Review 640: The Yellow House

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book is an autobiography and perhaps one could make the argument it is of the house and not the author, or of the neighborhood in New Orleans East.

Sarah Broom grew up as the youngest child in a house that had 12 kids between both her parents. Her mother, Ivory Mae, bought the house for cash when she was 19, with the life insurance when her first husband died in 1960 while in the military. Two, perhaps three of the children were born of this man, but most likely the third was of her second husband, Simon Broom. He had three of his own, although the eldest boy would never live with this family. Between the two of them they had seven more children.

The house suffered a flood many years before Katrina came along. When it was repaired Simon added a small second story, which became the boys area. Much of the work was never complete fully. The house was not what Ivory Mae had envisioned for her ideal home. But it was her home.

Katrina becomes a focal point in the book. The Yellow House was flooded up the rafters, along with nearly all of New Orleans East. Afterwards the city would come and bulldoze down the house before anyone had notice. Despite living in New York City at the time, this devastation to the city, to the Broom family home, affects her and her siblings. Most had been living in New Orleans prior to Katrina. Years later only a couple have remained or returned. Sarah does for a while as well. The book is a remarkable tale of just one family before and after that devastating hurricane and flooding.