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NEUROTIC NEW ORLEANS & OTHER FICTION
You'd have to be crazy not to like some of these books.

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (Vintage, paperback, $12.95)
First novel by beloved local author Walker Percy, The Moviegoer follows Binx Bolling, a boyish New Orleans stockbroker stumbling toward his thirtieth birthday amid the chaos of Mardi Gras. Binx soothes his malaise by going to the movies, his "treasurable moments" away from reality. Winner of the 1961 National Book Award.

Visit the Walker Percy Project: www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/

Almost Innocent by Sheila Bosworth (LSU, paperback, $16.95)
Born and raised in New Orleans, Bosworth knows the city and writes about it with ease. This, her first novel, is the story of Clay-Lee Calvert, the love child of two beautiful people who have nothing in common. The intense passion of her parents in the decay of the 1950s provides the stage for Clay-Lee's loss of innocence.

Filled with references to Mardi Gras, Canal Street, Galatoire's, the Garden District, Carrollton Avenue, Comus, Sophie Newcomb College, and Lake Ponchartrain, it bulges with local flavor, and feels completely authentic.

"A remarkable first novel. Like the old master Henry James, Sheila Bosworth uses the chilling device of the mirror of innocence to reflect evil. It is a lovely achievement, a superior one." --Walker Percy

Read more about Sheila Bosworth on her publisher's website:
www.lsu.edu/lsupress/catalog/spr-sum-98/bosworth

Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist (Back Bay Books, paperback, $13.95)
Gilchrist is an acclaimed, National Book Award-winning author of several books set in the New Orleans area. Victory Over Japan includes short stories about an unforgettable group of Southern women, including her Rhoda character that appears in various other collections and novels and is named after Maple Street Book Shop owner, Rhoda Faust. Some reviews compare Gilchrist to Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty, but she has a unique voice--one that is funny, tragic and outrageously funny.

Get more info about Ellen Gilchrist at:
www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/gilchrist_ellen/

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (Grove Press, paperback,
$14.00)
The quintessential New Orleans novel. If you haven't lived in New Orleans or read this book, you're missing out. Toole has captured all the local characters and all their quirks and flaws, well, flawlessly. A great primer to read before you visit.

It's also a great source of local legend. Toole died before Confederacy was published, but his mother championed the book, forcing it on Walker Percy until he agreed to read it and help her find a publisher. He did (along with Rhoda Faust, owner of Maple Street Book Shop), and the book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Tulane University holds many of the Toole family papers:
www.tulane.edu/~lmiller/TooleFamily.html/

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (Signet, paperback, $5.99)
"Stelllaaaa!" The Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee. The perenially popular work that introduced the world to Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. Set in New Orleans on Elysian Fields.

The annual Tennessee Williams Words and Music Festival is held every year in New Orleans in March. Find out more: www.tennesseewilliams.net/

The Thanatos Syndrome by Walker Percy (Picador, paperback, $15.00)
Returning home to the small Louisiana parish where he had practiced psychiatry, Dr. Tom More quickly notices something strange occurring with the townsfolk, a loss of inhibitions.

"There is ample evidence of Percy's brilliance in The Thanatos Syndrome--the droll Dixie anthropology, the pitch-perfect dialogue, the sheer intelligence everywhere on the page." --Douglas Bauer, Atlantic Monthly

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines (Vintage, paperback, $12.95)
This wonderful Louisiana title was chosen in 2003 as the inaugural pick for "One Book, One New Orleans," a program that encourages all citizens age 16 and older from the Greater New Orleans area to share a reading experience and build common ground.

Set in the 1940s in rural Louisiana, A Lesson Before Dying tells the plight of Jefferson, a young black man convicted of a liquor-store murder and sentenced to death. Can Jefferson discover his own humanity and worth before he is killed? Can Grant, a highly educated man who has returned to his old home on the plantation to teach school, agree to aid the reluctant inmate?

Find out more about Ernest Gaines at:
www.randomhouse.com/vintage/gaines/bio.html/

We're crazy about these books, too.

Handling Sin 
by Michael Malone ($14.00)

Midnight Lemonade 
by Ann Goethe ($11.95)


More local fiction:
ALL THE KING'S MEN, Warren, 14.00 (P)
AT FAULT, Chopin 10.00 (P)
AWAKENING, THE, Chopin, 1.50 (P)
AWAKENING AND OTHER STORIES, Chopin, 8.00 (P)
AWAKENING, THE, Chopin, 4.50 (MM)
BAYOU FOLK And A NIGHT IN ACADIE, Chopin 11.95 (P)
BILOXI GAMBLER, Wilma Knox 12.95 (P)
BILOXI TRAVELER Wilma Knox 12.95 (P)
BILOXI WITNESS, Wilma Knox 12.95 (P)
BLACK CHERRY BLUES, Burke, 6.99 (MM)
BLACK ROSE, Due, 14.00 (P)
BLOOD & GOLD Anne Rice 7.99 (MM)
BLOOD CANTICLE, Anne Rice 7.99 (MM)
BONDWOMAN'S NARRATIVE, Crafts 14.95 (P)
BRIDE OF FAT WHITE VAMPIRE, Fox 14.95 (P)
CAJUN, A NOVEL, Dubus, 11.95 (P)
CANE RIVER, Tademy 13.95 (P)
CHASING THE DEVIL'S TAIL STORYVILLE, Fulmer 14.00
CHITA, Lafcadio Hearn, 20.00 (H)
CHITA, Lafcadio Hearn, 15.95 (P)
CHOPIN COMPLETE NOVELS & STORIES, Chopin 35.00
CHRISTMAS STORIES FROM LOUISIANA 28.00 (H)
COLLECTED STORIES FAULKNER 19.00 (P)
COMING THROUGH SLAUGHTER, Ondaatje 10.00 (P)
CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, A, Toole, 11.95 (P)
CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, A, Toole, 26.95 (H)
CRESCENT CITY, Plain, 7.99 (MM)
CRY TO HEAVEN, Rice, 7.99 (MM)
DAYS OF THE DEAD, Hambly 6.99 (MM)
DIE UPON A KISS, Hambly 5.99 (MM)
82 DESIRE, Smith 6.99 (MM)
1842 A NOVEL, Nevin 6.99 (MM)
EVANGELINE A NOVEL, Fox, 6.95 (MM)
EVANGELINE, poem, Longfellow, 6.95 (MM)
FAT WHITE VAMPIRE BLUES, Fox 13.95 (P)
FEAST OF ALL SAINTS, Rice 7.99 (MM)
FEVER SEASON, Hambly 6.99 (MM)
FREE MAN OF COLOR, Hambly 6.99 (MM)
FRENCH QUARTER FICTION, Josh Clark 16.95 (P)
GLASS HOUSE, Wiltz 14.95 (P)
GRANDISSIMES, Cable 7.99 (MM)
GRAVEYARD DUST, Barbara Hambly 5.99 (MM)
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, Rice 7.99 (MM)
JASS A VALENTIN ST CYR MYSTERY, David Fulmer 23.00 (H)
KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE, Shirley Ann Grau 13.00 (P)
LACE CURTAIN, Widmer 5.95 (MM)
LASHER, Rice 7.99 (MM)
LAST CAR TO ELYSIAN FIELDS, Burke 7.99 (MM)
LaSTANZA N.O. POLICE STORIES, DeNoux 19.95 (H)
LESSON BEFORE DYING, Ernest Gaines 12.95 (P)
LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, Twain 4.95 (MM)
LIQUOR, Poppy Z Brite 13.95 (P)
LOUISIANA HOTSHOT, Julie Smith 6.99 (MM)
LOUISIANA STORIES, Forkner 18.95 (P)
MARDI GRAS GUMBO & ZYDECO 18.00 (P)
MEAN WOMAN BLUES, Smith 6.99 (MM)
MEMNOCH, THE DEVIL, Rice 7.99 (MM)
MERRICK, Rice 7.99 (MM)
MIDNIGHT ON JULIA STREET, Ciji Ware 6.99 (MM)
MUMMY, THE, Rice 6.99 (MM)
MYSTERIES OF NEW ORLEANS, Baron Ludwig Von 28.00
NEW ORLEANS LEGACY, Ripley 6.99 (MM)
NEW ORLEANS MOURNING, Smith 6.99 (MM)
NEW ORLEANS SKETCHES, Faulkner 18.00 (P)
NEW ORLEANS STORIES 14.95 (P)
NIGHT JASMINE, Widmer 7.95 (MM)
OUR NIG SKETCHES LIFE FREE BLACK, Wilson 12.00
PAIR OF SILK STOCKINGS, Chopin 1.50 (P)
PANDORA, Rice 7.99 (MM)
PECAN CANDY & HUCK-A-BUCKS, Jackson 16.00 (P)
PLANTATION, THE, Kozneski 19.95 (P)
QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, Rice 7.99 (MM)
SAVING MR BINGLE A N.O. CHRISTMAS FAIRY TALE 9.95
SERVANT OF THE BONES, Rice 7.99 (MM)
SOLD DOWN THE RIVER, Hambly 6.99 (MM)
STORYVILLE A NOVEL, Battle 15.00 (P)
STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, Williams 7.99 (P)
SWEETER THAN CANDY, Jackson, 14.00 (P)
TALE OF THE BODY THIEF, Rice 7.99 (MM)
TALTOS, Rice 7.99 (MM)
THREE TIMES SWEETER, Jackson 17.00 (P)
UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, Stowe 8.95 (P)
VAMPIRE ARMAND, Rice 7.99 (MM)
VAMPIRE LESTAT, Rice 7.99 (MM)
VIEUX CARRE, Tennessee Williams 10.95
VIOLIN, Rice 7.99 (MM)
VITTORIO THE VAMPIRE, Rice 7.99 (MM)
VOODOO DREAMS, Rhodes 14.00 (P)
WET GRAVE, Hambly 6.50 (MM)
WITCHING HOUR, THE, Rice 7.99 (MM)
YELLOW JACK, Russell 13.95 (P)