20 greatest works of fiction about New Orleans
15. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Though F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the short story, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and saw it published in 1922, he doesn’t have much of a connection to New Orleans. Sure, he briefly stayed there and gained his confidence as a writer while working in the city, but none of his work reflects the unique character of New Orleans. Really, Fitzgerald a greater reputation as an East Coast man, thanks to works like featuring opulent and doomed rich folk, like in The Great Gatsby.
It shows in the original published version of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” wherein the reverse-aging protagonist is born in Baltimore. Things changed quite a bit with the story’s 2008 film adaptation, though. Released only three years after Hurricane Katrina, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button takes more than a few cues from the history and character of New Orleans.
Benjamin Button’s strange life
The basics of the tale are the same in both Fitzgerald’s story and the film, directed by David Fincher and starring Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt. Benjamin is born with the appearance of an old man, though it takes until his twenties for anyone to seriously realize that he’s aging backward.
He falls in love, loses that love, and goes on adventures while ruminating on his life (and becoming a moody teenager at one point). Eventually, he de-ages to the point where he is an infant without memories or complex thought. Fade to dark. The end.
The Fincher film is actually quite a bit more complex. It opens on Daisy Fuller as she lies dying in a New Orleans hospital, with Hurricane Katrina fast approaching. She starts telling her daughter a rambling story that eventually focuses on a backward running clock and Benjamin Button himself.
A young Daisy and an effectively young Button cross paths time and time again in New Orleans, where Benjamin has been adopted by workers at a nursing home. Though the pair leaves the city throughout the film, they are drawn back to it over and over.
They fall in love, have a daughter together, and eventually part when it becomes clear that Benjamin cannot act as a father. Daisy eventually cares for the visibly younger Benjamin as he approaches his own strange death. All throughout, New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina appear as significant forces in their own rights.