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Julia Reed went to New Orleans in 1991 to cover the reelection of former (and currently incarcerated) governor Edwin Edwards. Seduced by the city's sauntering pace, its rich flavors and exotic atmosphere, she was never entirely able to leave again. After almost fifteen years of living like a vagabond on her reporter's schedule, she got married and bought a house in the historic Garden District. Four weeks after she moved in, Hurricane Katrina struck.

With her house as the center of her own personal storm as well as the ever-evolving stage set for her new life as an upstanding citizen, Reed traces the fates of all who enter to wine, dine (at her table for twenty-four), tear down walls, install fixtures, throw fits and generally leave their mark on the house on First Street. There's Antoine, Reed's beloved homeless handyman with an unfortunate habit of landing in jail; JoAnn Clevenger, the Auntie Mame—like restaurateur who got her start mixing drinks for Dizzy Gillespie and selling flowers from a cart; Eddie, the supremely laid-back contractor with Hollywood ambitions; and, with the arrival of Katrina, the boys from the Oklahoma National Guard, fleets of door-kicking animal rescuers and the self-appointed (and occasionally naked) neighborhood watchman. Finally, there's the literally clueless detective who investigates the robbery in which the first draft of this book was stolen. Through it all, Reed discovers there really is no place like home.

Rich with sumptuous details and with the author's trademark humor well in the fore, The House on First Street is the chronicle of a remarkable and often hilarious homecoming, as well as a thoroughly original tribute to our country's most original city.

Average Customer Rating:

A delightful, page-turning memoir of a house and a hurricane

Customer Rating:

(Note: Cyber stalkers roam with freedom on Amazon to distort vote totals) "The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story" by Julia Reed is an enjoyable book--for the wonderful characterizations, for the bon vivant attitude of the writer and her crew, for the generosity of spirit during a catastrophe, for the genuine difficulties and joys in restoring an old house, and not least for incomparable settings in the incomparable city, New Orleans. This is definitely a book that merits a second reading. Reed's "New Orleans story" happens to be unusual. As a journalist and editor for Vogue and Newsweek, she had the opportunities of meeting and interviewing famous people like Walker Percy and Ann Rice. But her stories were not just stories, but connections. Growing up in a well-off family allowed Julia more opportunities than most. She became part of the group of people in her family and family friends who went to New Orleans to visit--quite often. However, as an adult, she settled in New York for a writing career as a journalist. She relates early her family's connection with the Percys, not to boast, but to make connections. It is a Percy house that she and her husband buy on First Street when they decide to settle in New Orleans. But that is a long way in the future. There is a long affair with A in her adult visits to New Orleans. Julia is quite frank about her hedonistic life style until she is in her early forties, meets John and decides finally to settle down. She wants this settling. But first there is the apartment on Bourbon Street in one of the hidden gardens with banana trees and other tropical plants that a city below sea level with its thick humidity is known for. Even though the kitchen is tiny, Julia entertains. She is one of those people who collect the odd assortment of people who can do extraordinary things. I so envied her cooking and entertaining and dining and drinking as extravagantly as she did. When she and John decide to marry and find a house, it takes them a year to find exactly the right one on First Street (a house owned by a Percy brother) in the exclusive Garden District, but, oh, what work is necessary to modernize it, and oh, what problems that restoration causes. Julia hires friends or friends of friends or people who knew people who--well, you get the idea. And she sticks with them even when they create expensive problems. That is one aspect of Julia's nature that defies understanding--her misplaced loyalty. Then again, her telling of this story of mishaps is part of the charm of her story. The second half of the memoir begins one month after she and John move in: Hurricane Katrina strikes. As a native Louisianian who lives in the northwest area, I know the Katrina story, but not from the inside. The most interesting part of this memoir was reading about the slow but steady rebuilding of various parts of New Orleans, particularly the restaurants. I was proud. Once New Orleansians could return, she and John begin the long process of restoring parts of the house that had already been restored. They were lucky in the minimal damage done to their house. However, and this was my second favorite part, what Julia did for the National Guard out of Oklahoma and other rescue groups was the epitome of generosity. She and John bought tons of New Orleans types of food to replace military MREs: gumbo, sausage, rice and beans, ducks, hams, turkeys, which various restaurant friends cooked up for the soldiers, who, I am sure, will never forget their stay in New Orleans or its hospitality! One tidbit to share: The residents of Audubon Place, a gated street, hired Israeli commandos to protect their property from looters. Another tidbit: Julia was assigned to write a story for Newsweek about New Orleans in the aftermath. The photographer assigned to her team was the very one who shot the famous photo of the Afghani woman which appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 1985. "The House on First Street" is definitely worth reading for those interested in various views of Americana: the restoration process of a house built in a by-gone era, an insider's look at the most catastrophic hurricane to hit the United States, and food, oh man, Julia's description of the food for which New Orleans is so famous! However, the really best reason is to read the painstakingly gradual restoration of a great city that almost died.

Marie Antoinette +

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I am utterly flabbergasted by the content and tone of Ms. Reed's book. I found it utterly distasteful, not the least bit charming, boring and shallow. She puts Marie Antoinette to shame. I expected to enjoy and love this memoir about New Orleans and Katrina, instead I felt throughout that it should more aptly have been named, "How I Managed to Eat Lavishly, Still Drink My Favorite Champagne and Decorate My New Mansion, as Katrina Wrecked Thousands of Lives Around Me." Ms. Reed's book, replete with recounts of all her grand, costly Katrina gestures (such as buying dinner for 700 National Guardsmen without bothering to ask what the bill would be), and after having her jewelry stolen, remarking that the good thing about having your "serious" jewelry stolen is that "inevitably", its been photographed at parties, so it makes it easier to trace and find it, is a primer for insensitivity, smug self-indulgence and not only bad writing, but bad taste. Even as the dead, bloated bodies floated by her, we are subjected in pitiless detail to her merry non-stop drinking tales and her utter relief at finding sensational restaurants open so that she can eat great meals. HELLO? Perhaps she experienced some other, different Katrina as she is surely not talking about the one we all know about now. Today, as Hurricane Gustav makes its way--possibly--to New Orleans, perhaps it's yet another excuse for Ms. Reed to pop open a cork on some champagne?

At times tedious and disappointing

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I lived in New Orleans for several years, luckily I managed to move far away a couple of years before Katrina, so I missed all of that. So when I learned about this book I thought it would be fascinating to read about someone else's experiences living there and dealing with contractors and construction (like I did) and going through all the horror of Katrina. In the end, the book was not fascinating, it was a bit tedious, sometimes infuriating, and occasionally interesting and maybe even a little entertaining. I don't want readers out there to think, based on the author's experiences, that all the locals hang out at Galatoire's drinking vodka all day because no one expects you to come back to the office after lunch. I worked for a living, I owned a tour company and later I had office jobs. I assure you if I spent all day drinking my lunch at a super expensive landmark restaurant someone would definitely care and I would dearly pay for it. In fact, I never knew any locals who ever even went to Galatoire's, no one I knew could afford it, and Galatoire's is considered to be mostly for tourists anyway. Julia Reed is obviously pretty wealthy, so it was hard to identify with her or commiserate with her when her fabulous 6,000 square foot Garden District millionaire's mansion had a leak in the sunroom. It's hard to care when she gets a checking account from daddy with $5000 in it after she evacuates from the storm when so many other people didn't have anything. It's hard to give a damn when sometimes it seemed like all she really cared about was getting her servants back after the storm. My New Orleans friends and I never had servants, my house was nowhere near the Garden District, I lived in the 9th ward, I owned my own business and worked hard as hell so I could eat at places like Louisiana Pizza Kitchen, Angeli, and Coop's Place---none of which are expensive or owned by John Besh and other star chefs/friends of Reed's. And that's not to say that she should be criticized for being wealthy and having a far cushier life in New Orleans than I did, it's just hard to care about her and her story when she has so much and when I was there I watched most people all around me suffer daily under crushing poverty and extreme crime. What I found rather repugnant was her attitude towards the people who came from all over the country to rescue the stranded and starving pets. She seems to find great sport in making fun of them and belittling their efforts. When she sees an aviary rescue van she wonders what's the big deal about rescuing people's pet birds while New Orleans has some wild parakeets that fly around the city. Well, maybe because these pet birds are not wild and they're not flying around the city, they're trapped in cages unfed and unwatered alone and dying in hot or flooded houses crawling with mold, maybe that's why there were people out there trying to rescue them. I found her comments ridiculous and unfeeling, she was more worried about getting her house finished, her servants back, and her expensive restaurant hang outs reopened so she could hurry up and get back to her normal leisurely life. On top of everything, the author's obsession with alcohol throughout the entire book, mentioning it in some way just about every 2 pages or so, gets very tedious. Very few people I knew living in New Orleans were this obsessed with drinking, and the ones that were desperately needed rehab. Tourists, of course, go to New Orleans in droves specifically to drink and stagger around the garbage piled streets of the French Quarter, but honestly, all the locals I knew and did business with and were friends with all around the city were far too busy to sit around drinking and obsessing about fine wines and expensive liquors all the time. Julia Reed's New Orleans is nothing like my New Orleans, and that's a shame because the New Orleans I experienced was a lot more realistic and gritty, as well as fascinating and entertaining.

New Orleans, Like it or not is a continuing tragedy in the midst of charm.

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In taking us from the comfort of observing yet one more upscale redo of a home and the ensuing 'perfect' life of the future occupants into the change of course Katrina forced upon every resident of New Orleans, Julia Reed exposes many of the shocking still kept secrets behind of the veil that has been dropped by the current administration over our collective memories about the horrific disaster and the even more appalling mismanagment of relief as perpetuated at every level of government in this country. The way people have found to survive, thrive, revive, and celebrate post-Apocalyptic New Orleans is touching, memorable, and a call to action. Julia's book is call to not forget Katrina, to not forget the underserved people in our land. Julia show us that they can be the poorest folks who are lost and also lost everything or the poor national guard who are doing their duty, living on the edge seeing horrific things daily, eating horrible rations, until Julia brings some real food and the touch of our common humanity to them, in their service to protect and help restore this iconic part of our country. Y'all read this inspiring book and then go forward to help lest we forget. It won't hurt if you commune to eat/cook/serve some good New Orleans food in the process! This is going to everyone on my gift list along with an invitation join me in action in New Orleans and in the myriad pockets of despair in this country. It is so nice and easy to take out your checkbook and to help folks far away, so very much harder to see and deal every day with what is right in front of you. So, mirror the grace and good humor of Juila Reed in her courageous coverage and restorative love: it won't hurt and it may be just what we need to save our wonderful country.

epicurean and heart-warming New Orleans memoir

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In contrast to many other reviewers, I found "The House on First Street" a very enjoyable, warm, entertaining and highly educational read. I know that these adjectives, for some people, should not apply to the book describing New Orleans before, during, and in the aftermath of Katrina, and therefore they do not approve of the style this book was written in. For me, however, each event, however tragic, results in an explosion of creativity in many very different moods, which is always a good thing, because any work of art immortalizes the subject and makes it history (there are many comedies about World War II and Communism, for example, and they are appreciated even by the survivors - or maybe especially by them). Julia Reed's memoir about her life in New Orleans, written in a brisk, magazine-style prose characteristic for a journalist, is a charming tribute to the Southern way of life. The epicurean (some would say hedonistic) descriptions of festive meals (I think it is remarkable, how she remembered or wrote down all the menus throughout the years), drinking in copious bars and pubs, parties, Mardi Gras parades, krewes, Carnival, unreasonable spending sprees, make the book a life-affirming proof of human nature. Even in the times so difficult as the post-Katrina year when life in New Orleans was as far from normal as could be, the city's inhabitants found a way to get back in style. At the center of the story is Reed's house in the Garden District, and she concentrates on its purchase, history, renovation and visions of her future life there, meanwhile introducing many colorful characters and the portrait of the city. For me, whose knowledge of New Orleans and Louisiana history has been close to null, this book was a great introduction, especially that it provides a lot of references and (I hope) renders the spirit of the city and society in an easily approachable manner. The subject of tragic events caused by Katrina is introduced with a great dose of humor but solemn enough to give a grasp of their gravity, at the same time giving hope for New Orleans' future. It is true that Reed's narrative can be perceived as infinitely snobbish (intended, I assume) and it took me a while to get used to her way of telling the story, also I was sometimes annoyed by her overuse of certain phrases (like "a tad"), but I read her book with pleasure and can recommend it as a good summer read for those who want something light, but more informative and serious than romance novels or detective stories.