A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge

by Josh Neufeld

This is a case of wanting to like a book much more than I actually do. I wanted to read the graphic novel version of Spike Lee's 'When the Levees Broke', and expected that this would be that; a sprawling accounting of New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina, as told through the experiences of the five people on the cover. I think that's what Neufeld thinks he's created as well....

This book never really lives up to its promise - while it ostensibly tells us their stories, it doesn't get into a lot of depth for some of these folk - the characters of the Doctor and Kwame barely get any space, not that their stories are very compelling.

In his aftermath, Neufeld talks about how he wanted this project to represent the diversity of the city, and I suppose on the surface he's accomplished that, in that he has white and black characters, along with a middle eastern shop owner, and perhaps a homosexual. However, it's not a particularly economically diverse group. Most of these characters are comfortably middle class (the store owner mourns the loss of his Mercedes), and only two characters are working poor - the comic book guy, and the angry girl. Nowhere do we see the unemployed and destitute that washed up at the Astrodome. The two token poor both have college degrees.

It is a decent book though - I don't want to spend all my time complaining. Neufeld's cartooning skills are advanced, and the use of single-colour pallettes on any given page is effective. The book is a very quick read, and becomes a little self-serving towards the end, as he includes drawings of himself talking to these people on the phone - a stronger act of journalism tends to erase the journalist's presence.