Orleans by Sherri L. Smith (review)

Katrina. Rita. Sandy. Say the names and listeners are likely to conjure up images of the devastation left behind by these superstorms, the overwhelming desperation and loss in the wake of an unstoppable force. In her first foray into the world of dystopia, Smith (author of Flygirl, BCCB 2/09) would have readers believe that these storms were just the beginning: a series of six hurricanes hits the U.S. over five years, culminating in 2019 in category 6 hurricane Jesus, a storm so powerful it requires a revised hurricane scale and leaves the Gulf Coast so destroyed that the powers-that-be quarantine it off and essentially leave its residents to their own devices.

The book speedily fast-forwards through fifty years of poverty, rape, murder, and Delta Fever and then introduces readers to Fen de la Guerre, a fifteen-year-old girl apprenticed to the pregnant leader of the O-tribe. The Fever that has devastated most of the Gulf’s remaining population is more easily spread between people of different blood types, so tribes have organized along bloodlines, staking out territories around and within Orleans (the “New” having been forsaken long ago). Fen’s mentor, Lydia, is seeking to establish a tentative peace among the tribes, but her efforts are shattered when Fen and Lydia are ambushed and Lydia goes into labor, delivering the child but dying in the process. Now Fen is left with a helpless infant and seven days to fulfill her promise to Lydia: to get the child over the Wall that separates the Delta from the rest of the country before the baby develops the Fever.

Meanwhile, across the Wall, in the Outer States of America, a young scientist named Daniel is certain he has almost discovered a cure for the Fever, but he needs access to carriers and such people only exist within Orleans. Daniel illegally crosses the Wall, but he is totally unprepared to make his way through the wilderness or past the violent blood hunters that populate it. Fortunately, he soon encounters Fen, and the two join forces to get both Daniel and the baby (dubbed Enola—East New Orleans—by Fen) to safety.

Smith offers a vivid and realistic portrayal of a world ravaged first by Mother Nature and then by human nature as cruelty, prejudice, and despair become the dominating forces within the Delta. The facts regarding the storms, the quarantine, and the Fever are laid out in a brief five-page introduction, giving readers a cold and distanced look at the desolation. We are then almost immediately immersed in a world of tribes, blood, and desperation as Fen’s folksy, dialect-heavy narration sets the scene, and the effects of the hurricanes and the policies that followed them are suddenly made deeply personal. The book occasionally deviates from Fen’s narration with chapters narrated in the third person and focalized through Daniel, a strategy that hearkens back to the dispassionate tone of the introduction and initially aligns the young scientist with those who view Orleans as a lost cause. However, as Daniel becomes more entrenched inside the Wall and attached to Fen and Enola, Fen’s voice takes over and Daniel, like the reader, becomes fully invested in the fate of Orleans.

Orleans itself is a compelling intersection of environmental chaos and human politics. Smith repeatedly reminds readers that this was once a vibrant, stunningly alive place that suffered the ill effects of global warming and yet has still managed to eke out a kind of survival, as grim and unappealing as that survival looks. This version of NOLA reads like a twisted love letter to the original as Smith mines its famous landmarks and traditions for a dark revision: the Superdome is now a mass grave with bones piled atop seats; the Garden District has gone to seed; the famous dancing second line in the brass band parades is now a solemn procession of nuns; and Mardi Gras is...