The Ritz of the Bayou

In this “unjustly neglected” masterpiece, Nancy Lemann gives an atmospheric account of the New Orleans trial of the Governor of Louisiana for racketeering, fraud, and bribery. This 40th anniversary edition features a new introduction by critic James Wolcott and an afterword by the author.

New Orleans-born novelist Nancy Lemann returned to her hometown from Manhattan in 1985, tasked by renowned editor Tina Brown to cover Governor Edwin Edwards's two corruption trials for Vanity Fair. The work that emerged from this trip was less a straightforward account of the court proceedings and instead a masterful portrait of the politicians, their families, the lawyers, and the other reporters covering the trials, rendered in sparse, wry vignettes. Championed and edited by Gordon Lish, The Ritz of the Bayou is Lemann’s sole book of nonfiction and has attained lost classic status in the decades it has languished out of print. 

In hazy, atmospheric scenes of cigar smoke-laden bars, heaping plates of oysters, and unchecked eccentricity and chaos, Lemann observes both the proceedings and a glamorous Gulf Coast gone shabby from humidity and time. She captures New Orleans’s particular “tropic zone,” where “the two great enemies of Louisianians are boredom and lack of style,” and its citizens choose charismatic leaders over ethical ones, writing, “Politics is not the place to look for saints.” 

An account of government corruption and Southern character that transcends its moment, The Ritz of the Bayou is Lemann at the height of her powers. This edition reestablishes a classic of Southern literature, rewarding its longtime fans and introducing her talent to a new generation of readers. 

Praise for The Ritz of the Bayou

"Nancy Lemann picks up where Hunter Thompson left off with Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72." —Barry Hannah

“This atmospheric, fragmented, and admirably peculiar work, which had only one hard-cover printing and no paperback run, deftly captures New Orleans’s idiosyncratic 'tropic zone,' where 'a flawed thing may be more full of life than a perfect thing,' and any event possesses the capacity to become a spectacle. Focused on the chaos of Louisiana’s governance, with its yearning for charismatic kings over staid leaders, the book can be seen as a bellwether for contemporary politics.” —Lauren Leblanc, The Drift

“A hallucinatory, gin-soaked account of the trials of the former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards.” —Parker Richards, Editor, The New York Times

“A compelling evocation of idiosyncratic Southern political and judicial usages carried on in a tropical climate that, the author suggests, determines the pace of human activity and fosters eccentricity. Her Southern politicos, 'drawling, cigar-smoking, silver-haired gents,' with a high tolerance for human frailty, are vividly drawn as are a jazz-crazed assistant prosecutor and the seedy trial buffs and hangers-on who prefer a corrupt official to a boring one.” —Publishers Weekly

“A modest mosaic of brief, discrete glimpses." —Library Journal