Jason Berry

* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

Jason Berry's history of New Orleans covers a period of more than three hundred years, from the city's founding through to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Berry's approach is to devote each chapter to a notable New Orleans citizen and, by telling their stories and those of their times, give an overview of the complicated threads of New Orleans's development. Invaders, pirates, slaves, Spanish and French colonists, creoles, native Americans, politicians, religious leaders, musicians and artists are profiled by Berry. In the process he takes us through the city's founding, the colonial era, the Louisiana Purchase, the Civil War, the emergence of jazz and the Mardi Gras tradition right up to the present day destruction of the city in the hurricane, and its subsequent rebirth.

Berry manages to capture what makes New Orleans unique: a blend of French, Spanish, African and Native American influences that gave rise to cultural innovations that have conquered the world, as have some of its foremost artists and musicians. Berry's optimism about the city's resurgence suggests that he believes that this culture will once again triumph.… (mais)

I'd have liked to give a book on such an important topic as many stars as possible, but, like many other readers, I found the structure jumbled and the details given often tedious and irrelevant. It's a huge topic to tackle, and I'm sure it was difficult to find a through-line, and to choose how much detail to use, but, for me, the contextual details about what inspired someone to be a priest, or what bound a lay person to a particular church did not require leaping back to their birth, or tracing the history of a school of thought or movement through 200 years. The book is well researched, and the author clearly knows their stuff, it's a pity it is not written with greater efficiency and clarity of focus.… (mais)

The 1992 edition of this book, written 10 years before the priestly abuse scandal broke in Boston is just the same thing all over again except in Louisiana: pedophile priests covered up by the hierarchy and exposed by the patient work of journalists and lawyers.

The first part of the book deals with the uncovering of the Gauthe scandal and its outcome. In the second half. Berry looks broadly at the various crisis related to sexuality in the Catholic Church, especially of the prevalence of gay clergy in the post-Vatican II church. Berry is clearly uncomfortable with the idea of gay priests, especially of those not committed to his idea of celebecy, but he has listened carefully to the voices defending the rights of gay people in the Catholic church and worked very hard at not victimizing gay people in general in his attempts to find a way to make the clergy more responsive to the needs of the people who are the church.

Well and thoughtfully written, I would recommend it to people who continue to struggle with the Catholicism on these issues.… (mais)

Ch. 1. To Be a Priest
Ch. 2. Evidence of Things Unsaid
Ch. 3. Exile and Renewal
Ch. 4. A Time of Solidarity
Ch. 5. Pope John Paul II Breaks His Silence
Ch. 6. Memories of the Cardinal
Ch. 7. Evangelism by Stealth
Ch. 8. Myth of the Founder
Ch. 9. The War Against Internal Enemies
Ch. 10. The Legion's Defense of Father Maciel
Ch. 11. In the Vatican Courts
Ch. 12. Religious Duress
Ch. 13. Orthodoxy and Deception
Ch. 14. The Legion's American Battles
Ch. 15. A Vatican of Naked Truths.… (mais)