Going to New Orleans

Longlisted for the ReLit Award (2006)

Going to New Orleans is the story of Lewis King, a jazz trumpet player who lands a gig in the Big Easy. King is a genius on cornet, but his private life is emotionally, morally, and financially bankrupt. He’s a heavy drinker and compulsive sexual manipulator, prone to paranoid fits of violent rage. His girlfriend, Ms Sugarlicq, can’t keep her pants on. But as equally deviant sexual predators and jealous hypocrites, they’re perfect for each other…

Going to New Orleans is a fantastic and graphic first-person narrative that serves as a surreal-but-faithful guide to the music, food, history, and literature of New Orleans. A spiritual book, as well as a dirty one.

Praise for Going to New Orleans:

"Throughout the novel, Tidler makes liberal use of alliteration, interior rhyme, and complex sentence construction to produce rhythms that are compelling and addictive. Portions of the book almost demand to be read and reread aloud in order to savour the swish and clatter of the prose. There’s a swing to these sentences." (Quill & Quire)

"To quote the Velvet Underground's 'Some Kinda Love,' this book 'Like a dirty French novel/the absurd courts the vulgar,' offering us beauty contrasted with coarse, harsh, visceral passions, like the metallic tang of come and blood commingled." (The Georgia Straight)

"dialogue as spare and laconic as Hemingway, as poignant and telling as Carver" (The Danforth Review)

"Tidler is the best goddamned poet in Canada!" (Charles Bukowski)