Natasha Trethewey’s work, Beyond Katrina, combines a meditation on family and their connection to Golfport, Mississippi. As the author shares her memories through prose and poetry, her family’s history and the history of the land come to life. Besides relating the story of her family, the author describes the historical development of the town of Golfport. Although the story spans from her great-grandmother’s life to the present, the author dates the various sections of her writing from 2007-2014 so the focus on the aftermath of Katrina on the family and the community are illustrated. This book could serve as one way to have students focus on the lives of the families, and the places where they come from as they make connections to their present day lives.
I really enjoyed Beyond Katrina, and it touches on issues of concern for our students (real estate speculation and displacement, the erosion of ethnic enclaves, mass incarceration, etc.), but I’m not sure it’s right for the campus read. Tretheway’s writing is beautiful and her meditations on race, institutional power, and predatory real estate practices are affecting, but the narrative through-line is occasionally elusive. And this isn’t a book that builds momentum through traditional narrative means. Between these concerns, and the challenge of getting the price down from a university press, I think we may want to pass on this text.
Natasha Trethewey’s work, Beyond Katrina, combines a meditation on family and their connection to Golfport, Mississippi. As the author shares her memories through prose and poetry, her family’s history and the history of the land come to life. Besides relating the story of her family, the author describes the historical development of the town of Golfport. Although the story spans from her great-grandmother’s life to the present, the author dates the various sections of her writing from 2007-2014 so the focus on the aftermath of Katrina on the family and the community are illustrated. This book could serve as one way to have students focus on the lives of the families, and the places where they come from as they make connections to their present day lives.
I really enjoyed Beyond Katrina, and it touches on issues of concern for our students (real estate speculation and displacement, the erosion of ethnic enclaves, mass incarceration, etc.), but I’m not sure it’s right for the campus read. Tretheway’s writing is beautiful and her meditations on race, institutional power, and predatory real estate practices are affecting, but the narrative through-line is occasionally elusive. And this isn’t a book that builds momentum through traditional narrative means. Between these concerns, and the challenge of getting the price down from a university press, I think we may want to pass on this text.