If Ignatius Reilly wrote a novel, this would be it: all arcana, all farcicality, all New Orleans. With footnotes! Oh, my pyloric valve!
Patty Friedmann
Author of Secondhand Smoke and Pick-Up Line
Darlene Olivo’s book, Mystick Krewe of Swan Songs, is rich and complex—just like New Orleans, where it takes place. This is the kind of storytelling that turns from tears to laughter and back again.
Nicole Hollander
Creator of the syndicated cartoon, “Sylvia,” and author of Tales of Graceful Aging from the Planet Denial
With a voice both elegant and original, Darlene Olivo draws us into a shimmering, whimsical New Orleans rarely seen by outsiders. How lucky we are to have this magical raconteur as our guide.
Jackie Bullock
Author of the play Ripe Figs
Once you go digging in New Orleans' mud, the accumulation of eons of spring flooding and 200 feet deep before you hit bedrock, you find that everything here is all connected, all our families, our craziness, our glories, our obscenities. Darlene Olivo has dug deep and come back with treasures that will enrich anyone willing to dive into our glorious muck.
Randy Fertel
Author of The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak: a New Orleans Family Memoir; he also reigned as King Guerilla Gorilla in Krewe Delusion 2012.
Darlene Olivo has woven the culture and history of New Orleans into a beautiful tapestry. If you are from New Orleans, you will find the molecules of our magical existence written in these words.
Chris Champagne
Author of The New Yat Dictionary and Roach Opera
Darlene Olivo's book is not a Boethian confederacy of smart and dumb people, but a constant parade of costumed and masked characters in a carnival that would never even think of ending on Ash Wednesday, but keeps rolling every day of the year.
Stephen Duplantier
Publisher and editor of Neotropica
Mystick Krewe of Swan Songs is a delightfully farcical take on Mardi Gras in New Orleans as never experienced before. The floats are lined up on Bayou St. John, with Ruthie the Duck Girl queen of the parade, and a host of misbegotten locals trailing along behind her. Several Tableaux Vivants are large floats with full length stories to go with them. Darlene Olivo, native New Orleans artist and writer, has put together an encyclopedic vision (complete with footnotes and recipes!) of Carnival as a meta-farce, playfully limning the city’s characters and their long, slow dance of Eros and Thanatos. Humorous, tongue-in-cheek observations cover the period of 1989-2000 with flashbacks to the 1940s. Olivo masterfully describes the city’s soul and psyche with a palette of absurdity and truth. Illustrated with beautiful full-color art work by the author. Grab your Mardi Gras costume and be prepared to have “Throw me something, M’am!” bountifully answered!
DK Midkiff
Nobee Books
Patty Friedmann
Author of Secondhand Smoke and Pick-Up Line
Darlene Olivo’s book, Mystick Krewe of Swan Songs, is rich and complex—just like New Orleans, where it takes place. This is the kind of storytelling that turns from tears to laughter and back again.
Nicole Hollander
Creator of the syndicated cartoon, “Sylvia,” and author of Tales of Graceful Aging from the Planet Denial
With a voice both elegant and original, Darlene Olivo draws us into a shimmering, whimsical New Orleans rarely seen by outsiders. How lucky we are to have this magical raconteur as our guide.
Jackie Bullock
Author of the play Ripe Figs
Once you go digging in New Orleans' mud, the accumulation of eons of spring flooding and 200 feet deep before you hit bedrock, you find that everything here is all connected, all our families, our craziness, our glories, our obscenities. Darlene Olivo has dug deep and come back with treasures that will enrich anyone willing to dive into our glorious muck.
Randy Fertel
Author of The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak: a New Orleans Family Memoir; he also reigned as King Guerilla Gorilla in Krewe Delusion 2012.
Darlene Olivo has woven the culture and history of New Orleans into a beautiful tapestry. If you are from New Orleans, you will find the molecules of our magical existence written in these words.
Chris Champagne
Author of The New Yat Dictionary and Roach Opera
Darlene Olivo's book is not a Boethian confederacy of smart and dumb people, but a constant parade of costumed and masked characters in a carnival that would never even think of ending on Ash Wednesday, but keeps rolling every day of the year.
Stephen Duplantier
Publisher and editor of Neotropica
Mystick Krewe of Swan Songs is a delightfully farcical take on Mardi Gras in New Orleans as never experienced before. The floats are lined up on Bayou St. John, with Ruthie the Duck Girl queen of the parade, and a host of misbegotten locals trailing along behind her. Several Tableaux Vivants are large floats with full length stories to go with them. Darlene Olivo, native New Orleans artist and writer, has put together an encyclopedic vision (complete with footnotes and recipes!) of Carnival as a meta-farce, playfully limning the city’s characters and their long, slow dance of Eros and Thanatos. Humorous, tongue-in-cheek observations cover the period of 1989-2000 with flashbacks to the 1940s. Olivo masterfully describes the city’s soul and psyche with a palette of absurdity and truth. Illustrated with beautiful full-color art work by the author. Grab your Mardi Gras costume and be prepared to have “Throw me something, M’am!” bountifully answered!
DK Midkiff
Nobee Books