Voodoo Season by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Atria hardback). “Almost doctor” Marie Levant is a resident at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. Raised in foster care in Chicago, the strong-willed Levant doesn’t understand what drew her to the Crescent City, although she’s charmed by its mystery and disturbed by the stark contrasts. Then a young, dead woman is brought into the ER, and Marie somehow “knows” the woman is pregnant and saves the child with an emergency C-section. Marie’s past and present merge as she realizes she’s the descendant of legendary Voodoo queen Marie Laveau and tries to figure out who’s killing young New Orleans women. A quirky, atmospheric read that made me want to read Rhodes’ earlier Voodoo Dreams, based on the real life Laveau. — Ann Wicker
Romance by David Mamet (Vintage original paperback). Outrageous, brilliant and hysterical in every sense of the word, Pulitzer-winner Mamet’s most recent play had me crying with laughter. A courtroom run by a woozy, hay-feverish judge gives Mamet a great setting for an explosion of uber-literate insults, un-PC profanities, vicious, farcical cultural clashes and a joyous skewering of lawyers, Arabs, Jews, politics, gays, chiropractors, you name it. It’s a hectic, wild ride; go for it. — John Grooms
This article appears in Nov 2-8, 2005.
