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Don Brown’s ‘Drowned City,’ and More
from newyorktimes.com
Ten years have passed since Americans were glued to their televisions, watching the catastrophic results of Hurricane Katrina. Yet much of the drama happened after the storm pummeled New Orleans. For readers too young to remember, three new books revisit those troubled days and offer a clear view of that notorious storm’s impact.
Brown is the author and illustrator of two other nonfiction graphic historical accounts, the much praised “The Great American Dust Bowl” and “America Is Under Attack,” about Sept. 11, 2001. Like those earlier books about national catastrophes, “Drowned City” delivers a brave treatment of important and uncomfortable details. Don’t look for a happy ending here. Brown hints at the recovery that eventually got underway, but the book’s deeper intent is clearly understood: to show that the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina’s arrival in New Orleans went beyond the destruction caused by high winds, rains and flooding.
Brown doesn’t hold back in showing how the government failed in its responsibilities. Although he credits the Coast Guard and local heroes with rescuing thousands, much of his book addresses the sloppy handling of the evacuation by people in charge at all levels. In an early illustration, a railroad employee says: “We offered . . . to take evacuees out of harm’s way. The city declined.” Below that is a short but profound sentence: “Five trains leave New Orleans empty.” This book could almost make its point on the powerful illustrations alone, but Brown’s precise language secures the historical details in an unforgettable way.Explaining the complicated series of events that took place during the hurricane and in its aftermath is no easy feat, but Don Brown’s graphic nonfiction account, “Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans,” accomplishes the task with strong results. Gritty watercolor illustrations in somber colors project the cloud of despair hanging over the Crescent City, and brief bits of dialogue in speech bubbles support the facts that Brown lays out in a brisk, straightforward tone. One harrowing scene shows a couple escaping to their home’s attic. When the rising water catches up with them, they scratch a hole through the roof with a knife. We see others who weren’t so fortunate.
Hurricane Katrina did, of course, have an after-story. Two new novels take young readers on emotional journeys that convey what it’s like to lose your home, your family life and your city, then discover your way back. The return may be welcome, but it’s not without cost or alteration.
Reesie, the main character of “Finding Someplace,” by Denise Lewis Patrick, lives in the New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward. When the story opens, she eagerly awaits her 13th-birthday celebration, where she plans to debut a dress she created. The timing couldn’t be worse. News of Hurricane Katrina’s approach causes many of Reesie’s neighbors, including her best friends, to leave New Orleans. Her police officer father’s loyalty to his job and city influences his decision to stay. Her mother wants the family to flee to safety. Their polarized views cause friction between Reesie’s loving parents. Through spare dialogue and small gestures, Patrick skillfully develops these characters along with others. Yet she never forgets it is Reesie’s story.
The hurricane brings on more changes than the devastation of Reesie’s home. In the hours surrounding Katrina she experiences a first kiss, discovers her elderly neighbor’s surprising past and learns that a storm can bring out the best or worst in people.
Patrick is the author of many books for young readers, including the well-received story collection “A Matter of Souls.” She lives in New Jersey, but was born in Natchitoches, La. In an author’s note she mentions taking a drive through the Lower Ninth Ward and discovering that her aunt’s newly renovated home sat next door to an empty lot where a house once stood. What she saw seems to have inspired her keen attention to building Reesie’s world. In “Finding Someplace,” she unfolds a complicated situation with a simple story line. Through Reesie’s emotions we see the unrest created by Katrina and, eventually, her realization that a hurricane might demolish a house but it doesn’t have to destroy a family.
Tamara Ellis Smith’s first novel, “Another Kind of Hurricane,” begins with two fractured lives. Told from various points of view, the story belongs to Henry in Vermont and Zavion in New Orleans. Henry’s grief over his best friend’s recent death is mixed with guilt. Smith reveals why, gradually unveiling moments of the fateful day his friend died. Down South, Zavion is still coming to terms with his own grief over the death of his mother. His free-spirited artist father offers little comfort.
The boys live worlds apart, and at first readers may question how their stories connect. Patience pays off. Henry’s tale begins when he takes a marble from his friend’s coffin. The marble was a lucky token exchanged, back and forth, between the two.
In New Orleans, the arrival of Hurricane Katrina sets Zavion’s story in motion. Through a series of circumstances the marble travels from person to person, eventually causing the boys to meet. When they do, readers may wonder if the journey is fueled by serendipity or magic. Henry believes retrieving the marble will hold the answer to his feelings of guilt over his friend’s death. Zavion thinks paying back a debt will resolve his turmoil. The hurricane’s outcome isn’t glossed over. Smith takes her time showing the struggle and desperation New Orleans citizens experienced. Through Zavion, we learn how hunger may cause people to steal and how being turned away from safety at gunpoint can cover them with a veil of hopelessness. Even so, “Another Kind of Hurricane” is not dependent on Hurricane Katrina to steer the story. Grief is the driving force.
With all its destruction of property and dishevelment of lives, and the rebuilding that eventually followed, Hurricane Katrina was bound to make its way into literature for all ages. These three books show young readers that when life as we know it is interrupted, sometimes we do more than survive. We come out stronger on the other side.
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