Kindle Edition
Amazon
Category:
Psychology
Publisher: Create space
ISBN-10: 1516829034
Type: Fiction
Copyright: 2015
ISBN-13: 9781516829033
Price: $5.99 (eBook)
This novel shows how Odysseus the resilient helps people survive Katrina.
The day before Katrina hit New Orleans Ulysses (Odysseus in Greek) took his boat and promised his daughter Penelope he would return to meet her at the garden that he had built to pay homage to the Greek poet Homer and baptized as 'The Garden of Louisiana'.
One year passed, the police found Ulysses' boat and a rock upon which two letters were painted in black ink, U (Ulysses) and T (Troy). Next to the rock, was Homer's book The Odyssey. Recognizing her father's handwriting, Penelope is convinced that he sent her a message: After the Trojan War, it took twenty years for Odysseus, to return to his native country, so she needed to wait for her Dad to return to Garden of Louisiana. As long as her father's body is not found, she refuses to accept his death and imagines her father traveling in the same islands as Odysseus visited.
The more she observes the objects, the landscape and the people, the more she is immersed in the world of Homer. When Mr. Espoir hears that Penelope is looking for her father, he invites her to his hotel to meet the survivors of Hurricane Katrina where he helps her find her father. Like Odysseus, will her father return to his land? Who are these other survivors of Hurricane Katrina who cope with their lost relatives and learn how they cope with their trauma?
Excerpt
1 - Ulysses in the Garden of Louisiana
I was in Athena with my mother when Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans. On that same day, I heard a mysterious sound of wailing which shattered the silence of my hotel room.
“What is it?” I gasped.
“Penelope, it is probably the wind!” my mother replied.
“The wind!” I exclaimed, giving her a look of wonder since there was no breeze outside. At that moment, I had a premonition that an accident would happen to my father.
One week ago, my father asked me to kneel down before the statue of Poseidon, god of the sea, and pray to him for the safety of his voyage. My friends, fond of Greek mythology, had idealized my father and given him a nickname: Ulysses (Odysseus in Greek) because he was an exceptional and gifted captain who could navigate his ship smoothly and return home despite the bad weather and boisterous seas.
One month passed. Despite the mass evacuation of the inhabitants from New Orleans, my mother and I decided to return to Louisiana. When we arrived in the city, we felt both powerless and angry at seeing the devastated and bleak landscape. Entire buildings and homes were blasted away. Municipal vehicles, police cars, and fire trucks were gone, swept away by the fury of Katrina. While we were walking together along a muddy path strewn with objects protruding at odd angles, we shielded ourselves from the howling wind that pushed through the doors of the abandoned houses.
Shivering with cold and confusion, we gazed at the bleak and desolate landscape while pain stabbed our stomachs. Katrina had hit unexpectedly, leaving shock, dismay, and shattered lives in her wake. My dear Louisiana was wounded and irremediably damaged. It broke my heart to see the city suffering with its inhabitants’ tears flowing unchecked, like the dusky, dancing waves of the ocean. Aeolus, god of the winds, seemed to whisper in my ears, “Louisiana is cursed!”
After we walked across a clearing, past a pile of discarded furniture, bottles, cans and a pile of debris, we finally arrived at the entrance of our house. We were relieved and glad that Katrina had not demolished our property, but our joy vanished when Grandpa greeted us with a queer, almost pitying look on his face and announced, “The day before Katrina, your dad took his boat and has not returned to meet us at the garden that he had built and baptized as ‘The Garden of Louisiana’”.A shiver of emotion passed down my pink cheeks, I turned pale and this bad news distressed me. My stomach tightened into a fist. Tears chocked my throat. Seeing a worried look on my face, my grandpa, in an attempt to appease me, said in a soothing voice, “Penelope, do not worry! Your father will return soon.”
“When?” I asked.
“I do not know when, but don’t forget that your father is like Ulysses, a man like him never fails to return home no matter the difficulties he encounters on his road. So be patient as Penelope was during the Trojan War,” my grandpa replied.
“How long did Penelope wait for Ulysses’ return?” I wondered aloud.
“More than ten years, so be patient. To appease your fears, you should read The Odyssey by Homer and think of the goddess Athena,” my grandpa interjected.
“The Greek goddess?” I echoed.
“Yes, the Greek goddess. She helped Ulysses return home. Think of this goddess, and she will help you overcome your fears and help your dad return home,” my grandpa responded.
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