Esi Edugyan
Paperback | Pages: 343 pages Rating: 3.67 | 14206 Users | 1648 Reviews
Point Epithetical Books Half Blood Blues
| Title | : | Half Blood Blues |
| Author | : | Esi Edugyan |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 343 pages |
| Published | : | June 2nd 2011 by Serpent's Tail (first published April 11th 2011) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Cultural. Canada. Music. War |
Narration During Books Half Blood Blues
The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymus Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, is arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. He is twenty years old. A German citizen. And he is black.Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero's bandmate and the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin. Persuaded by his old friend Chip, Sid discovers there's more to the journey than he thought when Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero's fate was settled.
In Half Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan weaves the horror of betrayal, the burden of loyalty and the possibility that, if you don't tell your story, someone else might tell it for you. And they just might tell it wrong ...
Describe Books Toward Half Blood Blues
| Original Title: | Half Blood Blues |
| ISBN: | 1846687756 (ISBN13: 9781846687754) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Berlin,1939(Germany) |
| Literary Awards: | Booker Prize Nominee (2011), Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction Shortlist (2012), Scotiabank Giller Prize (2011), Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (2012), Governor General's |
| Literary Awards: | / Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général Nominee for English Language Fiction (2011) Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction (2013), CBC Canada Reads Nominee (2014), Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize Nominee (2011), Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (2013), Walter Scott Prize Nominee (2012), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction (2012) |
Rating Epithetical Books Half Blood Blues
Ratings: 3.67 From 14206 Users | 1648 ReviewsColumn Epithetical Books Half Blood Blues
i'm glad this book didn't win the damn booker. that just means it wasn't a complete snoozefest. Vernon God Little? thumbs down. The Gathering? bleah. Wolf Hall? zzzzz. G.?? not his best. and from what i hear of this year's winner, the barnes? is not positive reviews, kiddies.so i'm glad this book escaped that label, because when this book is good, it sparkles like a thousand year old vampire in the sun. and i was halfway through before i realized this was an authoress. not that it matters, but
Sometimes two stories vie for attention: the story the author could have written and the one she actually did write. Such is the case with Half-Blood Blues.If you come into this book expecting the promises of the publicist in essence, the black German experience under the tyrannical rule of the Third Reich you will find this book to be wanting. However, if you are looking for a book that delivers on what the author fully intends an exploration of a one-time tight-knit jazz band with striving
Jazz under the Nazis, both in Germany and in occupied Paris. Friendship and betrayal in the worst of circumstances, when betrayal can literally lead to death. And then, years later, revisiting those haunts, those people, those betrayals. This is a really amazing book.Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Im not sure if there is a social trend going on, or if its just the books that Im drawn to currently, or if literary prize juries happen to be sharing my particular obsession, but Im reading a lot of books these days about memory.Some of them are outstanding Marilynne Robinsons Gilead tops my personal favourite list and walked off with the Pulitzer Prize several years ago.Some of them leave me quite cold Julian Barnes 2011 Man/Booker Prize winning The Sense of an Ending falls into this
Esi Edugyan has created a vivid and unique world in this story of betrayal, love and jazz -- within the grimly darkening shadows of the rise of Nazi Germany before World War Two. Sid and Chip are black American jazz musicians working in pre-war Berlin, where racism had been less grim than in the U.S. before the Nazi campaign for "Aryan purity" escalated; they connect with Hiero, a young genius with a trumpet, whose father was African while his mother was a white German. All become targets for
The premise of the novel is a good one: black Jazz band in Nazi Berlin...but it is TED I OUS...the plot is unfathomable, the writing is 'creative 101' oh, lets do first person...only it irritates the reader and fails on description and indeed, any form of engaging language.After chapter two, I stopped, read a few more later in the book and the last chapter and was not disappointed - it went in the trash.A poor plot, characters that do not engage, and only a page turned in so much as you long to
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