Why New Orleans Matter #3

This is the part of the book that, supposedly, is rumored to drag.  I didn't necessarily think that, but I did get overwhlemed by the excessive and repetitive descriptions.  Piazza needn't have beat the tableau of the New Orleanian family to death; as bad as it sounds, the picture of the stereotypical poor black family is a well-known one, and to put it on paper seems a bit too much.  Especially more than once.  Something in Piazza's despcriptions, perhaps in his repetition, brings me to believe that he dis not spend as much time with the underpriveleged black of New Orleans as he leads us to beleive, and that he makes up for this fact by over-describing them.  Perhaps that is jsut my take on his writing, but it seems a tad pretentious, almost maudlin, to be entirely believable. 
The description of he and his wife returning to their homes after the flood was highly effective; i felt nauseous reading it.  This was one of the only parts of the book thus far that felt sincere.  After all, these were his worldly possessions and his abode that were damaged, anyone would be upset.  However, there is something missing in the setup of this scene, perhaps a snippet of personal narrative that was never mentioned, in order to make the pain real.  What I mean is, up to this point Piazza has spent so much time writing a travel guide that it seems he himself does not have enough personal ties to it.  It is his adopted city, but I would have liked something more of himself in the numerous descriptions of the place.  Perhaps, is this book had been written by someone else who had been hit harder and lived there longer, it would have been that much more effective.  But that's just me.