Elysian Fields

Preliminary cover design by Rachel Perkins (New York). Photograph of Hebrew Rest Cemetery, Elysian Fields Avenue, New Orleans, by Mark LaFlaur, 2012. 

Photo by Mark LaFlaur, 2012.

Preliminary cover design by Rachel Perkins (New York). Photo by Mark LaFlaur (near Grand Isle, Louisiana, 2012). 

“Readers will find the author’s portrayal of New Orleans convincing and his characters fascinating and fully developed. . . . Life in the Weems family of 1999 New Orleans is anything but Elysian in this engrossing Southern Gothic snapshot. As Simpson ponders whether to kill his brother Bartholomew, he reflects upon their upbringing with mother Melba. At age 36, Simpson works in a copy shop, but fantasizes of escaping to San Francisco and being a famous poet. The obstacle is Bartholomew—as a second grader, he spent a year in a psychiatric ward—who is presented vividly as possibly autistic and ‘laced with idiot savantism.’ LaFlaur deftly alternates between character perspectives, delving into perceptions and motivations. . . . Simpson’s perception of haunted New Orleans hammers home LaFlaur’s implication that life consists mostly of dealing with your ghosts.”

Quarter-page advertisement in Kirkus Reviews, 2013.

Elysian Fields at LSU’s Middleton Library. 

Elysian Fields is available at Crescent City Books at its new location, 124 Baronne Street, one block off Canal in the CBD, across from the famous Roosevelt Hotel (Waldorf Astoria), (no longer at Chartres Street in the Quarter). Thanks to manager (and author) Michael Allen Zell.  

Napoleon House vintage postcard, found at vintagehalloweencollector@Flickr. 

Louisiana-Holiday Haven (found at From Out of the Past-http://bigcheese327.tumblr.com)