The Donkey Show

by Michael Patrick Welch

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0966918819
• ISBN13: 9780966918816
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Equator Books
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

I notice that the reviews here seem to have stopped right around the time Katrina hit. Another victim claimed? After reading this book, I couldn't help wondering why I hadn't heard about it at all. Are people loath to pick up a novel about New Orleans that was written before the deluge? I hope not. They'd be missing out, because this is something special! Welch couldn't have foreseen the events that would follow this books publication, even if Lani (one of the books many colorful characters) had finally deigned to read his Tarot cards. Patrick, the protagonist (a thinly veiled version of Welch himself?) has left the hell that is Florida for New Orleans. Although he stumbles from job to job (and rented mansion room to rented mansion box), he's not entirely aimless. He has a singular vision...to earn enough money to move to Costa Rica where he can live like a king (and maybe liberate some donkeys before he goes). The novel isn't so much concerned with getting from point A to point B as it is with the little stories that happen in between. There's the parade you're in and there's the one marching by on the other side of the glass. Every character is vibrant, every action a lesson to be learned. Welch turns NO into his own twisted variation of Carroll's Wonderland. A scene in which Patrick & his girlfriend Mizzy take Ecstasy is so deftly written it simultaneously enchants and horrifies. The minority kids in Patrick's creative writing class could easily have fallen prey to cheap stereotypes but instead are infused with a quick wit and impressive resilience. A post 9/11 Mardi Gras becomes a mercurial beast. This book spills over with pathos and righteous laughter. Welch has a way of writing that maintains a level of tenderness even at it's most caustic. It's something few writers can do. Tom Robbins pulls it off from time to time. Vonnegut was a master at it. Michael Patrick Welch is a writer to be reckoned with. I read that he sold a script of The Donkey Show to Lion's Gate Films. Hollywood really has a habit of defacing good books, so I personally hope the movie doesn't get made. On the other hand, I wish Welch every success. I'm very much looking forward to his next book. Until then, you can read his post-Katrina columns online.

Restaurant life & much more

I read THE DONKEY SHOW in a single evening -- in fact, it kept me up until past 3 AM, and the narrator's voice was so engaging that I found myself dreaming in it when I finally did go to sleep. The story of a recent transplant to New Orleans who's never eaten a crawfish, an oyster, or a piece of alligator (note: I've never met a native New Orleanian who liked alligator either -- most people seem to consider it tourist food) or worked with a black person, TDS follows its seemingly autobiographical protagonist Patrick through a series of adventures -- waiting tables, bad food, clueless tourists, extreme racial tension, sex, drugs, art, Mardi Gras, and those poor mules pulling buggies in the French Quarter -- that captivated me even as they made me feel incredibly old, tired, and boring. When Patrick gets a job as a backwaiter in a busy Canal Street restaurant, TDS doesn't so much harp on the tension between front of the house and back of the house as much as it ignores BOH entirely. By my count, the denizens of the kitchen figured into this 282-page novel exactly twice -- once when a pair of "fat chefs" came into the dining room to eat help meal, and once when a weasel-faced cook/drug dealer had his house wrecked by the Ecstasy/Vicodin/Bloody Mary-fueled sexual gymnastics of Patrick and his waitress girlfriend Mizzy. I don't intend this as a complaint; maybe it's different in other places, but in New Orleans, especially in the larger restaurants, FOH and BOH are two separate worlds that seldom intersect except at the bar after hours. While I picked up TDS because of my interest in restaurants, what touched my heart most was Patrick's stint teaching at a New Orleans public high school. Welch must surely have logged such a stint, because every word of it -- the Third World standards, the lack of basic amenities like math teachers and air conditioning, the apathy, the kids' inability to construct a coherent sentence, the tremendous importance of the marching band, the drugs, the constant threat of violence, the kids' occasional heartbreaking sweetness in spite of it all -- rings absolutely true. I couldn't always hear Welch's white New Orleans characters, but he has a near-perfect ear for the black voices of New Orleans. I do wish TDS had been copyedited with a bit more care; Welch's prose is so entertaining that I hated being jolted out of it by misspellings of easy-to-check words like "Tchoupitoulas," but in the Author's Notes included at the front of the book is the comically misspelled directive "SPEELCHECK street names," so maybe I am missing the point here. This is an excellent book if you want a behind-the-scenes look at FOH life in a big New Orleans tourist restaurant, but it's a lot of other things as well. Highly recommended.

Thinking about moving to New Orleans? Read this book, first.

New Orleans is filled with transplants from all over the country. Many of the friends I have made since moving to the Crescent City from Los Angeles back in 1999 are from elsewhere, places as distinct and varied as New York, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, etc. And we've all had our stories of culture shock and adaptation to this horribly beautiful piece of the Dirty South. _The Donkey Show_ captures the voice of the transplant in the process of becoming New Orleanian, so much so that when reading this work I had at times felt that the story was mine to tell. Mr. Welch's story is in part autobiographical. A book about relocating to New Orleans from Florida and the lessons/perils/pleasures had in adjusting to the city. Oftentimes amusing, always entertaining and difficult to put down, _The Donkey Show_ also conveys some truth that hit a little too close to home to be simply some humorous fiction. _The Donkey Show_ is not only as a good read for anyone who appreciates quality literature, but particularly for those souls who are considering a move to New Orleans. This city is a magnificent, freaking breath taking place, but with the joys of New Orleans are the traumas that do scare many back to from wherever they came (I've lost count of the number of transplants I've known who departed due to the racial tension, bad job market, and the general third worldliness of NOLA). But for those so inclined, New Orleans can be not just a place to live, but an adventure and inspiration to those with an otherwise lazy muse. _The Donkey Show_ may not only serve as a warning, but a beacon to those kindred spirits who dare relocate and find a place to actively create one's life, ya heard me?

Unexpected- and poetic

This book made me homesick for a place I've never actually been. Set in New Orleans, it shows the side of life in the service industry that creative types, like the main character, tend to find themselves in as they look for their niche in the world. From the politics of the restaurant where the story is centered, we can see how the messy workings of everyday life, and the ebb and flow of people in and out of it, create a world that sometimes feels like a party you don't want to leave.

An author to keep your eye on

The Donkey Show marks the beginning of a great new literary voice. Michael Patrick Welch has crafted a novel full of mirth, pathos, and love. Truly, I haven't had this much fun reading a book in a long while. The story unfolds over the course of one year in New Orleans in which we follow the main character as he struggles to keep body and soul together long enough to experience his first Mardi Gras. Along the way he encounters a large cast of misfits, thugs, and genuinely likable characters that propel the reader from one adventure to the next. It finally all comes together at Mardi Gras, and what follows cannot properly be described here. You'll have to read it for yourself, and you really should. No first novel should be this good. I'm jealous, and I'll be watching the shelves for his next book.