Just finished reading Rob Walker’s Letters from New Orleans, which I enjoyed much more than Tom Piazza’s Why New Orleans Matters. I found the latter to be far too preachy, bordering on a sort of “White Man’s Burden” for why no expense must be spared in rebuilding the city. Walker’s book, on the other hand, made me care much more for the city and what it means and has meant.
Maybe the big difference is that one writer was discussing NO,LA pre-Katrina, and the other post-Katrina.
Or maybe it’s that one writer is a journalist, and the other is a novelist.
Or maybe one guy is someone you could just chill out and have a beer with, and the other guy is a douche.