{"title":"Nancy Lemann","description":"Nancy Lemann was born in New Orleans and is the author of six books, including The Ritz of the Bayou (republished in 2026 by Hub City Press), Malaise, and, most recently, The Oyster Diaries (published in 2026 by New York Review Books).","products":[{"product_id":"lives-of-the-saints-paperback","title":"Lives of the Saints - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFresh out of college in New England, a young woman returns home to New Orleans and is quickly pulled back into the city's \"wastrel-youth contingent\" in this cult-classic novel of love and decadence, now with a new introduction.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNancy Lemann's voice is one of the most unusual in American fiction, unabashedly digressive, weirdly and wonderfully confiding, as witty as it is melancholy, an endless surprise. Hers is a voice born of and at odds with her native New Orleans, a voice that takes on and wonders at the ramshackle realities not just of the deep South but of America. \u003ci\u003eLives of the Saints\u003c\/i\u003e, her first book, was a revelation of new talent. Reappearing here, several decades later, it is simply a revelation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Claude Collier made the world seem kind,\" says Louise Brown, beginning a tale of Violent Love, Breakdowns, Moods, and Felonious Drunkenness that floats from one lush, green, sweltering New Orleans evening to another. When Louise returns home after four years of college in New England, she bemusedly finds herself reimmersed in New Orleans society's \"wastrel-youth contingent.\" At the center of this gin-fueled hurricane is Claude Collier, rumpled, accident-prone, supremely sweet--and desperate. For Claude, Louise is his steadying focus; for Louise, Claude is the only man who can cause her heart to \"break into a million pieces on the floor.\"","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101825241311,"sku":"9798896230281","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/Naq89hqx-J9798896230281.webp?v=1781075712"},{"product_id":"the-oyster-diaries-paperback","title":"The Oyster Diaries - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of the cult classic \u003ci\u003eLives of the Saints\u003c\/i\u003e, a diaristic novel of middle-aged reckoning that roves from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans, from court records to \u003ci\u003eDon Giovanni\u003c\/i\u003e, all of it riotously narrated by one of American fiction's most singular voices.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDelery Anhalt--middle-aged and prone, like Don Quixote, to \"embroidering everything into vast ideals\" but incapable (like Desdemona?) of identifying the Shakespearean villains in her life--finds herself at a crossroads. Her father and his peers, the old guard of New Orleans, are entering their twilight years. Her daughters are stepping decisively into adulthood. Delery, caught between the demands of the generations, takes stock of herself in a series of diaries that move freely between present and past: from the waning days of Covid and her employment as a virtual court monitor of criminal cases in New Orleans to the travails of daily life in Washington, DC. Throughout, she revisits--with frankness, with fury, with not a few qualms and some further thoughts--what she calls her lions at the gate: her insecurity, ego, annoyance, operatic wrath (felt most keenly toward bad houseguests), and remorse. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Oyster Diaries\u003c\/i\u003e, the latest novel by the incomparable Nancy Lemann, is a funny and poignant portrayal of the vicissitudes of adulthood that sees the return, from her legendary debut, \u003ci\u003eLives of the Saints\u003c\/i\u003e, of the heroic wastrel Claude Collier. This is an exuberant, indignant, insightful performance, and an irresistible addition to the books that have made Lemann one of the keenest, most engaging, and simply beloved of American writers at work today.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101825732831,"sku":"9798896230328","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/Ncr5r31jUf9798896230328.webp?v=1781075714"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/nancy-lemann.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}