Ian McNulty, the New Orleans journalist, dining critic, former Day blogger and Rhode Island native, is back in southern New England, touring in support of his first book, “A Season of Night: New Orleans After Katrina” - a distinctly personal examination of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

At once evocative, bittersweet and funny, “A Season of Night” uses McNulty's post-storm return to his severely damaged home in the Mid City neighborhood as a fulcrum from which to examine not just the scope of the devastation but also what tangible and ephemeral elements make New Orleans so essential, magical, and ultimately worth fighting for.

As one of the first residents on his block to return after the storm, McNulty and his dogs, the Amazing Doctor Watson and Ginger (the latter of whom he rescued from the streets after Katrina), have witnessed the gradual rebirth of their neighborhood.

I've known McNulty for years, since mutual friends introduced us. I can say from experience that he's the sort of person who, still dressed with astonishing realism as Bacchus, will stick his head in the door of his guest room, where you are passed out at the end of a long, very liquid Mardi Gras Day, just to make sure you haven't fallen out of bed or swallowed your pillow.

McNulty recently answered five questions.

1 A lot of nonfiction Katrina books or memoirs have been published and more appear every day. How is “A Season of Night” different and what do you want readers to take from it?

McNulty: The other books are histories of the disaster or individual tales of survival. But my book is about homecoming. It's about the decision to return to a city that, at the time, was utterly broken. I wanted this to be an intimate account of what it meant to move back at that time and live in a place that was unspeakably creepy, depressing, infuriating but oddly joyful and energizing all at once.

In that sense I hope people get a sense of a surreal and avoidable chapter in the history of our epic city. I want people to know what it was like here and what we had to fight through to get where we are now. The official recovery has been infuriatingly slow and marked by endless bungling, but when I look at my block today and remember the empty wasteland it had been during that first winter back, I am awed by what individuals have accomplished.

2 One of the great and most poignant scenes in “A Season of Night” is when you break down crying in a Baton Rouge restaurant. If I'm not mistaken, this wasn't just because of the uncertainty over your home and property, but because of this great addiction people have to New Orleans. Can people who were never in NOLA before the storm ever appreciate that?

McNulty: I think so, because that's the power of home. New Orleans answers the needs I have of home. It's a big part of who I am and how I see myself and my future. I know other people feel that way about their city, their town. It doesn't have to be the place where you were born and raised to have that attachment for you. My house could be rebuilt, but the prospect of forever losing this community was the real worry. If you love a place and its history and its role in your life, and you can imagine its entire future being put in doubt, well, you can appreciate what New Orleans people went through right after Katrina.

3 You're originally from Rhode Island. How did you end up in New Orleans and why did you decide to stay?

McNulty: I was settling into a great life in Rhode Island after college but I thought I had better explore a bit more. I expected to come down to New Orleans for an exotic dalliance of six months or a year. But when I actually got here, the reality of New Orleans proved much more intriguing than I had imagined and before long I knew I had found home.

One reason I stay, despite the serious problems here, is because I think as long as I live in New Orleans I'll have no worries about growing old. In a lot of other cities, it seems like if you're not young, hot or rich then you're marginal to the city's story. Here, the older people grow, the better they are at the really great things about this city. They've had more experience as New Orleanians and that makes their lives richer and more fun. My friends who are much older than me seem to have their own story for every street, every bar in the city, and I envy them. ... The identity of this city is so strong, that living here feels like participating in something bigger than myself, and that's hugely rewarding.

4 You're also the food critic for Gambit, New Orleans' alternative weekly. Is there a better gig in the world than to be a food writer in New Orleans?

McNulty: No. It's like covering sports in Boston, politics in D.C. and movies in L.A. all in one beat. There are a lot of clichés about New Orleans food, but one that is absolutely true is the local obsession with it. Our food is as vital a piece of the city's cultural life as anything else. Since Katrina, it's been a privilege to cover this food culture as it has come back first in spurts, and now in all its glory.

5 What is New Orleans like now, three years after Katrina?

McNulty: “It is a city in flux, grappling with an extraordinary amount of change forced on us here in a very short period of time. You can come visit, eat in great restaurants, see historic neighborhoods, hear New Orleans music and never really get exposed to the lingering destruction. But the legacy is everywhere, and it's not always negative. I wish Katrina never happened, but it is starting to look like the recovery may be a very good thing for the city.

Residents are more engaged now, there's new blood here and new leaders are emerging from the neighborhoods as a result of all the hands-on, grass roots work that has been done to save our own community. The public school system, for instance, has been completely revamped and now actually stands a chance of educating children. This community went through something incredible together. That's a bond all of us share now.

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