Reclamation: Memories from a New Orleans Girlhood

Eva Augustin Rumpf
Booklocker (2009)
ISBN 9781601457899
Reviewed by Carol Hoyer, PhD, for Reader Views (02/10)

 

Wow! This is such a wonderful down-memory-lane book. As the author takes us back to New Orleans during the 40s and 50s many readers will be able to relate to her stories. Not only does she look at going back to a place that was her home with issues and some negative memories, she gives a great history on the New Orleans people and city during that time.

Her memories invoke a lot of memories on my part growing up in those years, such as hand-me-down clothes, wringer washers, no refrigeration, no TV and living on an extremely tight budget.  It’s where neighbors helped neighbors in time of need and families cared for one another. Just like the author, I can remember my mom putting blocks of starch in boiling water and ironing my dad’s shirts and military uniforms. What a process; yet my mother never complained. It’s a time during the war that not everything was available for purchase and rations were used, as well as bartering.  As you read this enchanting book, reality sets in as to what it was like growing up, not only in New Orleans, but cities across America.

The author’s ability to bring you back to that era was exceptional. As you read, you will be able to put yourself in her place with this very down-to-earth and an open confession that sometimes life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  It’s a return back to her home, family, friends and the city she once knew but now has changed due to Hurricane Katrina. It’s seeing everything you knew and loved wiped out with this massive storm.

Honestly, I felt like the author and I became friends in the way she wrote this memoir. Candor, reflection on one’s life, and how one is today makes “Reclamation” by Eva Augustin Rumpf a great read.

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