The Yellow House, by Sarah M. Broom (2019)
The Yellow House is a memoir of New Orleans as seen through eyes of a large, loving family that grew up in New Orleans East. In 1961, Ivory Webb, a 19-year-old widow with two young children, purchased a house for just over $3,000, on Wilson Avenue in New Orleans East. She would live in that tiny house for the next 44 years. Over that period, she would remarry a man named Simon Broom and the family would grow to 12 children.
Sarah Broom, the author, is the youngest child, born in the final days of 1979. Almost exactly six months later, her father died suddenly, leaving Ivory to raise her family on her own.
While he was alive, Simon would continually attempt to make renovations and repairs on the house. After his death, the house became another “child” to tend to. At some point in time, yellow siding was put up on the house, hence the Yellow House that Sarah grew up on.
The first part of the book delves into the history of the development of New Orleans East and its transformation to the neighborhood it became. By the time the author was born, the neighborhood had changed and was the forgotten district of New Orleans, surrounded by Lake Ponchartrain and the Industrial Canal.
Sarah grew in a loving home environment. Her mother was determined to see that her children were raised to achieve. When Sarah began hanging out with the wrong crowd in junior high school, her mother sent her to a religious private school. Some of her brothers also attended private schools. Money that could have been used to make repairs in the house went towards education.
Sarah went to college in Texas. Two of her brothers drive her to her new environment, where she is suddenly exposed to a bigger world than her comfortable New Orleans. She eventually lands a job in New York working for O Magazine. She was living there on that fateful day when Hurricane Katrina struck. Most of her family, however, was still living in New Orleans East, although they had been evacuated before the levees broke. The large family became scattered all over the United States.
New Orleans East was one of the first areas of the city to be inundated by water from Katrina. The Yellow House was severely damaged as water literally covered the house. The house, however, did not collapse, nor was it displaced to another location, as so many other houses in New Orleans East and the 9th Ward were.
The Federal Government established a Road Home Program, designed to assist Louisiana residents who had been affected by Katrina (and Hurricane Rita, which occurred a month after Katrina). The Program was to assist homeowners with funds to rebuild their homes. The Program, however, was fraught with problems. In addition, city officials, hoping to rid the City of blight, determined that it would demolish homes unless the owners indicated otherwise. Notices of the demolitions were mailed to the address of the homes that were to be razed. Thus, 2 years passed and the Broom family was still living outside of New Orleans when the Notice of Demolition was mailed to the Yellow House. The family was unaware of the notice, and the house ~ the bloodline of Ivory ~ was torn down. There was little recourse to the family.
After traveling the globe in search of jobs to avoid the trauma of Katrina, the author eventually returns to New Orleans, this time living in the French Quarter, to try to find closure.
I am not generally a fan of memoirs, however, I found this to be fascinating. I lived (and still live) in South Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina. I was intimately familiar with the rebuilding of public spaces in the City. Thus, I was intrigued by the author’s perspective. She has a beautiful way of describing her surroundings. I could almost see and feel the city through the pages.
A few photographs were included in the book. I would liked to have seen more. Also, a map of the City would be helpful for readers unfamiliar with New Orleans.
Read: January 6, 2010
5 Stars
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