Devil Sent the Rain - by Tom Piazza (Paperback)

About the Book

WhateverTom Piazza writes is touched with magic." Douglas Brinkley

Acclaimed author Tom Piazza follows hisprize-winning novelCity of Refugeand the post-KatrinaclassicWhy New Orleans Matterswith a dynamic collection ofessays and journalism about American music and American character, inDevilSent the Rain.

TomPiazza s writing is filled with energy, and with tender, insightful words forthe brilliant and irascible, from Jimmy Martin to Norman Mailer. Time and timeagain, Piazza identifies the unlikely, precious connections between recentevents, art, letters, and music; through his words, these byways of popularculture provide an unexpected measure of the times. Elvis Costello"

Book Synopsis

"WhateverTom Piazza writes is touched with magic." --Douglas Brinkley

Acclaimed author Tom Piazza follows hisprize-winning novel City of Refuge and the post-Katrinaclassic Why New Orleans Matters with a dynamic collection ofessays and journalism about American music and American character, in DevilSent the Rain.

"TomPiazza's writing is filled with energy, and with tender, insightful words forthe brilliant and irascible, from Jimmy Martin to Norman Mailer. Time and timeagain, Piazza identifies the unlikely, precious connections between recentevents, art, letters, and music; through his words, these byways of popularculture provide an unexpected measure of the times." --Elvis Costello

From the Back Cover

Tom Piazza's sharp intelligence, insight, and passion fuel this new collection of writings on music, literature, New Orleans, and America itself in desperate times.

For his first book since his award-winning novel City of Refuge and his stunning and influential post-Katrina polemic Why New Orleans Matters, Piazza selects the best of his writings on American roots music and musicians, including his Grammy-winning album notes for Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues; his classic profile of bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin; essays on Jimmie Rodgers, Charley Patton, and Bob Dylan; and much more.

In the book's second section, Piazza turns his attention to literature, politics, and post-Katrina America in articles and essays on subjects ranging from Charlie Chan movies to the life and work of Norman Mailer, from the New Orleans housing crisis to the BP oil spill, from Jelly Roll Morton's Library of Congress recordings to the future of books. The third and final section delivers a startlingly original meditation on fiction, sentimentality, and cynicism--a major new essay from this brilliant, unpredictable, and absolutely necessary writer.

Review Quotes

"[H]ot and for real and from the heart . . . Piazza is now truly a poet of place. Reading his book is an emotionally wrenching experience--at times hilarious, at times heartbreaking." - New Orleans Times-Picayune
"Explaining this city's inexorable, gravitational pull to outsiders who see only corruption, crime, poverty, and malarial weather is a tough order, but every page of Piazza's deeply felt story explains a larger truth about why people live where they do: because it's home, and heart." - Washington Post
"To read City of Refuge is to realize that this is what fiction is for: to take us to places the cameras can't go." - Richard Russo, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
"While the characters . . . are fictional and the events are real, writer Piazza makes it feel like it is the other way around. His heroes brim with life, while the city's destruction feels otherworldly. . . . Recreat[es] a piece of our history, through art, in a tribute to what was, and how to go on from here." - New York Post
"Tom Piazza's writing pulsates with nervous electrical tension--reveals the emotions that we can't define." - Bob Dylan
"Tom Piazza's writing is filled with energy and tender, insightful words for the brilliant and irascible, from Jimmy Martin to Norman Mailer. He identifies the unlikely, precious connections between recent events, art, letters, and music; through his words, these byways of popular culture provide an unexpected measure of the times." - Elvis Costello