Summary
Some in New Orleans accused him of racism for reporting in a February story that young African Americans were primarily responsible for violence against Hispanic laborers. The words of Balzac and Chateaubriand, read by the flickering light of a candle, the melodies of Liszt and Debussy, absorbed through the silence and humidity of Southern summer nights, sustained Nossiter amidst a city drowning in sadness and nonsense. Nossiter needed the nightly respite after days spent sorting through confusion, hunting for sources in an evacuated city and tending to a leg infection he contracted while wading through fetid water.
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Extract
Farewell to New Orleans
As images of ruined neighborhoods and gut-wrenching stories of poverty emerged from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, journalists and citizens uttered a collective, "My gosh, look at what that storm did."
But Adam Nossiter, a veteran reporter who built his career around covering the South, knew the truth: Many of the city's intractable problems predated the storm.Nossiter, who lived there for nearly 20 ...See the full content of this document
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