Many of my friends are ministers, social workers, writers and/or artists and some are endearingly unconventional. Going to the movies with them is exceedingly frustrating because they find artsy, subterfugic, religious overtones in every single film.

While I am quite capable of appreciating symbolism and can easily find the beauty in art that elicits various feelings and thoughts, I usually shake my head at their perceptions that defy my logic.

After the show, while consuming a glass of wine, they will say “What? You didn’t get that concept?” “How could you NOT see that Das Boat has religious meaning throughout?” Refusing to feel dumb, I simply smile and tell them they are getting way too deep.

Reading this book felt like going to the movies with my friends. Somehow, I am a deer in the headlights stunned with bright, searing strobes of information coming at me while all I saw was a dark, story that seemed messy. For me, this book felt way too “artsy”, way too Pulp- Fiction like, way too “messy.”

Set in post hurricane Hurricane Katrina, crime-ridden New Orleans, the author confusingly tells the story of Eve, married to Adam who is a twin, has very rich parents and is afflicted with Hepatitis C, while she then intersperses bullet like statements regarding New Orleans.

As the males deteriorate into a life of alcoholism and drugs and Eve is drawn to her husband’s twin, the author also includes the sister in law who is institutionalized and, for a smattering of more confusion, sneaks in the parents that are manipulative and controlling.

I imagine there is some correlation between the references to crime in New Orleans --

. 88 percent of the murder cases in New Orleans result in acquittal.
. 3,581 suspects, many charged with murder, walked free in ’07 when the prosecutors failed to gather evidence in time.
. The per capita homicide rate is 15 times higher than that of New York City
. Alcohol is the leading cause of death for Louisiana youth

-- and the upside down life of Eve and the twins and the sister in law and the parents and the people in the restaurant and the junk in the water fountain……, but it is all way beyond my logical comprehension.

The bottom line -- if this convoluted story is made into a movie, my friends can count me out because I am NOT attending the show with them. ( )

This short, dark and lyrical novel stole my heart. Set in post-Katrina New Orleans and narrated by Eve, who is married to Adam (yes, she knows the joke), who is dying from Hepatitis C, and drawn to his identical twin, Saunders, an alcoholic. Eve's job is to find locations for films, a job that was infinitely easier before Katrina ravished New Orleans. Through her eyes, we see the devastation of the city and its people, as well as the dysfunction of the wealthy family she has married into. Eve herself is an unreliable, mysterious narrator, and the people around her are true ciphers, including those she is closest to. Eve's story is interspersed with lists of facts about life in New Orleans after the hurricane, which serve as a stark point of reality against the dreamlike nature of Eve's storytelling. Robison has a gift for spare prose that manages to capture despair and beauty simultaneously, evoking more in a few words than many authors can in hundreds. There is tragedy, here, surely, but also humor and, above all, moments of truth. Highly recommended. Five stars. ( )

'One D.O.A., One on the Way' by Mary Robison is, in my personal opinion, a Tour de Force. The story is focused on the main character, Eve Broussard, her husband Adam, who was recently diagnosed with acute Hepatitis C, and his side of a well-to-do, dysfunctional family residing in post-Katrina New Orleans. Eve is a location scout by profession and the story revolves around her relationships with the various family members: her crumbling marriage to Adam, her affair with Adam's identical twin brother Saunders, her attempts to maintain her friendship with Saunder's wife Petal, trying to protect and understand her niece Collie, and luke-warm attempts at establishing a successful working relationship with her intern Lucien.

The cynical and jaded view of the world Eve lives in sets the tone for this witty, sarcasm-laced novella. The story is unpredictable, written as a disjointed compilation of events with a "Pulp Fiction' feel to it, minus the excess blood and gore. While a work of fiction, Robison has interspersed throughout the book factoids regarding New Orleans and the state of Louisiana post-Katrina that remind the reader of the true devastation Katrina caused.

In all, a brilliant work of fiction with raw, minimalist language that screams from the rooftops for all to hear. ( )