Rivlin’s valuable book is among the first to relate, in clear and scrupulous detail, the decisions that have brought us this far, and to identify those who made them ... Rivlin is a sharp observer and a dogged reporter. He is unerringly compassionate toward his subjects — even [former Mayor] Nagin, who recently began serving a 10-year sentence for corruption at a federal prison in Texas. But Rivlin’s most valuable journalistic skill is his acute sensitivity to absurdity. He is particularly piqued by the absurdities of racial and economic injustice.
Katrina is at its heart a detailed chronicle of failure. Rivlin is unsparing in his chronicling of certain politicians, including former Mayor Ray Nagin, now in federal prison on wire fraud, bribery and money laundering convictions ... Rivlin does an admirable job keeping the political personal and helping readers understand how deeply and devastatingly Katrina affected everyone in the city. He also delves into the racial politics of New Orleans after the storm, especially the fears in the black community that white elites were trying to prevent their neighborhoods from coming back.
[Rivlin] manages to pack into a lean, taut narrative the heartbreaking setbacks, thwarted dreams and the confounding, repeated inability of anybody in power to either get things done or transcend festering social divisions ... As with the finest works of journalism, Rivlin’s book deploys the tools of his trade to illuminate the segment of history he examines – and make us wonder about the things we all have in common with those in New Orleans.
...a gem of a book — well-reported, deftly written, tightly focused. It’s a book that will appeal to the urban planner and the Mardi Gras reveler ... Katrina is a genuine success, and is a starting point for anyone interested in how The City That Care Forgot develops in its second decade of recovery.
Katrina: After the Flood is as harrowing as it is riveting in recounting the tale of a city too broken to fight off its predatory would-be saviors. Gary Rivlin, formerly a New York Times reporter sent to cover the catastrophe 10 years ago, delivers a balanced and comprehensive chronicle of all those who did wrong by post-Katrina New Orleans.
Rivlin spent eight months reporting for The New York Times in post-Katrina New Orleans, and it shows in the structure of his book: after careful attention to the storm and its immediate aftermath, he attempts to squeeze the past nine years into the last 50 or so pages ... Much of Katrina: After the Flood will read like old news for not just New Orleanians, but for anyone with a passing familiarity of the city’s recent changes and challenges.
...a riveting, wide-ranging but detailed account of Katrina's immediate impact and its aftermath, as a city that has long been one of America's cultural jewels struggles to repair not only its infrastructure but its social fabric.
