Stuff As Dreams Are Made On…

Voodoo Season by Jewell Parker Rhodes
2005
275 Pages
4/5

I found a book tent this year at Jazz Fest and knew that I had to go visit it. It was filled with nothing but New Orleans authors or authors who wrote about New Orleans. Yeah, I was like a kid in a candy shop. My eye was immediately drawn to the voodoo section as I’ve always found voodoo to just be fascinating…maybe it’s because I live in the voodoo capital of the world, who knows. On the shelf was a book by an author I had never heard of, Jewell Parker Rhodes. She’s an african american woman who seems to wrtie a lot about voodoo! Couldn’t pass that up. Especially when I found a fictional account of the great granddaughter of Marie Laveau, Voodoo Season.

Voodoo Season is a fascinating book. It’s the story of a young doctor named Marie Levant who is doing her residency at Charity Hospital. Marie has always noticed that something was a little different with her….a little strange. She has a seemingly sixth sense. She knows things about people without knowing how she knows them, she takes in lovers that show such passion. But when one of those lovers turns up dead at her hospital, things take a turn. Not only has her lover turned up dead, but so are numerous young women. And they all have crosses on their heads. When Marie has an intuition that one of the girls is pregnant, she performs a C-Section and forms an instant attachment to the child. She wants it to be hers. She searches for the babies grandparents and in doing so falls into the world of voodoo.

There’s a myth that voodoo is an evil religion. It wasn’t started that way and it’s not an evil religion. But like all religion, there are those that use it for evil purposes. These are some of the people that Marie runs into as she begins to come into her own and begins to realize that Marie Levant, her own name, is a transformed version of Marie Laveau. She is a direct ancestor of Laveau and it is she that holds the ability to be the next voodoo queen.

I feel like I’m doing a horrible job of describing this book, but take my word for it…it’s damn good. Jewell Parker Rhodes is another author that captures the essence of southern Louisiana perfectly. The city of New Orleans, the swamps further down south, the madness of Charity hospital, it’s all there. She awakened a fascination with this part of the city that has lay dormant in me for a long while and I’m anxious to scoop up all of the information I can now on Marie Laveau. I’m also dying to read the rest of her books. The prequel to this one is Voodoo Dreams and is a telling of the tale of the actual Marie Laveau, a woman who is to this day still shrouded in mystery. There are also two sequels to this book that further the storie of Marie Levant.

The only slight problem I had with this book was the ending. I was happy with the way it ended but it felt so rushed. I don’t know if she was given a page limit by the publisher or what, but it would’ve been much better I think if it had been a longer novel. Everything seemed to happy to quickly and a little too conveniently at the end, but that’s ok I guess :p The scenes of Marie performing her voodoo rituals for the first time more than make up for that. Read it!

Weekly Geeks asks us to post all about literature that takes place in our hometown, is inspired by our hometown, or is written by authors from our home town! I could make this a huge post, but I’ll just post about some of my favorites. New Orleans is a city that lends itself very well to literature. It’s a dark and mysterious city, it’s as unique of a city as they come, and it has a fascinating history. I complain about my city quite a bit, but I doubt that I could find another city that I love as much as New Orleans when it comes down to it.

Most people think of A Confedarcy of Dunces when they think of New Orleans literature. Or they think of the plays of Tennessee Williams. Both are literary references that we pride ourselves on. In fact, we have a Tennessee Williams festival every year down here (yes we use anything as a reason to get drunk) that includes a Stella! screaming contest And one of my favorite fine dining restaurants down here is a little place called Stella that’s in the French Quarter.

When I think of New Orleans literature though, I can’t help but think of horror and gothic novels. I think they capture the feel of the city perfectly. And who else but Anne Rice can capture it so well. I was truly sad when Anne Rice decided to stop writing horror novels and instead focused on Christian novels after she was “born again”. But to each their own. Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles (starting with Interview With a Vampire) take place in New Orleans for the most part, but I think that her Mayfair Witches series, which begins with The Witching Hour, is the greatest feat in New Orleans literature. If you want to know the feeling of New Olreans, read the Witching Hour. Not only is it amazing book, but it caputres our city perfectly. The mystery, the intrigue, the haunted past, the haunted present. It fantastic. The house that the Mayfair Witches live in is actually based on her own house, seen here on the left. I’ve visited her house many times. It’s located in a part of New Orleans called The Garden District and the houses are absolutely gorgeous. It’s all traditional New Orleans architecture with tons of old beautiful trees.

If Anne Rice isn’t your cup of tea and you want your vampires a little more risque, you can go with Poppy Z. Brite. She’s another local author that has since changed her tone quite a bit, but still focuses on New Orleans. She captures it well too. My favorite books of hers are her early vampire books, Lost Souls and Drawing Blood. She’s now writing more about the food scene in New Orleans with novels like Liquor and there is a lot to write about there as well!

I’m just discovering a series all about voodoo written by a fantastic author named Jewell Parker Rhodes. I’m reading Voodoo Season, which is actually the sequel to Voodoo Dreams, but it works really well as a stand alone novel. I’ve always been fascinated by Marie Laveau. She’s our voodoo queen and everywhere you go in New Orleans you’ll find voodoo shops…shops that cater to tourists and some that cater to people who still practice voodoo. I highly recommend Rhodes’ books from what I’ve read so far. They’re stunning and do a wonderful job of capturing that ehthereal feeling that New Orleans gives where the line between the living and the dead is relatively thin. Marie Laveau’s grave is located in St. Louis Cemetery #1 and it’s a place that people flock to still when they’re having problems or seeking help. The picture of her grave is to your left. It’s a tradition to say a prayer to Laveau, light a candle beneath her grave, and draw an “X” on her tomb. And yes, we bury our people above ground in New Orleans :p

So that’s all of the tour for now! But I know I could think of plenty more! These are just the big names that popped into my head. If anyone wants to come visit, I’ll give you a personalized tour of all of the literary spots here

I’m being a bum today. Yesterday was Jazz Fest, ever heard of it? The long name is The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and this year was it’s 40th anniversay. This was only my third time going, but it was a lot of fun….and hot…very hot..I was sweating ALL day! Jazz Fest runs for two weeks at the Fairgrounds (the race track) over here. It runs the last Friday, Saturday, Sunday of April and the first Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday of May…this is the last week.

It’s so much more than just music too. There are arts and crafts everywhere…everywhere you look. Some really amazing stuff. Lots of local artists come out to sell their wares. And then there’s the food…my God, the food! There are literally a couple of hundred of food booths and everything sells something different from po-boys, bread pudding, crawfish bread, crawfish bisque, crawfish etouffee, crawfish monica (yeah, we like our crawfish :p), gumbo, jambalaya, and stuff you’ve never heard of before! They even had mediterranean and sushi this year! For food, I had a paneed chicken poboy, some crawfish monica (which is crawfish and rotini pasta in this delicious spicy cream sauce, and a falafel sandwich. And I had LOTS of water.

Music wise, we stayed at pretty much one stage the entire time. We saw The Wild Magnolias who are this group of African Americans who dress up in elaborate Native American costumes and do this incredible tribal/jazz music. The we moved over to the main stage and saw Buckwheat Zydeco (really big in New Orleans), Dr. John (really, really big in New Orleans…did the original Iko Iko), and then Bon Jovi. I was less than thrilled to see Bon Jovi..sorry fans. But he was so so…very 80’s. Felt like I was thrown back in a time machine actually. The reason I was less than thrilled, really, is because Kings of Leon were playing at the same time, but all the way across the fest. And my friend who got the tickets for the day wanted to see Bon Jovi…so since she saved me $50, I stuck around :p

It was lots of fun! Oh…and they had a giant book tent…so you know I had to stop in there. You’ll see this book tomorrow in my Mailbox Monday VLOG, but for now I’ll just let y’all know that I got a book called Voodoo Season by Jewell Parker Rhodes and it sounds fantastic!! Takes place in NOLA, and it’s about the great great granddaughter of Marie Leveau. I had to share the opening line with you:

She was cloaked in mist – soft as silk, cold as ice, darker than the bayou on a moonless night. “Marie.” She was blind in a world without parameters, borders. Only Sound. Raw feelings.

Seriously, could you pass up a book with a first line like that?

Ok…enough rambling now…see y’all tomorrow with a vlog!