Photos from New Orleans and biography of Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin

Here is Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-Flat Major K. 452 performed by the incomparable Alfred Brendel at the piano.

St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans

Over Labor Day weekend Josh and I scuttled down to New Orleans.  It was so hot and sticky and crowded and just the favorite city we have visited so far.   It had everything I love:  history, architecture, book stores, cemeteries...

 Here are a few photos.  You may notice that I like cemeteries. 

 These photos are from St. Louis Cemetery no. 1, which is the only one you have to reserve a place in a tour in order to visit.  It's worth it.  The guide will tell you all sorts of lore, real and imagined.

William Faulkner's house.  It took some searching.  It was hidden away in a back alley around the corner of St. Louis Cathedral off of Jackson Square

It was one in the afternoon and I had not had anything to eat or drink all day.  We waited in a very long line at a cafe for some cafe au lait and beignets, but by the time we got a lovely table in the courtyard, it was time to go on our cemetery tour.  Luckily, just next door to our meet up was this gentleman's shop.  I got a iced coffee and orange juice.  The shop was practically empty but  refreshing after the heat and crowds outside. 

No food, though.  I was waiting for my beignets.  After our tour, we waited in a long line at Cafe du Monde, just across the park from Jackson Square.  We found out it was cash only, but luckily there was an ATM across the street.  Also, you don't wait to be seated, you find a table.  The waiter will find you, clean it off and take your order.  Don't you wish you had some?

While waiting for our order I read from a book I got at the Faulkner House.  It is an anthology of the lyrics to all the famous blues songs.  I thought it was the thing to buy to remember my time in New Orleans and the thing to read while drinking Cafe Au Lait and eating Beignets.

While walking along the Riverwalk next to the Mississippi River a man came up and offered to shine my shoes.  I told him I had no cash, which was true.  He said that's OK and fell to his knees and in a matter of seconds, squirted polish on my shoes and worked it in with his hands.  Then he jumped up and shook our hands and said, "God bless you."

I emptied my coin purse and handed him the change.  It was only a couple of dollars worth in quarters and dimes, but what else could I do?

You know, I wonder if he was an Angel Unawares because my feet felt so good after he was done, as if he massaged them.  And don't my shoes look good?  They were grey with dust before.

A last coffee before we head back to our Bed and Breakfast at a Retro decorated Cafe.

This was on the sidewalk on our way to our room.

From the top of the staircase at our B and B.

Our room.

And us, cheesing it up riding the Natchez, one of only two steam run paddle boats in the country.  The other one is on Lake Tahoe.  I rode that one too.

And here's my review:

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I listened to this via hoopla, which freed me up to paint and also give my eyes a rest. My ophthalmologist said they were strained, for some strange reason, and maybe, just maybe I might want to reduce the amount of time I read. Hence, audio books have become a part of my repertoire. And I have discovered that my local library has an excellent digital library. I'm already on my next book.

Shirley Jackson wrote darkly, Gothic stories. Her people live in perpetual twilight zones and nightmarish realities. "Out of the mouth comes the overflow of the heart" and reading this biography of Jackson, one realizes that her stories were the outpouring of Jackson's soul.

From her domineering, psychologically abusive mother, to a society she could not conform to, to a husband who never pretended to be faithful, plus an ever losing battle with drug and alcohol addictions added to an eating disorder, guaranteed a short life. She died at forty-seven.

The chapters flow back and forth from the events in Jackson's life to analyses of her work.

My only complaint, well, there are two. One, I got tired of the feminist slant. The whole "women are oppressed and forced to get married and have children" theme got tiring. The assumption is women are somehow free or better off if they stay single and the only reason they would get married is to conform to external societal pressures.

That's a bunch of bunk. Speaking as a woman, I got married and had a baby because I wanted to. To indicate otherwise is to insult my intelligence and imply that I am not a free agent.

Besides, Jackson really could have chosen her life partner better. Stanley Hyman told her from the get go he was a womanizer and had no plans to change. But because she was a "free thinker", she married him anyway. This choice, a choice as a free agent and intelligent person, although maybe not so wise, was her decision, not society's. It was not getting married that caused her no end of misery, but who she married.

The other complaint is the narrator. I really got tired of her whiny voice and especially when she was quoting. For some reason she went into a high, child-like character when speaking as Shirley Jackson.

I have now started another audio book and it is also very good. I do have one complaint, however. It uses the same narrator.

View all my reviews