Informative, fascinating, and incredibly depressing. ( )

Katrina: After the Flood is perhaps one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time. When I picked it up initially, I thought based on the description that it would be a factual account of the days, months, and years following the hurricane. While it did offer a factional account of events, the real story ended up being a series of human interest tales woven around the events and politics that surrounded the flood. I thought that Rivlin chose his characters well and that they represented a broad spectrum of people, and neighborhoods, after the storm. The prose was well-written and the story ended up being an all encompassing page-turner that I didn't put down all weekend. If anything, it's inspired a new love for the city that culture around my home revolved around throughout my youth. I know from family members that Katrina changed New Orleans, but I haven't been since the storm. I will go now with more context for what I see. ( )

Drawing on the memorable reporting he did for The New York Times, Gary Rivlin has produced a clear-eyed and definitive account of the events of that horrible month a decade ago, and more importantly, of the years that followed when far fewer people were paying attention. There is much here that I had forgotten, and far more that I never knew about the decisions that led to the rebuilding of New Orleans, and the malfeasance that held it back. His remarkable attention to detail results in a compelling, infuriating, and occasionally inspiring book. ( )

Once the waters receded

Katrina: After the Flood by Gary Rivlin (Simon & Schuster, $27).

At almost 500 pages, Gary Rivlin’s 10th anniversary look at what happened to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and how it’s been—or not been—rebuilt isn’t quite encyclopedic, but it’s substantial.

In Katrina: After the Flood, Rivlin, a Nation Institute fellow and former New York Times reporter, keeps the numbers close and the people closer as he reminds us that the 25,000 people at the Superdome were individuals with their own take on what was happening. His thumbnail sketch of New Orleans’ history is helpful, and he translates the complex realities of social, cultural, racial, political and economic divisions in the city into understandable and readable prose.

This book is not the end-all work on New Orleans and Katrina, but a decade later, it’s a fine place to start.

(Reviewed on Lit/Rant: www.litrant.tumblr.com) ( )

A terrific read. What Rivlin has done and no one else has even tried, as far as I know, is to tell the story of New Orleans from the point of view of its black business people, such as the banker Alden McDonald. There is a very good map at the beginning of the book, but the half star deduction is for the complete lack of photographs, less of the city than the people he writes about. We visited New Orleans three times recently, once in 2008 and once in each of the next two years. We stayed at the Olivier House, which is near Bourbon Street in the French Quarter and is a nice old ruin of a hotel. The food is terrific and the author probably should have included Donald Link in his writing, since this white local chef opened up three great places in town right after Katrina, two of which we go to every time we are in the city, Cochon and Herbsaint. The place is totally unique among American cities, not because it is surrounded by water, but because it is very European in feel, not surprising since it was first settled by the French and Spanish. When we were there, we saw lots of houses that were marked for destruction in the lower lying parts of town, indicating that the author is correct when he notices the lack of a complete city mostly due to the efforts of the locals to prevent blacks from moving back. The cops from Gretna, a white suburb, are racist idiots and should have been arrested and sentenced to long prison terms. along with their bosses. This is essential New Orleans reading. ( )