Idgie Says:This is a slim book written not about Katrina itself, but about the lives that are changed by it. A set of characters that bounce between the chapters, shortly before the hurricane and then afterwards. The hurricane itself is not given time in the pages, though it's after-effects are. The characters are everyday folk, most decent, some having to come face to face with their realities after the storm takes away all they know, others trying their best to avoid that reality.
Strong writing, strong stories. I highly recommend.
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Aftermath Lounge
Margaret McMullan
April, 2015
Calypso Editions
Aftermath Lounge tour occurs on the 10th anniversary of
Katrina, August
24-28
Book Description:
On
August 29, 2005, Hurricane
Katrina destroyed 95% of the small coastal
town of Pass Christian, Mississippi. With a
28-foot
storm surge, the highest
recorded in U.S. history, 55-foot
waves, and winds reaching
120 mph, the town was
wiped off the map—temporarily.
Award-winning
author Margaret McMullan saw the destruction firsthand. Her family's
historic Gulf Coast home—her father’s beloved
southern jewel—was one of the houses in Pass Christian
devastated by Katrina. Despite the chaos immediately following the storm, McMullan's family was among
the
first to rebuild and donated to the Red Cross, the Pass
Christian fire station,
and the Pass Christian library.
During
this time, McMullan witnessed small acts of heroism that inspired her to write about the community and its
people, and how tragedy shapes our character. In 2010, she was awarded a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship to complete the project.
Born in part out of her family's deep connection to the community, Aftermath Lounge:
A Novel in Stories
(April 2015,
Calypso Editions)
releases at the 10-year
anniversary of Katrina and comprises fictional vignettes about the people of Pass Christian in the storm's wake. The stories are connected
by a setting near to the author's heart—the McMullans' home, which was originally constructed in 1845 and restored by her father numerous times over the years.
Aftermath Lounge is
a compelling tribute
to the Gulf Coast and resurrects the place and its people alongside
their heartaches and triumphs. It is a riveting mosaic
that feeds our desire to understand what it means to be alive in this
day and age.
_____________________________________
Author’s website: www.margaretmcmullan.com
_____________________________________
Margaret
McMullan Q and A
Aftermath
Lounge
1.Aftermath
Lounge honors the 10th
anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Can you tell us about your experience during
those days when the storm hit?
Shortly after the storm
hit, my husband and I drove down from Evansville, Indiana to Pass Christian,
Mississippi. We saw aerial footage of the town and we could see that the roof
on my parents’ house was mostly intact – that’s all we could see. We brought
water and a lot of supplies to donate. There was a gas shortage then, and
limited cell phone coverage. The closer we came to the town, the more it became
like a war zone. The National Guard was there to keep people away, but we got
through, thanks to a relative.
The night
before we left, my mother told us to forget about everything else -- all she
really wanted was the painting of her mother, which had been smuggled out of
Vienna during WWII. We
had house keys but there were no doors. When we got there, the house was gutted
– the storm surge had essentially ripped through the house.
We put on
rubber gloves and spent the day sifting through the debris, dragging out any
salvageable pieces of furniture. The water had shoved through the closed
shutters, plowed up under the foundation and tore open the back walls, bashing
around the furniture, sinks, toilets, stoves, washers, driers.
We never did
find the painting.
Elizabeth
Bishop wrote a wonderful villanelle called “One Art.” She wrote about losing
small items like keys and an hour badly spent, then she progresses to the
greater losses -- her mother’s watch, a house, cities, rivers, a continent, and
finally, a loved one. “The art of losing isn’t hard to master,” she starts. “So
many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no
disaster.” I thought of that poem a lot.
2.Your family played a key role, helping Pass Christian rebuild. What
were a few moments that influenced you during that time?
We saw so many people from
all walks of life and they were suddenly homeless. My father organized financial
donations. There were no fire trucks left after the storm, so he made sure Pass
Christian got a fire truck. We were always big supporters of the library too. The
Pass Christian Policemen had stayed during the storm to make sure everyone was
safe. They had tried to stay safe in the library, but then when the water rose,
they had to shoot out the windows to swim away to safety. I used that
information in the title story of Aftermath Lounge. These men were real heroes.
3.Did
you know from the moment the storm hit that someday you would write a novel
about it? Or did a later experience give you the idea? If so, what was it?
At first I just witnessed. I think that’s what
writers do mostly. We witness. Then the material lets us know what it wants to
become. I just took notes. Later stories started taking shape and they were all
in different voices. It was the only way I could work at this material.
4.Part
of your inspiration for the novel came from your family's beautiful mansion.
How did your own experiences in that house shape each of the stories you wrote?
Well, it’s hardly a mansion,
but I was surprised to discover just how much a house could mean. Everyone
always says it’s just stuff, but
there were so many collective memories there. When we stood and looked at
everything so undone, it felt like
our times spent there were gone too.
Katrina had such a
huge impact on the coast, on my family, and on me. I am always telling my
students to write what they most care about, to write what keeps them up at
night. I had to write about Katrina.
I had written about the Civil War, Reconstruction and WWII, so I saw Katrina as
an historical event. I treated the hurricane more as setting. It’s in the
background. The human drama is in the forefront. I’m always interested in what
people do or don't do in the face of real catastrophe. I didn’t want to write
from one point of view either. I wanted to give voice to a variety of people
because Katrina affected everyone.
5.What
was your writing process like for this novel? Did you know from the start it
would be a novel in stories? Or did that become apparent only after you began
writing?
There were so many news
stories coming out at the time. I write nonfiction, but I couldn’t get my
thoughts together. I couldn’t make sense of anything. Out of habit, I took a lot
of notes. I could only deal with writing about all that was happening a little
bit at a time. And my own personal story just wasn’t that interesting.
I personally
witnessed and experienced the best in human nature. People and communities came
together and helped one another in the most meaningful way. They endured with a
great deal of kindness and grace. So I chipped away at the material. I
wanted to tell a community’s story.