Worth tracking down if this tradition interests you even a little

It may have been a misunderstanding on my part but I expected this to be a collect of stories, common folk tales from Louisiana. It is not.

It is a very dated (1940s I believe) collection of observations about different types of people based on race and ethnicity. Some of the language was uncomfortable reading in the 21st century.

Mostly though I just felt it lacked narrative flow. Each chapter reads stream of consciousness style from the perspective of interviewer and interviewed person without warning.

I got his book in New Orleans and it is a great book about the culture. This would only be good if you are crazy about the south!

Interesting storytelling and insights into the culture of old Louisiana from the stories that I read, but so horrifically racist and misogynistic that I literally threw it in the bin.

Annie does a much better review of this book so if you want to know more I’d read her review.

I will give this a 5star rating as the Folk Tales start before the Civil War with many stories (some not easy to read about) -- then many Louisiana traditions...fun Creole & Cajun family stories - ghost stories - superstitions - customs - well researched & well written......

This edited volume was produced from snippets of lore, wisdom, folk practices and other customs recorded by Lyle Saxon and others are part of the Federal Writers project in Louisiana. It's a great starting point for research into local customs--including north Louisiana ghost stories--and is quite readable. While by no means a formal textbook, I couldn't readily determine whether to call it fiction (not really, because the stories and shared information is more local lore) or non-fiction (but, again, no one is saying the stuff is true/accurate--just that these things are "in circulation"). For that reason alone, I'm thankful for the Other box. Read and enjoy, this makes a great jumping off point.

In some regards this book could be worth 3 to 3.5 stars however it is such a mismatch of stories, styles and just plain on quotes that it is hard to rate it. If you are a fan of folk tales, history of the late 1800's/early 1900's eras, or southern (cajun/creole) culture then you should give this book a read.

I must warn any potential readers, particularly those with an aversion or sensitivity to the "N" word, which is used in abundance throughout this book - in various forms and on practically ever other page. Many of the stories are "from" people of color and even they used the "N" word routinely to describe themselves. This isn't so much a book telling a single story, rather it is a collection of historical memories and tales passed down through the generations - mostly from give / take 40 years around the 1860's American Civil War period. Some of these stories are good, some bad, some just plain boring - however they all add up to form a rather fascinating historical perspective of how people lived around Louisiana in that time period.

“Every night is like Saturday night in Perdido Street, wild and fast and hot with sin.” – opener

My heart pounded, pulse raced, and pupils dilated as I read the opening sentence of Gumbo Ya-Ya. I expected to be lead giddily into an enchanting and hedonistic world of forbidden and extreme debauchery – Louisiana-style. Unfortunately, Gumbo Ya-Ya disappoints in the most flagrant and egregious fashion.

The torturous tales, padded with feckless details, dragged. I broke my 50-page rule, and stopped at 57. Desperate to right this incongruent script, I skimmed the book, and even the tale Creoles left me in literary physical pain.

How dare the badly written narratives of Gumbo Ya-Ya mar the legendary perfection of Louisiana folklore! 1 star

Especially interesting from the perspective of the 1940s.

As an anthropological record, it reflects both the culture recorded and those who did the recording. I wished it was a bit more focused and edited, but there is interesting information here.

This is not so much a collection of folk tales. Instead, it is more like a travelog. There are some things to recommend it, such as chapters on ghost stories and holy days. However, the majority of the book is outdated and will be shockingly racist to modern readers.

I read this book as an introduction to Louisiana folklore, not really knowing much beyond the rougaroux or loup-garou (werewolves), and that's pretty much it. Although the book gets off to a bit of a slow start, and it's a pretty big honkin' doorstopper of a collection of folk tales, it's not exactly a book of folk tales--that part of the title is a tad misleading. It starts off with descriptions of Mardi Gras and then launches into a description of the Irish Channel and contains great examples of the New Orleans dialect, although quite dated and bordering on what seems like stereotyping for the African-Americans, but eventually the book turns into more of a 'ghosts and urban legends' type of text, with stories of a bride waiting for a taxi near St Louis Cemetery, a husband who finds out the true (and disturbing) source of the meat his wife finds to feed the family with all of a sudden, people who have lost loved ones, haunted bridges, and some minor discussion of voodoo.
For someone looking more specifically for actual folk tales, I would probably recommend "Louisiana Folktales" by Alcee Fortier, which features Creole and English side-by-side translations.
You have to dig around a bit for the gems in "Gumbo Ya-Ya" but they're there if you look hard enough.