
That is our promise. That is our faith.
There's really two options when writing about very serious and traumatic situations: either you become as dry as humanly possible (on several occasions I've sat in newsrooms next to people who were openly sobbing as they typed up their notes, but to read their report you'd think they were observing what happened from a distant satellite, not covered in blood and shit in the middle of what was happening – and the story became devastating through that distance); or, you go full gonzo and do a first-person subjective immersion à la Tom Wolfe or Hunter S Thompson.
Rose chooses not to attempt the former, and is not able to do the latter because, as he says, he himself suffered nothing more serious that a broken drainpipe on his house. So he's stuck in this awkward no-man's-land, inhabiting a kind of borrowed communal misery, buttressed with folky false modesty and clichés of determination, which is completely understandable and even admirable but which doesn't make for powerful journalism.
I feel really bad criticising this, since it's obvious that Rose was utterly traumatised by Katrina – ‘it beat the shit out of me,’ he says – and indeed, a lot of what is in here reads less like a chronicle of a ruined city, and more like a chronicle of someone succumbing to PTSD. (Rose in fact became addicted to antidepressants during this period and separated from his wife.) Still, I wish there had been a little more journalistic examination of the situation – the class and race issues which Katrina brought into such sharp relief are almost entirely absent here.
These columns do make for a revealing snapshot of what a city looks like after a big disaster (so much of what was in here reminded me of being in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake), with the lines of refrigerators on the streets, the fallen trees, the smell of masonry dust and decomposition, the hair-trigger emotions of everyone left. It's partly an audience problem. These pieces didn't connect well with me as an outsider, but when Rose wrote them, they were aimed at his fellow Louisianans, and for that audience who understood exactly what he was going through they probably worked really well.
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LibraryThing member lilithcat
This is a collection of columns written by Rose (a Times-Picayune columnist, about the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and its people. The title refers to the marking on a home at 2214 St. Roch Avenue, indicating that the house had been searched and that there was one dead person in the
Break your heart.
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attic.Break your heart.
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LibraryThing member tulikangaroo
When I moved to New Orleans in 2010, one of the TV stations was running these "Guess who's back!" ads to promote the return of someone famous, quintessentially New Orleans, and much beloved. After weeks of this, the mystery person joining the news team was revealed! And it was a bitter-looking,
A little more than three years later, I'm preparing to move onto the next phase in my life - out of New Orleans. I have avoided reading the "Katrina stories" because the city has seemed so invigorated that I didn't want to return to the bleak past, but I figured it was time to read one while I'm still here and can personally envision what happened.
Chris Rose is a beautiful and talented writer. I'm sorry I ever doubted him.
At the beginning of the book I was a little put off by his perspective - he lives Uptown (as do I, full disclosure) where people's homes survived, and by extension, the people in them. How much suffering did he really go through? What does he know? How would he understand?
It quickly becomes evident, though, that he internalizes the city's pain and makes it a part of himself. He spends inordinate amount of time in the ruined, rotten parts of the city so he CAN understand. He becomes the voice of pain - literally.
He eventually admits his struggle with depression - one look at him tells you that he's the guy who scoffs at mental illness as a character flaw, and he fesses up to that, point blank. And though I don't want to encourage ANYONE to live with depression, I thank him for using his considerable talents to put words to the pain so many felt during that time.
What a story.
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sardonic man. It was Chris Rose. I did not make an effort to watch his segments.A little more than three years later, I'm preparing to move onto the next phase in my life - out of New Orleans. I have avoided reading the "Katrina stories" because the city has seemed so invigorated that I didn't want to return to the bleak past, but I figured it was time to read one while I'm still here and can personally envision what happened.
Chris Rose is a beautiful and talented writer. I'm sorry I ever doubted him.
At the beginning of the book I was a little put off by his perspective - he lives Uptown (as do I, full disclosure) where people's homes survived, and by extension, the people in them. How much suffering did he really go through? What does he know? How would he understand?
It quickly becomes evident, though, that he internalizes the city's pain and makes it a part of himself. He spends inordinate amount of time in the ruined, rotten parts of the city so he CAN understand. He becomes the voice of pain - literally.
He eventually admits his struggle with depression - one look at him tells you that he's the guy who scoffs at mental illness as a character flaw, and he fesses up to that, point blank. And though I don't want to encourage ANYONE to live with depression, I thank him for using his considerable talents to put words to the pain so many felt during that time.
What a story.
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LibraryThing member -Cee-
I confess. Initially, I felt terrible about all the destruction in New Orleans after Katrina. BUT - after several weeks of watching raw anger and inaction on the news, I lost my compassion. I wanted to shake them and say - so get a grip and start cleaning up! What a fool I was! I had no real idea
Chris Rose is a journalist living in a part of the city that was not flooded. Nevertheless, there was much suffering all around and he found himself writing columns for his newspaper on what it was like for him and others. This book got to me. I'm glad I finally read it and have shed my disdain for all the whining and wailing. Katrina was not just about physical destruction. It was so much more. It affected the psyche and hope of a population who loved their city more than anywhere on earth. The survivors battled the chaos, the filth and stench, each other, the government, insanity , and a great sense of loss.
Forget the news coverage of anger and political in-fighting. While it may have been justified, it sent the wrong message to people like me. Envision a city with a brown "bathtub ring" and collasped structures... curbs lined with refrigerators gone bad and the smell of death. For a personal account of what it was really like read this book. Despite the topic and it's sadness, it's filled with hope and regeneration.
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of what it all meant on a personal level to the residents amid all that disruption and destruction. Chris Rose is a journalist living in a part of the city that was not flooded. Nevertheless, there was much suffering all around and he found himself writing columns for his newspaper on what it was like for him and others. This book got to me. I'm glad I finally read it and have shed my disdain for all the whining and wailing. Katrina was not just about physical destruction. It was so much more. It affected the psyche and hope of a population who loved their city more than anywhere on earth. The survivors battled the chaos, the filth and stench, each other, the government, insanity , and a great sense of loss.
Forget the news coverage of anger and political in-fighting. While it may have been justified, it sent the wrong message to people like me. Envision a city with a brown "bathtub ring" and collasped structures... curbs lined with refrigerators gone bad and the smell of death. For a personal account of what it was really like read this book. Despite the topic and it's sadness, it's filled with hope and regeneration.
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LibraryThing member jocraddock
Tears, laughter, memories . . . a very touching compilation of columnist Chris Rose's days in New Orleans following The Storm.
LibraryThing member Whisper1
The title is taken from writing on a flood destroyed house, indicating yet another victim of the Hurricane Katrina New Orleans tragedy .
This book, written by an award-winning Times Picayune columnist, contains one-chapter short stories that are simply incredible.
Rather than outline what lead to
After reading this I feel as though I've walked the streets of New Orleans, gleaned some knowledge of what makes the city tick -- the good (those stubborn hold outs who want to rebuild and renew) , the bad (the local politicians, the Army Core of Engineers and the ineffective mayor) and the ugly (very nasty culture that loots, robs, rapes and waits for handouts and blames all others.)
This book, written by an award-winning Times Picayune columnist, contains one-chapter short stories that are simply incredible.
Rather than outline what lead to
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Katrina, Rose focuses on the aftermath of the hurricane. His heart rendering account of a year and a half after is so well written that at times I laughed and others I cried. His pithy, heart breaking and poignant tales of the people who are the soul of New Orleans will haunt me for a long time. I laughed at the tale of refrigerator wars; I cried for a city trying to re-claim itself. After reading this I feel as though I've walked the streets of New Orleans, gleaned some knowledge of what makes the city tick -- the good (those stubborn hold outs who want to rebuild and renew) , the bad (the local politicians, the Army Core of Engineers and the ineffective mayor) and the ugly (very nasty culture that loots, robs, rapes and waits for handouts and blames all others.)
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LibraryThing member MusicMom41
I received this book as an Angel Mooch (Thank you, Linda!) and loved it. This is the “story” of what happened “after Katrina.” Chris Rose wrote a column for a couple of years after Katrina telling the stories of how the storm affected the city and the people if New Orleans. He is passionate
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about his city and in the end the tremendous grief he carried as he did this job almost destroyed him also. So often after a “catastrophe” when the news media stops covering it those of us not touched by it tend to forget that recovery does not happen instantly—and sometime complete recovery never happens. That is what this book helps us realize about New Orleans. It’s a very intense book—although sometimes there is also some humor, the laughter is most often through tears—and I had to put it aside periodically. But it is a book I would recommend to anyone who wants to better understand what people go through after a catastrophe. Highly recommended! Show Less
LibraryThing member barras31063
This book had me in tears. It is a collection of stories, recounting the first year and a half of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
LibraryThing member sheryll
A collection of Chris Rose's newspaper columns about living in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. There's no way, in my opinion, to read this book and not be moved to tears at some point. It's such an emotional read that I couldn't take it all in at one sitting. Bad idea to read it while commuting
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to work on public transit. I think people on the bus thought I was crazy, wiping away the tears as I read. Show Less
LibraryThing member bunkie68
I no longer live in Louisiana, but I grew up there. I have family in the New Orleans area, and they came to stay with us after Katrina hit. Reading this really brought home to me what they experienced as they fled before the storm and after they went back home to rebuild. Chris Rose's stories and
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descriptions of events and life after Katrina sometimes made me laugh, more often made me cry, and brought home to me the resilience of the human spirit. It made me grieve for what my home state has suffered and rejoice to see rebuilding taking place, even in very small ways. Show Less
LibraryThing member dareone32988
Being familiar with his work with The Times Picayune, I can honestly say Chris Rose always manages to find the humor or glimmers of hope in some of the darkest subjects. "1 dead in attic" is no different.
In his book, Rose chronicles actual events and happenings he observes first-hand in the
It is this emotional variation in tone that keeps readers interested instead of pummeled by a saddness that forces eventual abandonment of the book. Though, the subject matter is still too serious for lower grades, I would certainly use this book in my upper grade classes as an example of how some tragedies have spawned superb writing. Rose is creative yet truthful in his writing, but there are instances where he wanders off into his imagination in order to make a point. This deviation along with a few generalizations tends to take away from the raw, honest nature of the book.
Overall, the book is an excellent read and another intriguing view of the aftermath of Katrina from a new perspective.
In his book, Rose chronicles actual events and happenings he observes first-hand in the
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aftermath of Katrina. Each short story is an article that appeared in the Times-Picayune newspaper from August 29, 2005 to New Years Day, 2006. The articles are almost in the form of diary entries that were written as means of therapy for the writer. However, the articles are not organized chronologically but thematically as foretold by the Introduction. Each article evokes emotions from a deep sympathy to bittersweet humor that plants a silly grin on your face.It is this emotional variation in tone that keeps readers interested instead of pummeled by a saddness that forces eventual abandonment of the book. Though, the subject matter is still too serious for lower grades, I would certainly use this book in my upper grade classes as an example of how some tragedies have spawned superb writing. Rose is creative yet truthful in his writing, but there are instances where he wanders off into his imagination in order to make a point. This deviation along with a few generalizations tends to take away from the raw, honest nature of the book.
Overall, the book is an excellent read and another intriguing view of the aftermath of Katrina from a new perspective.
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LibraryThing member jharp
Loved this book. Thought it gave a good depiction of the aftermath of Katrina without being too maudlin or angry.
LibraryThing member MarcusH
This book gathers several years worth of newspaper columns written by Chris Rose, a New Orleans journalist. His columns show how devastating Katrina truly was. The heartache of an entire city of people being displaced, losing loved ones...losing everything is palpable throughout the book. At times
As a sidenote: One of the best lines from the book involves Rose searching for a FedEx package 7 months after Katrina. The FedEx call center apparently was outsourced and had little clue as to the devastation in New Orleans. The operator informed him that his package was delayed "due to some weather."
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Rose goes off on tangents that slow the books pace down and are hard to understand if one has not lived in New Orleans within the past decade. All in all, this book serves as an excellent chronicle of one of the U.S. darkest natural disasters.As a sidenote: One of the best lines from the book involves Rose searching for a FedEx package 7 months after Katrina. The FedEx call center apparently was outsourced and had little clue as to the devastation in New Orleans. The operator informed him that his package was delayed "due to some weather."
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LibraryThing member mchwest
Just like Chris Rose driving back down to the lower neighborhoods over and over, I read these books about how this hurricane affected New Orleans. I enjoyed the writing and take on the disaster, another book I'm glad I didn't pass over.
LibraryThing member MSFJones
Utterly horrifying, depressing, exhilarating, and at times laugh out loud funny, this book takes you to the streets of New Orleans after it was ravished by Hurricane Katrina.
The book is a collection of short essays, or columns, that Chris Rose, the author, wrote as a columnist for the New Orleans
Reading this book put me on an emotional roller coaster - it's hard to find a book that will make you both laugh and cry, to extremes, but this one does. If you've been curious as to what life was like for New Orleans residents in the aftermath of such devastation, this is the book to read.
The book is a collection of short essays, or columns, that Chris Rose, the author, wrote as a columnist for the New Orleans
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Times-Picayune in Katrina's aftermath. As a New Orleans resident, he shares the pain and helplessness he feels as he tours his city and sees her in ruins. He also shares the hope and positivity he and other residents share as New Orleans slowly begins to show signs of life and recovery. He tells stories of his fellow citizens, his family, his coworkers, and above all, shares an insider's perspective that most Americans never got to hear.Reading this book put me on an emotional roller coaster - it's hard to find a book that will make you both laugh and cry, to extremes, but this one does. If you've been curious as to what life was like for New Orleans residents in the aftermath of such devastation, this is the book to read.
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LibraryThing member -Eva-
This is so heart wrenching, you can't help but to cry, sometimes in frustration and anger, over the tragic events and their aftermath. I read this on the plane leaving NOLA and it really brought everything that I had just seen home to me and lodged deep inside my heart. I have nothing but devotion
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for NOLA after this trip and this read, and even with its flaws it's one of the best places on earth! I was already a huge fan of Chris Rose's for his devotion and dedication to the place and the people after seeing him on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, and this book just tops my list of current events must-reads! Show Less
LibraryThing member varielle
Award winning Times Picayune columnist Chris Rose was literally embedded with his story, fleeing hurricane Katrina right before it hit. He sent his family to safety in Maryland while he continued to live, work and report on life in New Orleans in the months that followed. This is a compilation of
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his columns which still appeared when the Picayune could only publish on-line for a time in the aftermath of the storm. It's difficult to maintain journalistic objectivity when you're living the story, so Rose can hardly be blamed for the toll his reporting took on him personally. It's a harrowing story that doesn't shy away from the horror or the hope. Show Less
LibraryThing member bettyjo
The story about the refrigerator war has stuck with me. People dropping off their Stinky frig at someone else's front yard for pick up is just a small piece of the pie with the recovery effort in New Orleans. What has happened in the New OrleansMississippi Gulf Coast area will not be fixed in my
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lifetime...maybe not even in my children's lifetime. It seems so simple...should we fix New Orleans or continue to funnel billions overseas to fight a war that the people there don't particularly care if we are there. I pray for the soldiers like I pray for the New Orleaneans. Show Less
LibraryThing member DrFuriosa
My husband bought me this book at an independent bookstore in New Orleans last year when he chaperoned a music trip at his school. I was not sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised to get op-eds and creative pieces about living through the year and a half after Hurricane Katrina hit.
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The writing style is vivid and in-the-moment, which blends journalism and travel narrative well. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Physical description
364 p.; 8.2 inches
ISBN
1416552987 / 9781416552987