Rating: 
Summary: An entertaing book, with crazy, colorful, characters!
Review: This book was so much fun to read! I was exposed to a life I was curious about but too scared to experience for myself. I will never look at a Hot Dog the same way again!
Rating: 
Summary: Slow start but fun
Review: This fun book probably wouldn't have been written but for the fact that Lucky Dog hot dogs figured strongly in the classic New Orleans novel CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. The author here is the company's long time manager. His subject, affectionately portrayed, are his vendors- drifters, mostly, few of whom, we're told, had driver's licenses while the ones who did couldn't be trusted not to run off with the company van. For me, the book had a slow start. The author tends to report rather than narrate, summarizing conversations rather than recreating dialogue between people, allowing little of New Orleans' "voice" to come through. Also, although he includes many colorful anecdotes, it takes a while before he develops characters whose stories the reader could follow over the long haul. There is a good sense of the community involved, though. Here a supervisor climbs through an efficiency apartment window to roust a tardy employee while street bums cheer below. When Strahan finally does let his community develop citizens with recognizable personalities and concerns, the book really takes off. Eventually, even the signature Lucky Dog carts seem like characters in the story. Local color is understated. (Street life in D.C. sounded just as wild in Strahan's description as that in New Orleans.) Mardi Gras, for example, seemed mostly just another predictable busy period- same as major sporting events. Still, if if you've been to New Orleans it will bring back memories and if you're going, you'll notice things you wouldn't otherwise. It also captures the French Quarter before it was cleaned up for the 1984 World's Fair and how that eccentric decadence still lingers somewhat. Especially amusing are the way the unflappable vendors resist the efforts of powers great and small to harass them. The best were the incidents involving World's Fair politics.
Rating:
Summary: Slow start but fun
Review: This fun book probably wouldn't have been written but for the fact that Lucky Dog hot dogs figured strongly in the classic New Orleans novel CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. The author here is the company's long time manager. His subject, affectionately portrayed, are his vendors- drifters, mostly, few of whom, we're told, had driver's licenses while the ones who did couldn't be trusted not to run off with the company van. For me, the book had a slow start. The author tends to report rather than narrate, summarizing conversations rather than recreating dialogue between people, allowing little of New Orleans' "voice" to come through. Also, although he includes many colorful anecdotes, it takes a while before he develops characters whose stories the reader could follow over the long haul. There is a good sense of the community involved, though. Here a supervisor climbs through an efficiency apartment window to roust a tardy employee while street bums cheer below. When Strahan finally does let his community develop citizens with recognizable personalities and concerns, the book really takes off. Eventually, even the signature Lucky Dog carts seem like characters in the story. Local color is understated. (Street life in D.C. sounded just as wild in Strahan's description as that in New Orleans.) Mardi Gras, for example, seemed mostly just another predictable busy period- same as major sporting events. Still, if if you've been to New Orleans it will bring back memories and if you're going, you'll notice things you wouldn't otherwise. It also captures the French Quarter before it was cleaned up for the 1984 World's Fair and how that eccentric decadence still lingers somewhat. Especially amusing are the way the unflappable vendors resist the efforts of powers great and small to harass them. The best were the incidents involving World's Fair politics.
Rating:
Summary: More onions, please!
Review: What a treat it was to read "Managing Ignatius" by Jerry Strahan. I had only recently been introduced to "A Confederacy Of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole and was lucky enough to happen across a review of "Managing Ignatius" on the Internet. Of course, in a matter of days I was having trouble putting down this delightful book. I even took time to give it a meaty thumbs-up in the Waxahachie (Texas) Daily Light newspaper where I was able to even incorporate a photo my friend Liberty took when she was in the French Quarter and spied a Lucky Dogs vendor on a hot July day. For people who are interested in the human condition and the hot dog condition, "Managing Ignatius" (A great title depsite what the Baton Rouge Advocate says) is a must-have for people interested in the outrageous and that glorious city, New Orleans. -Andrew West Griffin in the Lone Star State
Rating:
Summary: More onions, please!
Review: What a treat it was to read "Managing Ignatius" by Jerry Strahan. I had only recently been introduced to "A Confederacy Of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole and was lucky enough to happen across a review of "Managing Ignatius" on the Internet. Of course, in a matter of days I was having trouble putting down this delightful book. I even took time to give it a meaty thumbs-up in the Waxahachie (Texas) Daily Light newspaper where I was able to even incorporate a photo my friend Liberty took when she was in the French Quarter and spied a Lucky Dogs vendor on a hot July day. For people who are interested in the human condition and the hot dog condition, "Managing Ignatius" (A great title depsite what the Baton Rouge Advocate says) is a must-have for people interested in the outrageous and that glorious city, New Orleans. -Andrew West Griffin in the Lone Star State
Rating:
Summary: Amusing and fun
Review: Wow -- when I read Confederacy of Dunces I recognized folks I knew from high school growing up in New Orleans -- and I do here too. But, I just wish someone had edited this to make it hang together better.
Rating:
Summary: "Ya didn't hav ta be there"
Review: You didn't have to be there, however if you were, you'll know. Now, if you have ever been in the food service industry, regardless of the establishment, you will recognize these characters and know what it is to "manage" them. This is one of very few books that I read over and over again. I relish just opening it up and reading a few paragraphs. I was joyously
surprised with this gift of a book. It is fluid, fun and more factual then you may want to know! This IS New Orleans. I know. I was born, bread, and fried there. This may be a story for "our" eyes only. I can smell the streets and feel the night. The hot, sweaty, sticky nights, and sticky shoes. I can taste the bourbon from the bottom of the cart...I can feel their pain. This is a great read. Read it before you go there,
or read it on the bus home. Moreover, pass it along. This is a great afternoon read wherever you may be. This is a long story, with a long shelf life. Like my life, so far, it just goes on and on and on......
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