BOOKS: New Orleans Stories

I've never been to New Orleans. I've always wanted to visit, but never got around to it. And now, even if I do get there eventually, the dirty, decadent, romantic city of my imaginary travels is no more.

But I am grateful to the many writers who -- in their own wildly different ways -- have memorialized in print this amazing city. Thanks to them, countless people who may never have seen New Orleans will get to create a picture of it in their mind's eye.

In memorial to one of the greatest, most exciting, most inspiring cities on this continent, here's a list of some stories set in the Big Easy. I've been leafing through my copies and reading the descriptive passages and being sad.

• A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• The Complete Stories of Truman Capote
• A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
• Literary New Orleans by Judy Long (editor)
• The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
• Wild at Heart by Barry Gifford

(Please don't think I'm being callous or that, in commenting on fiction, I'm ignoring the very real-life tragedy that is still unfolding. I'm not. But after watching the horrific TV footage and reading the incredibly sad first-person accounts and donating to relief organizations, what else is there to do or say? I truly hope I haven't offended anyone.)