Night Jasmine

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: A must read for New Orleanians. Considering I'm an MCA student, I was assigned to read it a couple summers ago. I heard too many good things about it that I bought it 6 months before summer. By the time I took the test I had read it 15 times, easily. I'm so glad other people have read this. They need to put it back in print so people all over the country can fall in love with it. By the way, if you loved this book read LACE CURTAIN by Widmer. It's just as great. If you can get your hands on a copy, read it. I was lucky enough to have a telephone interview with this wonderful author. This women is sweet and cheerful and has a true love for her city. She's also a phenomonal writer if I haven't mentioned it before. A must read for everyone and also check out her other fiction and non-fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Historically interesting- bad plot
Review: I had to read this freshman year and I must admit that I did not like it all. It was basically about a poor girl who worked for a very wealthy, snooty woman with a big reputation. The girl fell in love with several of her sons, and the mother did not like this because the girl was not of the upper class. She disowns all of her children eventually, making her pregnant daughter hang herself. The historical things in there about New Orleans in the early 20th century are interesting, but the plot was not very good in my opinion. Just to let you know, if you live in New Orleans like I do- you know where Cabrini High school is by the bayou and Moss meets with Esplanade, and there is a gas station? Well, the house next to the gas station is the house that the girl had inherited (she based it on that). I know this because I went to Cabrini freshman and sophomore year and Mary Lou Widmer came to speak to us and told us this.

Rating:
Summary: The epitome of New Orleans passion
Review: Night Jasmine captures every essence of New Orleans. Its passion, history, conflict, and more. Her characters are Southern, her style is Southern, and the story is the same. I graduated from Dominican High School, where the novel was suggested by one of my teachers. I wasn't at all disappointed. If you have a passion for reading and an appreciation for New Orleans, then you can't help but love Night Jasmine.