New Perspective on New Orleans

[Snowparrot]

Love song for New Orleans

AMANDA BOYDEN
From Saturday's Globe and Mail

February 21, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST
It's the birthplace of blues, the home of sizzling soul food and now the setting for Brad Pitt's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. More than three years after hurricane Katrina tore her city apart, author Amanda Boyden reflects on its rebirth and unbreakable spirit


I couldn't feign immediate joy. When I heard Brad Pitt was in my city of New Orleans, filming something new with a long name about an old man, I rolled my eyes. Whatever, I no doubt thought. Thanks for tossing us a bone.

Evidently production had begun before hurricane Katrina, but I had not heard about it. When you live in a place devastated beyond all the help that anyone might bring your way, you grow skeptical.

But director David Fincher and Pitt's New Orleans “love song,” The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond and Taraji P. Henson swayed me. I've read dozens of wide-ranging reviews, from the effusively praising to the little nods. Still, the Academy has seen fit to nominate the film for 13 Oscars. Not bad for this half-pint, drowned town.

These days, we take on anything we might call our own with a great deal of pride. It's interesting how a community can latch on to a tether of hope.

After the production crew left and the movie erupted onto the big screen New Orleanians were left in just one more wake. Benjamin Button examines not just the title character but the character of the city of New Orleans itself.

Recently, I had the opportunity to host a pair of twentysomething women visiting from Minnesota, dead tired of snow, wet socks and two-hour commutes to the office. Ah-ha! I could show newbies who had never been to New Orleans what it was all about. Did I follow the film's footsteps? A few of them. But the film just dips its toes into our big ol' bowl. I had to show the women what would have been silly for Pitt to champion on the big screen – but hopefully what he and Angelina showed visitors over and over again in person.

New Orleans' icons are intact. Bourbon Street still rocks it 24/7, and the Garden District, the St. Charles streetcar, Audubon Park (all three of which appear in the film), Tulane University, Esplanade Boulevard, our zoo and aquarium and dog park on the grassy levee near Riverbend – they're all good. Better than good.

But what the film captures so well is something that doesn't always make its way onto a printed page: the heart of the city. The character Benjamin Button, as a freakishly old newborn, is adopted by a black New Orleanian, and I don't think there's a better analogy for the sort of grace and acceptance found in our corner stores, bus stops and university classrooms. We welcome everybody. Our livelihoods depend on it.

Back to the Minnesotans in a minute. First, there's the thing with my dear friend Sarah and Brad Pitt. Sarah did something I didn't have the courage to do. She and her husband, Simon, bought a drowned house in the Holy Cross neighbourhood, an extraordinary patch of historic land and architecturally significant homes that sits right next to the Mississippi River. Holy Cross borders the Lower Ninth Ward and was dealt a devastating blow by Katrina.

But the view from the Holy Cross levee is something nobody could ever forget. Sarah's mother, recently visiting their completely rehabbed house for the holidays, cried at the sunset over the river, claiming to understand for the first time why her daughter and her new husband chose to stick by a city when they had so many other options.

If I'm to believe Sarah and Simon, academics and writers both, they would have something far less in terms of a home, and a view, if it were not for Pitt. As the spokesman for the Make It Right project, his role in rebuilding New Orleans is matched by few others. That he continues to visit, to dare celebrity friends and others to match his contributions to help rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward and, in essence, remind the rest of the world that our city still suffers, demonstrates just how much the real person behind the film's lead character cares for our city.

I took the Minnesotans, Bethany and Joanna, on a “devastation tour,” near Holy Cross. We New Orleanians do it sometimes, in part to show others what we, as a community, have endured. And we do it in part to show others what yet needs to be done. My husband, author Joseph Boyden, and I live in Mid-City, a part of town gravely affected by Katrina, but one that's nonetheless recovering.

We went to where the film did and didn't, places that have recovered fully and not-so-much. We had brunch in the Garden District, at Commander's Palace. It's within walking distance from the massive house featured prominently in the film as a home for the aging. At Commander's, we ate eggs Sardou. Oysters buried beneath pastry. Spicy shrimp over grits. Chilled mimosas.

We ate po-boys at Parkway Bakery and Tavern, beignets at Café du Monde. Emeril's NOLA, with its fried chicken and to-die-for gumbo, just about did us in.

But food isn't our city's only centre, much as it wants to be. When I clicked on Offbeat.com to consider what music to offer up to the Minnesotans, I scanned a list of award winners: Anders Osborne and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. We caught jazz in the Quarter, blues in Mid-City and watched musicians travelling with the famous first parade of the Mardi Gras season, Krewe du Vieux, rollin' down Decatur.

For all the landmarks I could show my guests, though, it was up to the city itself to reveal what I couldn't point to or what they couldn't automatically hear or taste, and what Benjamin Button comes so close to tapping. What brought tears to a visiting mother's eyes as she stood on the levee.

New Orleans is a magical place, a city where you might believe a man could grow from old to young, where visiting Minnesotans can wear bikinis before noon in February, where more than a fair measure of acceptance of the enormous differences between its inhabitants still exists.

We New Orleanians are, in so many ways, Benjamin Buttons. We are starting over, all of 3 1/2 years old now. But we were old once, still are old, and we can show outsiders the wisdom that comes with a rich history. We can play you trumpets like you've never heard, and we can make you dance in the street. We'll share with you our winding bayous and banana trees and snowy egrets.

And you might just watch a sunset that says more than any one of us can explain.


Getting There

Air Canada offers frequent service to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner, La., a short bus trip from the Central Business District.

Where to Stay

Consider the gorgeous B&Bs in the Uptown and Marigny sections or smaller boutique hotels in the French Quarter.Food and Drink

Commander's Palace 1

403 Washington Ave.; 504-899-8221; http://www.commanderspalace.com

Parkway Bakery and Tavern

538 Hagan Ave.; 504-482-3047; http://www.parkwaybakeryandtavernnola.com

Café du Monde 800 Decatur St.; 504-525-4544; http://www.cafedumonde.com

NOLA

534 Saint Louis St.; 504-522-6652

Things to Do

Music, music, music

Go to http://www.offbeat.com for listings of great live shows.

Audubon Park

Bordered on one side by the Mississippi River and on another by St. Charles Avenue, this gorgeous spot is great for walking or cycling.

Amanda Boyden's most recent novel, Babylon Rolling, (Knopf Canada, 2008) spans the year before hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans. Special to The Globe and Mail

[East Texas Parrothead]

Thanks for reminding me of why I love New Orleans. Mr. Mojito has relatives who live in Metarie ... they've rebuilt ... and we need to visit. New Orleans was my favorite city on the planet until I visited Savannah. Now, I love them both equally. I'm making it my mission to get there by this time next year.

[MileHighPirate]

I've got MANY relatives in and around New Orleans.

New Orleans will always be special to me!

Even though I've been on a hardcore diet for almost THREE MONTHS now, I am craving Cafe Du Monde right about now!

Great food, great music, great people!