The Ritz of the Bayou

“Although Nancy was a protégé of Gordon Lish, Elizabeth Hardwick, and Walker Percy, her literary voice from the outset was assuredly, distinctively hers. In temperament and sensibility, she seems to me closer to F. Scott Fitzgerald than any of her mentors—or perhaps she’s Scott and Zelda rolled into one, her work suffused with a longing for a lost glamour. And she has no imitators.” —James Wolcott “At the core of the book is Lemann’s passionate, funny, unsettling description of what it feels like to be back home, and she comments often on the rich, troubled character of New Orleans and the South generally. The reprise of The Ritz of the Bayou [creates] the perfect opportunity for a fresh audience to encounter her unforgettable literary voice.” —Maria Browning, Chapter 16 “Nancy Lemann picks up where Hunter Thompson left off with Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72.” —Barry Hannah “This atmospheric, fragmented, and admirably peculiar work, which had only one hard-cover printing and no paperback run, deftly captures New Orleans’s idiosyncratic 'tropic zone,' where 'a flawed thing may be more full of life than a perfect thing,' and any event possesses the capacity to become a spectacle. Focused on the chaos of Louisiana’s governance, with its yearning for charismatic kings over staid leaders, the book can be seen as a bellwether for contemporary politics.” —Lauren LeBlanc, The Drift “A hallucinatory, gin-soaked account of the trials of the former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards.” —Parker Richards, Editor, The New York Times “Desperate gaiety is the chief distinguishing feature [of The Ritz of the Bayou]. Fine entertainment."" —Douglas Seibold, Chicago Tribune  “Peculiar, annoying, insidious, shrewd, fascinating.” —Ralph Novak, People “A compelling evocation of idiosyncratic Southern political and judicial usages carried on in a tropical climate that, the author suggests, determines the pace of human activity and fosters eccentricity. Her Southern politicos, 'drawling, cigar-smoking, silver-haired gents,' with a high tolerance for human frailty, are vividly drawn as are a jazz-crazed assistant prosecutor and the seedy trial buffs and hangers-on who prefer a corrupt official to a boring one.” —Publishers Weekly “A modest mosaic of brief, discrete glimpses."" —Library Journal