Sarah Broom grew up in New Orleans, the youngest of twelve children.  Her father died when she was six months old, and her mother spent almost all of her time keeping her family safe and the house, the yellow house, from falling into disrepair.  Their home was in a poor black section of the city with no zoning, no decent schools and very few city services.  When Katrina, known around New Orleans as “the water,” hit, the yellow house was torn apart, much like the Broom family who dispersed to California, Texas and other parts of Louisiana.

The Yellow House is an interesting, well-written memoir.  However,  parts of it describe areas of New Orleans in detail, and since I have never lived there and only visited once, these sections meant nothing to me.