A novel of historical fiction, The Vaudevillians is currently under revision after initial drafting. It's a transatlantic family saga that takes place over four generations in Napoleonic France, colonial Guadeloupe after the re-institution of slavery, New Orleans finding its identity after admission to the US, and Bayou Teche on the brink of Civil War. Backwards and forwards in time, it follows Victor and Eugenie, two actors who meet on the Boulevard de Temple and join a theatre troupe to tour the Antilles performing opera, cabaret, rope dancing, and puppetry, among other spectacles. Their ancestors and progeny are all searching for liberty in a world that insists it's already been given to them. A clockmaker, a saltpeter, a tobacconist, a stockboy, a smuggler: all driven by the hope that they can transform the abject into something liberatory.
All of the characters and events in this story are true. The research for the book took place in parish, civil, and court records in Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Basse Terre, New Orleans, and St. Martinville. The interior lives and conversations were imagined.
All of the characters and events in this story are true. The research for the book took place in parish, civil, and court records in Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Basse Terre, New Orleans, and St. Martinville. The interior lives and conversations were imagined.