Written with lightness and humor, this delightful story begins with a lazy Saturday morning. As Mrs. Candy goes about her business, she winds up speaking with her deceased husband, a social worker from the French Quarter, and two very large police officers. She also learns many new things about the unusual tenants of her New Orleans boarding house. By the time Sunday morning arrives, every person in the building has had his life changed in one way or another.
New Orleans, 1940s—Mrs. Candy’s boarding house on Cairo Street is full of characters. The events of a not-so-typical Saturday develop into a party the widow throws for her renters. As Mrs. Candy says “it takes all kinds of people.” That’s just what her small group of boarders is, from the drunken middle-aged politician and the uptight secretary to the young lovers and a kind-hearted man homesick for Bogalusa. Mrs. Candy herself is the kind of person who has never found life difficult or in the least complicated. She has a knack for getting people to wait on her and likes to play dumb. When shrimp jambalaya, some new acquaintances, and a lot of liquor are added to the mix, many unexpected things begin to happen.
About the Author
Robert Tallant (1909-57) was one of Louisiana’s best-known authors and a participant in the WPA Writers’ Project during the 1930s and 1940s. During the last years of his life, he was a lecturer in English at Newcomb College. He is the author of Evangeline and the Acadians; Mardi Gras . . . As It Was; The Pirate Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans, which won a Louisiana Library Association Award for best book of the year; Voodoo in New Orleans; and The Voodoo Queen, and is a co-author of Gumbo Ya-Ya: Folk Tales of Louisiana.
MRS. CANDY AND SATURDAY NIGHT
By Robert Tallant
FICTION / Humorous
280 pp. 5 1/4 x 8
ISBN: 9781455616237 pb