In the introduction to Brooke Champagne’s debut collection of essays, she confesses that, “discovering truths behind facades is one of teaching’s, and life’s, greatest surprises and joys.” In NOLA Face: A Latina’s Life in the Big Easy, Champagne makes a lot of confessions as she uncovers the various facades inherent in her upbringing in New Orleans under the watchful, loving, abusive, and unfathomable eyes of her Ecuadoran grandmother Lala. The essays grapple with the vagaries of memory, the limitations of translation, and the paradoxes of defining oneself. They recount her life as a teacher, daughter, granddaughter, wife, and writer.  

My favorites are the titular “NOLA Face,” about her rescue dog, Nola, but also about beauty and coming to terms with how Champagne feels about herself; and “What I Know about the Chicken Lady,” which is about her relationship with her alcoholic father. Here I too must make a confession. I selected both of these essays to publish, one in Tahoma Literary Review, the other ten years ago in The Los Angeles Review. In those ten years, I’ve become a fan of Champagne and her writing. This memoir in essays is truly a showcase of her talents as an essayist – one who asks questions that breed sometimes uncomfortable, but always enlightening and often surprising answers. Or they inspire more questions, and more after that – a hall of mirrors of questions. Another reason I remain a steadfast fan? Because many of her essays are properly cussy, by which I mean their cussiness feels organic to the conversation in Champagne’s head, the narrative she shares. Her voice. It’s hypnotizing and wondrous. It’s one part her unfathomable Lala’s influence, one part New Orleans’ mystique, another part whispers of Ecuador, and finally part American, which has as many meanings as those attempting definition. If you like a memoir in essays by a writer with a distinct and delightful voice, put this on your must-read list.