Library Journal: “The heroine’s determination to improve her life and never to give up define this novel… Lagasse recalls the socially realistic novels of John Steinbeck and Edward Dahlberg with this stark, unadorned prose portrait.”
“I sat right down and read the book and I love it. In her new novel, Navel of the Moon, Mary Helen Lagasse has created a wonderfully engaging and complex young woman who tells a compelling story of the promise and pain and shared courage of growing up, not just for herself but for her city of New Orleans. This splendid work gives further evidence of Lagasse’s permanent place in our literary culture."
–Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author
It recalls the classic novels while offering “a different kind of New Orleans – not magnolias, moonlight, or vampires... but a place where dreams are big and reality is disillusionment."
Ms. Lagasse is one of the My New Orleans contributors singled out for praise... in a review by The Los Angeles Times: "The true strength of 'My New Orleans' lies in its contributors acute observations of a culture that has remained defiantly different... The city may be most famous for its French colonial roots, but novelist Mary Helen Lagasse deftly sketches the more familiar multiculturalism of its 20th century neighborhoods... "
Greetings!
If you have questions, or comments, please email me at mhlagasse8@gmail.com.
Would love to hear from you.
My new novel NAVEL OF THE MOON will be published in Spring, 2015.
More to come as time approaches.
Thanks for your interest in my work.
Mary Helen Lagasse