About book Shake The Devil Off: A True Story Of The Murder That Rocked New Orleans (2009)
I thought this was a great read. It made me sad on several levels and changed some of my thoughts toward the city of New Orleans, which I love. Very very sad what happened to the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.But the thing that really shook me was the descriptions of the Iraqi/Afghanistan conflicts. I hate what happened in those places.Greed and power seem to be the commonality between the city and citystates in the middle east. And a poor soldier was caught up in the seams, and pulled a lovely young lady in with him. First of all, I am not sure how to rate this book. I liked it and read it very quickly but I am not sure I really liked it. Wish I could give 3.5 stars. I knew nothing about this book, never heard of it. Just happened to walk past it in the library and it caught my eye. I was hooked by the book jacket alone. I think the book is really 3 books in one. There is the Zach Bowen story-his life and military experience. 2) Zach's story in New Orleans as an Army vet trying to survive before and after Hurricane Katrina and 3) the plight of New Orleans after the hurricane and the failure of Veterans Affairs. At first, I thought the author, journalist Ethan Brown, was really trying to paint Zach as the victim. I cannot stop thinking about this story and how different things might have been if the military had not "absolutely and completely failed this soldier." Even though Zach & Addie's relationship was plagued by violence and personal demons, theirs is one that even shocked the city of New Orleans as one of the most gruesome crimes in the city's history. The last 60 pages or so were really bogged down with stories from other vets, friends of Zach and Addie, and other personal stories of NO violence post Katrina. It no longer read like a novel but rather a journalist doing a special report on the state of VA and life in NO.
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Pretty sure David Simon is spooling out a thinly disguised version of this as a plot point on Treme.
—bremer0702
