Publisher's Synopsis
From Iris Martin Cohen, the author of The Little Clan, a new novel following a young burlesque dancer over the course of one pivotal night in New Orleans.
When Rosemary left her hometown of New Orleans for college, she promised herself she would never go back. However, the pressure to perform academically soon pushed her to drinking, which quickly spiraled out of control, and she was kicked out of school. Feeling like a failure and not knowing where else to go, she returned to the Crescent City and found work as a burlesque dancer.
For Rosemary, burlesque is a world of illusion and dreams and seduction. She feels electric while performing, all eyes on her. Each night, she hides from the realities of her life in plain sight, in a new persona of sequins and feathers and alcohol.
This night, though, is different--Rosemary struggles to break free of her alcoholism, desperate to overcome the addiction she watched destroy her mother. From the burlesque stage in the French Quarter, Louis Armstrong Park, Café Du Monde, and ending at a raucous masquerade party, this night becomes a journey for Rosemary to come to grips with her past, grieve for those she has lost, and maybe, finally, understand herself.
Set in present day New Orleans, LAST CALL ON DECATUR STREET is an electrifying tale of friendships and promises broken, and one woman's journey to rediscover who she is through the art of burlesque. With superlative emotional and intellectual sensitivity, mordant wit, and pitch-perfect style, Cohen dramatizes the uncertainty of early adulthood and answering the crucial question--who do you want to be?
