E-book Twelve Bar Blues
Publisher: Whole Story Audio Books 2010 | ISBN: 1407462806 | Language English | Audio CD in MP3/120 kbps | 862 MB
Patrick Neates second novel, Twelve Bar Blues, is a bouncy, ebullient book, populated (as one of its cast reflects midway through), by absurd characters, dead ends and half truths that tumbles toward a punch-line that would seem inevitable with hindsight. It positively brims with outlandish, hilarious and moving (if occasionally hokey) tales. Literally every names got a story and by jingo Neate delights in spinning each part of his yarn. Roaming through the black slums and early jazz joints of the Louisiana bayou to Africa, London, New York, Chicago and New Orleans at the end of the 20th century, his vista is extraordinary. Theres Tongo Kalulu, the chief of the Zimindo, a proud African tribe, who, confused by his wife and enraptured by an attractive female American archaeologist, seeks the advice of Musa, his sex-obsessed witch doctor. Theres Sylvia di Napoli, a coffee-coloured retired London prostitute, who has travelled to America in the hope of discovering her real fathers identity. Also along for the ride is Jim Tulloch, a scruffy, big-hearted young Englishman half her age. Gluing these seemingly disparate elements together is the tragic love story of Fortis James Lick Holden, a long forgotten Louisiana jazzman who allegedly taught Louis Dipper Armstrong the meanin of the word hot and Sylvie Black, his prostitute sister (who wasnt no blood relation). Chock full of jazz, poverty, sex and death, this enjoyable novel jives to a note-perfect if predictable ending, dispensing intelligent critiques of racism and sexism along the way. Travis Elborough This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
A rollicking novel energetic, divinely plotted. If the description of Lick raising the roof of a honkytonk doesnt make your heart beat a little faster, there might be something wrong with your heart. The Times
If I could choose one current British writer to tell tall tales around my fantasy campfire, it would be Patrick Neate. The Daily Telegraph
Hugely enjoyable. The Independent on Sunday
Comments
Post a Comment