“Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans”, by Gary Krist

448 pages, Broadway Books, ISBN-13: 978-0770437084

Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder, and the Battle for Modern New Orleans by Gary Krist is a well-researched and well-written account of this period in New Orleans’ history, just as it was acquiring it’s now-familiar reputation for corruption, sin and greed. While the book breaks no new ground, it does a rather nice and readable job of weaving together the major incidents and forces that shaped New Orleans life during this time, what with all of the ax murders, point-blank shootings in brothels and in the streets, and self-proclaimed dens of sin where jazz is thought to have been born. He also takes us to the crusade of lily-white reformers in positions of political power who not only sought Victorian-era respectability for their city, but wanted people of different races than theirs to stay far away from their vision, a dramatic reversal to what until then had been a remarkably tolerant view of the mixing of races.

The center of Empire of Sin is “Storyville”, named for city alderman Sidney Story (much to his chagrin), who wrote the legislation to control prostitution within the city. The ordinance designated a sixteen block area as the part of the city in which prostitution (although still nominally illegal) was tolerated or regulated and removed from – ahem – “respectable” New Orleans. It is here that Krist shows himself to be, again, the multi-faceted historian he is as he exposes us to many sections of New Orleans, and by simply reporting on the happenings in each, he gracefully points out their differences and illuminates how they were sometimes woven together. All the while, he sticks entirely to the historical record – without deviation, and without speculation. With that said, however, I did rather think that there was an overemphasis on some of the more notorious crimes committed during the period which would have better been gathered in a single chapter, rather than serve as the principal organizing theme of the book as a whole.

Empire of Sin also unfortunately adopts the nostalgic and popular view of Storyville as a noble social experiment were women willingly entered the life of prostitution which they happily practiced in glamorous salons. The reality of course was otherwise; these women (often only teenagers, or even younger) were forced into the life by crushing poverty where they were victimized by pimps and madams and spent their typically short lives addicted to drugs and afflicted by STDs – thus, instead of gracing the beginning of chapter 10 with one of E.J. Bellocq’s more famous photos of a seemingly happy and carefree prostitute, Krist would have better used one of the photographer’s darker images of the face of a much older and worn sex worker staring at the lens through an ugly black eye.

All is not darkness and gloom, however: there is the introduction of Louis Armstrong to the world, for example, who was inspired by listening to Buddy Bolden, the father of jazz (we think); there’s also Mary Deubler, going by the names Josie Lobrano and Josie Arlington, who had to make sure her beloved niece didn’t find out that she was the madam of a brothel in Storyville (didn’t work – the lengths to which she went to keep her niece from finding out are amusing, but sad as well, because where could Josie find the time to simply appreciate her niece with all that effort expended to cover her tracks? The eventual revelation is bittersweet). These bits of lagniappe make the book come alive for Empire of Sin is a swift, breathtaking read that adds more depth to the history of early New Orleans for those already familiar with it, and tidal waves of emotion for whom it is new. It’s jarring to learn that after the Civil War, during the early 1870s Reconstruction, schools were desegregated, interracial marriage was fine, and blacks and whites lived side by side in the same neighborhoods…then came the end of Reconstruction and white reformers wanted things their way. Much of the New Orleans profiled here is like that, where you can’t believe what you’re reading, and you're interested to see how it plays out, even hoping the smallest hope that it might be able to get back to what it once was. Krist takes us there, but of course, we must eventually return here. It is a spectacular journey though, and we're richer for the experience.

“Le Portrait de Petite Cossette 1” & “Le Portrait de Petite Cossette 2”, written by Cossette House/Aniplex, illustrated by Asuka Katsura

194 pages, TokyoPop, ISBN-13: 978-1598165302 & 178 pages, TokyoPop, ISBN-13: 978-1598165319

Le Portrait de Petite Cossette by Katsura Asuka (as well as an outfit billing itself as Cossette House/Aniplex; I don’t know either) is the Manga adaptation of the famous Anime. The story centers around Eiri Kurahashi, an art school student with a job at a local antique store who develops an unexplainable obsession with a portrait of a Victorian-era girl named Cossette. The portrait has a strange history, as everyone who has owned it has been murdered in a bizarre fashion, and so when the new owner of the portrait nearly kills himself Eiri decides to get involved and figure out just what in the hell is going on…and that’s when Cossette begins speaking to him. No one else can hear or see her, and Eiri is not about to tell his friends (as is to be expected) that he is talking to the ghost of the girl in the portrait. You see, Cossette has a problem, and no one can help her but Eiri: she needs to gather her former possessions, each one of them cursed and causing their owners to go insane. But, how long can one deal with cursed objects and hysteria before descending into madness himself?

Though it is classified as a horror Manga, I think that it more of a gothic-style Manga with mystery, romantic and tragic elements (that’s as good a definition of gothic as can be). Le Portrait de Petite Cossette matches this very particular style very well, and it gives a very interesting perspective to its story. It is, above all, an aesthetic experience (almost…haunting, one could say): the plot is a bit typical, but it manages to differentiate itself through the take on the relationship between Eiri and Cossette (as well as Cossette’s dubious intentions concerning Eiri). The plot is memorable, and the ending is even better. The art took a bit of getting used to, but I liked it all the same. The way in which the characters and the backgrounds were drawn gave a very good atmosphere to the Manga, especially when it involved Cossette, her cursed possessions and the drawings of her; it all fit perfectly with the plot and the characters and pulled both through very well. The characters themselves fit with the style of art and are memorable as well as three-dimensional; rather than being cliché or overdramatic, they are realistic in both their personality and how they react to events (Eiri is the best example of this, and it is interesting to see how his perspective changes as the story progresses; particularly relating to Cossette herself). Overall Le Portrait de Petite Cossette was an enjoyable Manga to read (even if the plot isn’t the most original one out there, this doesn’t bring the overall story down).

“Spandau: The Secret Diaries”, by Albert Speer, translated by Richard Winston and Clara Winston, foreword by Sam Sloan

477 pages, Macmillan Publishing Company, ISBN-13: 978-0026128100

I have spent time with Herr Speer before – read my reviews of Inside the Third Reich from February 15, 2016 and Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth from February 24, 2016 – and here I find myself back again, reviewing Spandau: The Secret Diaries. All-in-all there is little new information in this tome that wasn’t found somewhere in those earlier works: reminisces about architecture, anecdotes about Hitler, recounting his daily routine in jail, trying at times to share his thoughts about the regime and his role in it…hey, I guess prison is boring, but so much of this book is superficial and repetitive in content. One great area of disappointment is the deafening silence in regards to Georges Casalis, the Spandau Prison chaplain. Speer had asked to talk to Casalis, but before he could speak Casalis told Speer he considered him more blameworthy than any of the other Nazi prisoners, both because of Speer’s intelligence and because he had been more responsible for extending the war than perhaps anyone but Hitler. Speer’s response, according to Casalis, was: “I’ve been sentenced to 20 years, and I consider it just. I want to use this time that has, in a manner of speaking, been given to me. What I want to ask you is: Would you help me become a different man?” We get NONE of this in The Secret Diaries, which I believe speaks a lot to just how closely Speer kept his cards to its chest.

If this book had an overarching theme it is “guilt”, but more as an intellectual exercise rather than as a moral reckoning; Speer’s desire is to look good for the post-war do-gooders, but I was never really convinced of his sincerity. I, for one, could find no heartfelt remorse about the way the slaves in the factories or Jews and others in the death camps were treated, no remorse for having been party alongside Hitler and his psychopathic gang. Some people have thought that, after he was released from prison, Speer reinvented himself as the “Good Nazi”, the only one amongst Hitler’s Inner Circle who showed even a modicum of remorse about the war and his role in it. I was one of these until I read Gitta Sereny’s book and determined instead that he tried to clear his name and attempted to fool people about his actual role in the war. Very cunning, and while Speer hides his true intentions, we do know certain facts about his actions as Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production. We do know that Herr Speer used slave labor in all of the factories he managed, and one has to wonder: where was he looking when visiting these factories when most of them were worked to death and died from a lack of food and other necessities of life? This is one thing he could never dispute. While this practice predated his appointment as Armaments Minister, he also did nothing to stop it, or to change it.

Was Speer truly as remorseful as he claims in this book of his? Former coworkers and even family members did not fall for his pretense. After reading these diaries I did not have any sense that this guy became “a different man”; I have the sense that he is as good as Hitler at being a big fake, cunning, with no feeling whatsoever (none expressed in this book). If you want to get more under Speer’s blanket then try the above-mentioned Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth by Gitta Sereny. She managed to catch him with his pants down, motivations and all.