The Sound of Building Coffins

My review of an awesome book that everyone should read (now).

New Orleans in the late 18th to early 20th century.  A place full of death, hope, and rebirth, of yellow fever, voodoo, and the discovery of jazz.  This story is about the Morningstar family and a cast of others connected with them through fate, coincidence, or love.  It is hard to place Maistros’ book into one particular genre.  It is historical fiction, magical realism, and horror, but more importantly it is also literature at its very best.  

From the first page, the grotesque (a theme throughout) is evident as we are introduced to a nine year old boy carrying “a burlap bag, full of fresh fetuses.” The supernatural permeates the story; ghosts, zombies, and voodoo Queens.  Music is also important, one of the main characters is Buddy Bolden said to be the first man to front a jazz band.  But not just music in an abstract way, rather literally music - lyrics and sound - are central to the plot of this story.  In fact, the entire book is a sensual experience, encompassing the sights of turn of the century New Orleans, but also the sounds, smells, and even the texture of the city.  

Maistros’ novel is about people, the hard times they lived in and the difficult choices they had to make admist death, violence, and racism.  Ultimately, however, the author has produced a story about hope and rebirth (both literal and metaphorical).  Water is a key symbol of these themes whether in the form of the Mississippi River, the bayou, or the storms that bring flooding (both nurturing and destructive).  It is hard to imagine this book in a pre-Katrina era.  The motifs that take center stage here are ones expressed recently by residents of New Orleans who did not evacuate or those who left only to return because they could not stay away.

The Sound of Building Coffins is an amazing first novel, an amazing book in general that I would recommend to anyone no matter your usual tastes.  I won’t say that it is perfect of course.  There is some initial disconnect between Book 1 and Book 2 (it takes place several years after the opening scenes).  It took me a few chapters to get back into the story after the break.  Also the writing is at times disjointed, but for me this fit with the mood of the story. Others might find it off-putting. Regardless of these minor issues, this book is absolutely worth checking out!

The Sound of Building Coffins by Louis Maistros (2009)