Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Ray Nagin to publish Katrina's Secrets, the first volume of his memoirs
Posted by Kevin Allman on Tue, May 3, 2011 at 3:03 PM
The book — which seems to be self-published — carries an alternate title, Katrina's Secrets: I, on the former mayor's website, indicating a Part II (and III? and IV?) may be forthcoming. Lending further credence to the sequel is this pre-publication blurb from his former CAO, Dr. Brenda Hatfield: "The reader can’t help crying and laughing out loud because the narrative is so human, riveting and authentic. Only Mayor Nagin can bring us these hidden historical perspectives of Katrina. Still there are so many more secrets be told in the next volume."
Nagin's website describes the book thusly:
C. Ray Nagin, Mayor of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, recounts evacuation decisions, an overwhelmed city, a president’s vacillations, and successful recovery efforts. Now, Nagin’s long-awaited account, Katrina’s Secrets I: Storms after the Storm, lays out the days leading up to and following the storm.At once stirringly, elegiac and disarmingly candid, this spellbinding reckoning delivers exacting detail, while boldly exposing secrets that, until now, have been glossed over or spun out.
It's not the first post-Katrina book from a member of the Nagin Administration. That distinction went to former sanitation director Veronica White, whose paperback How to Maximize FEMA Funding After a Natural Disaster was published in 2009. It's currently out of print; used copies go for $48 apiece on Amazon.com.
News of the publication caught a couple of local booksellers by surprise. At Uptown's Maple Street Book Shop, manager and book buyer Gladin Scott said he wasn't aware of the book, but "there's no way we wouldn't carry it. But he hasn't called the store." Amy Loewy of the Garden District Book Shop burst into laughter at the news of the memoir and said she hadn't heard of it either, nor had Nagin or his assistants called the shop — "unless the mayor called (owner) Britton (Trice) at home."
Readers and libraries can preorder their copies of Nagin's book from his website. The publication date is June 8.
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
This is beyond parody. As you rightly noted, the cover of him looking out the window shows him as an observer rather than a leader-in-action.
"Volume 1?" Are you kidding me?
"Elegaic?" Now I know you're kidding me.
Also, I hate the focus on "the storm" of Katrina, which reinforces harmful myths about what happened to the city. I guess that's one of the "secrets" discussed inside the book, by this self-proclaimed "recovery expert."
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Will there be a Chapter titled "Corruption & Me - My Secrets". Just asking - seems VERY appropriate!
"disarmingly candid"
Isn't that what caused him so much trouble while he was in office? Not the 'disarming' part, but the 'candid' part?? I won't soon forget his referring to Ground Zero as a 'hole in the ground' (among his many gaffes).
"this spellbinding reckoning delivers exacting detail"
Heh, I'd be more open to believing that if it didn't come from his own website.
" while boldly exposing secrets that, until now, have been glossed over or spun out."
A truly candid person, mayor or not, would have 'boldly exposed' those secrets at the time, not now whilst trying to flog his book.
Just go away, Nagin, please.
