Last Call on Decatur Street

Growing up poor in New Orleans with an alcoholic mother could grind any kid down, but luckily for Rosemary, she had Gaby. The two girls supported each other and grew up together sharing everything, though Rosemary’s white skin and Gaby’s black skin caused rifts along the way. When Iris Martin Cohen’s novel Last Call on Decatur Street opens, those rifts have opened so deeply that Rosemary fears there may be no coming back.

After a failed attempt at college Rosemary has returned to New Orleans to work as a burlesque dancer in the French Quarter. She feels empowered on stage and strong in the sisterhood she shares with her fellow dancers, but the lifestyle of drinking too much and staying up too late has taken its toll of late. On this particular night, she’s also grieving the loss of her chihuahua Ida, the one constant kindness that has kept her centered over the last few years. As she roams the city in pursuit of Jonah, an on again off again fling she wonders if could be more, the novel flashes back to moments with Gaby that led her here. The most memorable, the night the two girls tried to set their high school principal’s lawn on fire, becomes a central moment in her life she hasn’t fully unpacked yet.

Last Call on Decatur Street has a few too many hip references to be called an effortless book. Rosemary’s story is familiar—a girl with promise falling apart after a loss—but there is more to it that makes the book worth reading, especially in the heartbreaking way Rosemary wants to save someone else even as she struggles to save herself.