Travels with Mae: Scenes from a New Orleans Girlhood

By Eileen M. Julien

With a series of lyrical vignettes Eileen M. Julien traces her life as an African American woman growing up in middle-class New Orleans in the 1950s and 1960s. Julien's narratives focus on her relationship with her mother, family, community, and the city itself, while touching upon life after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Haunted by a colonial past associated with African presence, racial mixing, and suspect rituals, New Orleans has served the national imagination as a place of exoticism where objectionable people and unsavory practices can be found. The destruction of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath revealed New Orleans' deep poverty and marginalized population, and brought a media storm that perpetuated the city's stigma. Travels with Mae lovingly restores the wonder of this great city, capturing both its beauty and its pain through the eyes of an insider.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253353165
• ISBN13: 9780253353160
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.6" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Any library catering to African-Americans must have this touching, revealing memoir

Any collection strong in African-American memoirs or discussions of black experiences in urban settings will find TRAVELS WITH MAE: SCENES FROM A NEW ORLEANS GIRLHOOD to be a top pick. It tells of a middle-class life in a city usually portrayed by its black population's poverty, and provides lovely stories of an Afro-Louisiana Creole background. Any library catering to African-Americans must have this touching, revealing memoir.

Outstanding book

I really enjoy this book because it highlights a part of New Orleans culture and community that is little known--the black middle class. Eileen writes with clarity and heart and invites the reader into her experience. In the intimacy of that invitation, one can find oneself and share profound meaning. What a gift this book is to readers everywhere--especially those interested in memoirs, biography, and history!

Lush, smart snapshots of a New Orleans girlhood

This is one of the most enjoyable New Orleans memoirs I have yet encountered. Dr. Julien grew up as part of a little known part of New Orleans culture -- the mid-century, black middle class. She has gone on to be a professor of French and Italian, and of African Diaspora Studies, at Indiana University. She is a keen, smart-witted observer and her various random memories of childhood are gems of delight, heart-break, mystery and discovery. Her descriptions of the homemade New Orleans cuisine of her childhood is worth the price of the book alone. Most of her vignettes are 1 or 2 pp. in this 125pp. work. The photos and cover art are wonderful. I bought my signed copy at Maple Street bookstore in the Carrollton neighborhood last week. I can't wait to go to the book reading at PJ's Coffee on Maple in September. I really wish Dr. Julien would move back to New Orleans. The city needs her deep understanding of the New Orleans soul now more than ever.