AFTERMATH LOUNGE is a compelling tribute to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Resurrecting the place and its people alongside their heartaches and triumphs, Margaret McMullan creates a riveting mosaic that feeds our wish to understand what it means to be alive in this day and age.
Review:
The devastation and
heartbreak caused by Hurricane Katrina are in the past, but the
people affected by the tragic events are still living with the
aftermath. The Zimmer's house was gutted by the storm. They were
forced to move in with their daughter and her son, Teddy, in Chicago.
The hurricane changed their lives, but being forced to live together
changed them even more.
The Zimmers are only
one of the families whose stories are told in this collection of
short stories. However, their's is the thread that holds the
collection together. It's a story of bravery, and growing, and giving
in. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting this family.
The collection of
stories captures the triumphs and tragedies that resulted from this
terrible event. The author does an excellent job of making the people
come alive. Although I'm not familiar with the Gulf Coast. I felt
that I came to know the area and the people.
I usually prefer
novels to short stories, but the combination of short stories with a
continuing set of characters made the book very satisfying. I think
the vignettes showing how lives were affected at various positions on
the socio-economic spectrum was a very effective way to bring the
story of what happened to people after Katrina to life.
I highly recommend
this book. If you're a survivor of the hurricane, it's a must read.
If you love well done glimpses of people's lives, you'll enjoy this
book.
I reviewed this book
for PR by the Book.
Author Q & A:
1.Aftermath
Lounge honors the 10th
anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Can you tell us about your
experience during those days when the storm hit?
Shortly
after the storm hit, my husband and I drove down from Evansville,
Indiana to Pass Christian, Mississippi. We saw aerial footage of the
town and we could see that the roof on my parents’ house was mostly
intact – that’s all we could see. We brought water and a lot of
supplies to donate. There was a gas shortage then, and limited cell
phone coverage. The closer we came to the town, the more it became
like a war zone. The National Guard was there to keep people away,
but we got through, thanks to a relative.
The
night before we left, my mother told us to forget about everything
else -- all she really wanted was the painting of her mother, which
had been smuggled out of Vienna during WWII. We
had house keys but there were no doors. When we got there, the house
was gutted – the storm surge had essentially ripped through the
house.
We
put on rubber gloves and spent the day sifting through the debris,
dragging out any salvageable pieces of furniture. The water had
shoved through the closed shutters, plowed up under the foundation
and tore open the back walls, bashing around the furniture, sinks,
toilets, stoves, washers, driers.
We
never did find the painting.
Elizabeth
Bishop wrote a wonderful villanelle called “One Art.” She wrote
about losing small items like keys and an hour badly spent, then she
progresses to the greater losses -- her mother’s watch, a house,
cities, rivers, a continent, and finally, a loved one. “The art of
losing isn’t hard to master,” she starts. “So many things seem
filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.”
I thought of that poem a lot.
2.Your
family played a key role, helping Pass Christian rebuild. What were a
few moments that influenced you during that time?
We
saw so many people from all walks of life and they were suddenly
homeless. My father organized financial donations. There were no fire
trucks left after the storm, so he made sure Pass Christian got a
fire truck. We were always big supporters of the library too. The
Pass Christian Policemen had stayed during the storm to make sure
everyone was safe. They had tried to stay safe in the library, but
then when the water rose, they had to shoot out the windows to swim
away to safety. I used that information in the title story of
Aftermath Lounge. These men were real heroes.
3.Did
you know from the moment the storm hit that someday you would write a
novel about it? Or did a later experience give you the idea? If so,
what was it?
At
first I just witnessed. I think that’s what writers do mostly. We
witness. Then the material lets us know what it wants to become. I
just took notes. Later stories started taking shape and they were all
in different voices. It was the only way I could work at this
material.
4.Part
of your inspiration for the novel came from your family's beautiful
mansion. How did your own experiences in that house shape each of the
stories you wrote?
Well,
it’s hardly a mansion, but I was surprised to discover just how
much a house could mean. Everyone always says it’s
just stuff, but there were so
many collective memories there. When we stood and looked at
everything so undone,
it felt like our times spent there were gone too.
Katrina
had such a huge impact on the coast, on my family, and on me. I am
always telling my students to write what they most care about, to
write what keeps them up at night. I had
to write about Katrina. I had written about the Civil War,
Reconstruction and WWII, so I saw Katrina as an historical event. I
treated the hurricane more as setting. It’s in the background. The
human drama is in the forefront. I’m always interested in what
people do or don't do in the face of real catastrophe. I didn’t
want to write from one point of view either. I wanted to give voice
to a variety of people because Katrina affected everyone.
5.What
was your writing process like for this novel? Did you know from the
start it would be a novel in stories? Or did that become apparent
only after you began writing?
There
were so many news stories coming out at the time. I write nonfiction,
but I couldn’t get my thoughts together. I couldn’t make sense of
anything. Out of habit, I took a lot of notes. I could only deal with
writing about all that was happening a little bit at a time. And my
own personal story just wasn’t that interesting.
I
personally witnessed and experienced the best in human nature. People
and communities came together and helped one another in the most
meaningful way. They endured with a great deal of kindness and grace.
So I chipped away at the
material. I wanted to tell a community’s story.
About the Author:
Margaret McMullan is the author of seven award-winning novels including In My Mother's House, Aftermath Lounge, Sources of Light, When I Crossed No-Bob, and How I Found the Strong. She also edited the popular anthology Every Father's Daughter. Margaret writes for both adults and young adults, and she is especially interested in how historical events affect ordinary people. Her work has appeared in the The Huffington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Glamour, The Millions, Southern Accents, TriQuarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Greensboro Review, Mississippi Magazine, Other Voices, Boulevard, Ploughshares, Teachers & Writers Magazine, and The Sun among others.
Media Contact: Stephanie Ridge, stephanie@prbythebook.com
