Teresa's Reviews > Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans

Armstrong uses the word 'cute' a lot to describe something, so I don't think he'd mind me using the word 'cute' to describe this book. It's written in a conversational style, as if he's talking to his reader; he even goes on tangents before always coming back to his original thought. He also uses some slang (some of which he explains) which adds to its 'period' feel.

He's a generous man, very grateful to his musical forebears and those who gave him his first breaks. And while he doesn't gloss over the poverty and roughness of his neighborhood and its way-of-life, and the prejudice he encounters throughout that life, he never fails to point out and praise those who were gracious, helpful, and his friends -- though perhaps he couldn't have been more descriptive anyway: the book was published in 1954 after all.

This book is most fascinating, I think, as a glimpse into a city and culture that has both changed and stayed the same. It seems that what Armstrong most loved and missed about New Orleans when he was away from it (the food, the people, the music in the streets, the food, the fun, his neighborhood, oh, and the food!), are the same things N.O. exiles miss today.