1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina

Front Cover
Simon and Schuster, Aug 21, 2007 - History - 364 pages
Originally a self-published sensation by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, 1 Dead in Attic captures the heart and soul of New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

1 Dead in Attic is a collection of stories by Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, recounting the first harrowing year and a half of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Celebrated as a local treasure and heaped with national praise, Rose provides a rollercoaster ride of observation, commentary, emotion, tragedy, and even humor—in a way that only he could find in a devastated wasteland.

They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair. And stories about refrigerators.

1 Dead in Attic freeze-frames New Orleans, caught between an old era and a new, during its most desperate time, as it struggles out of the floodwaters and wills itself back to life.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Facing the Unknown
7
Survivors
13
Hope
19
The Empty City
25
The MoreThings Change
31
Blue Roof Blues
41
The Elephant Men
48
Dead in Attic
56
Misery in the Melting Pot
176
A Huck Finn Kind of Life
187
Songs in the Key of Strife
196
We Raze and Raise and Keep Pushing Forward
210
Second Line Same Verse
221
Shooting the Rock
229
A Rapturous Day in the Real World
238
Peace Among the Ruins
247

My Introduction to New Orleans
67
The Hurricane Kids
75
Have Barbie Will Travel
81
Goodbye
89
Coming Home
95
Civil Unrest
101
Lurching Toward Babylon
107
Caving In
113
The Last Ride
119
Let the Good Times Roll
127
Tears Fears and a New Year
134
Chocolate City
141
He Had a Dream
147
Rider on the Storm
153
Not in My Pothole
160
September Never Ends
169
She Rescued My Heart
253
Rebirth at the Maple Leaf
267
They Dont Get Mardi Gras and They Never Will
274
Reality Fest
278
O Brothers Where Be Yall?
285
Thanks We NeededThat
292
A Night to Remember
301
Eternal Dome Nation
308
On the Inside Looking Out
317
A Tough Nut to Crack
323
Letters from the Edge
340
Children of the Storm Its Time to Represent
347
Thank You Whoever You Are
353
Acknowledgments
363
Copyright

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About the author (2007)

Chris Rose is a columnist for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, an essayist for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and a frequent commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition. In 2006, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary in recognition of his Katrina columns and was awarded a share in the Times-Picayune staff's Pulitzer for Public Service. Rose lives in New Orleans with his three children.