My New Orleans, Gone Away: A Memoir of Loss and Renewal

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Written with humor and telling detail, My New Orleans contains rare insight about the social structure of New Orleans; student life at Exeter, Tulane and Yale; the thrill of original scholarship; around the world travel before jets; medical school trauma; ingrained southern racism, and anti-Semitism; and American students' role in anti-Vietnam uprisings in Paris. In the background, he traces the rags to riches rise and fall of his city's and his family's engagement in the cotton, sugar and retail trades. After a year of medical school at Columbia, and continuing his journey of self-discovery, Wolf returns to New Orleans to work in his father's cotton brokerage and simultaneously earns a master's degree at Tulane. In spite of a spicy love affair, his residence in a glorious French Quarter courtyard, his purchase of a dilapidated building he expects to restore, and growing prominence in his community, Wolf returns to the east. He completes doctoral studies at NYU and becomes an architectural historian, a profession in which he earns considerable prominence. The author's complicated and achingly explored romantic life is slammed to a close by a saucy, waspy, ex-pat from Texas whom he meets in Paris during his year as a Fulbright scholar, and subsequently marries. Reflecting the yearnings and anxieties of a generation that came of age after World War II, this is the iconic journey of a restless man who leaves the hometown he loves to discover the world, and in so doing, to find himself. My New Orleans offers a penetrating and memorable account of a fading period of America's evolution, turbulence and possibilities, as unique as the city of Wolf's memory.

Reviews

"I adore this book and read it in a kind of dreamy fog, unable to put it down and think of anything else. It strikes just the perfect note for a New Orleans memoir, smart and graceful, with the affectionate heart of a native son and the clear eyes and keen intelligence of a scholar of cities. And it's a very brave book, coming from a man who's struggled and taken risks for his passions. What a lovely way Peter Wolf has found to reconcile his past and present selves!" -- Susan Larson, "The Reading Life", NPR

"My New Orleans, Gone Away is the pitch perfect reminiscence of what it feels like to grow up southern and Jewish at the same time. I would recommend it to anybody." -- Alfred Uhry, Academy Award, Tony Award, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Driving Miss Daisy

"I loved it. It brings back great memories." -- Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute, New Orleans native and author of Steve Jobs

"Peter Wolf's My New Orleans, Gone Away is the triumph of a memoirist with the eye of an architect and the heart of a poet. With admiration, and occasionally, awe, I shared the development of his feelings and taste. This may very well be a modest classic of that enchanted city's art, culture, lifestyle and vanishing monuments." -- Sidney Offit, author of Memoir of the Bookie's Son

"My New Orleans: Gone Away, you realize where it all comes from, and how powerfully the aura of New Orleans has influenced everything he has done. Wolf's story is personal and intimate, yet addresses something that matters to every one of us: the compelling theme of home, and how all of us are shaped by it." -- Paul Goldberger, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Why Architecture Matters

"A heartfelt, intimate, and painfully honest account of the coming of age of one shy boy and of the exotic city he left behind, but will never forget. A story of the courage of breaking away and the "you are there" descriptions of places and people that make the reader part of this narrative of struggle and triumph." -- Barbara Goldsmith, historian and author of Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie

"Peter Wolf's book is a charming, insightful memoir, which is beautifully written and descriptive of what it was like to grow up Jewish in New Orleans in the mid-20th century. Peter's journey is worth reading for those who enjoy memoirs steeped with interesting people, places and experiences." -- Scott Cowen, President, Tulane University

"Wolf's fascinating memoir illustrates how the familiar becomes exotic when one is away from it for long periods of time. He captures the city's unique brand of provinciality and the entwined strands of family connections that link him to both the place and its ethos." -- Thomas Uskali, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Cultural Vistas

"Wolf's journey from inhibited child to dream-chaser is beautifully told, full of love for New Orleans, tradition, and family, all trumped by the angst-filled awakening that led him forward." -- Publisher's Weekly

"A noted urban policy expert and architectural historian, Wolf offers a loving and beautifully written portrait of New Orleans in the 1950s and 1960s as well as beautifully rendered memories of New Haven, New York, and Paris in this journey of self-discovery and tribute to his roots." -- Vanessa Bush, BOOKLIST

Author Bio

Peter M. Wolf is a sixth-generation member of a New Orleans commercial family. After Yale, Wolf earned a Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture from NYU. Dr. Wolf is a nationally recognized land planning, urban policy and asset management authority. Dr. Wolf is the founder of the Thomas Moran Trust and a trustee in East Hampton of Guild Hall and The Village Preservation Society. His research and writing have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts; the Ford Foundation; the American Federation of Arts: and a Fulbright Fellowship.