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Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

Half-Blood Blues

A Novel

by Esi Edugyan

  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Readers' Rating (13):
  • Published:
  • Feb 2012, 336 pages
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Reviews

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There are currently 13 reader reviews for Half-Blood Blues
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Donna C. (Chandler, AZ)

Superb
As a lifelong blues/jazz fan I couldn't wait to read this book after I read about it over a month ago. It was so well worth the wait! What a terrific book. Edugyan captures the tone, rhythm and feel of the characters, their dialog and narrative. And he creates a real sense of time and place, particularly the episodes that take place in Nazi Germany. Even so you can really feel the contrasting atmospheres of fear (of the Nazis) and freedom (of the music). This book superbly combines the worlds of music, history, mystery and literary fiction. I highly recommend "Half-Blood Blues". It is well written, original andmore
Vy A. (Phoenix, AZ)

Half-Blood Blues
Berlin 1939. Paris 1940. Amidst this pre war-time setting, The Half-Time Swingers, a German-American Jazz band forms. This novel is a story of music and friendship and how both can fill men’s souls, especially the black “swingers” who form a bond that lasts a lifetime. It is also the story of a secret that lies hidden with Sid Griffiths for fifty years until he has to face his past at an unexpected reunion.

The relationship between Sid and his childhood Baltimore friend Chip is the basis of the story and their dialogue (banter), in what one review calls German American slang, is delightful to read, filled withmore
William Y. (Lynchburg, VA)

Half-Blood Blues: A Review
American novels about jazz are few and far between, and even fewer have endured or achieved significant popularity. Esi Edugyan’s Half-Blood Blues may never climb to the top of best-seller lists, but her novel might well claim a lasting place among books that deal with jazz, both the music and its players.

Sid Griffiths, bassist with the Hot-Time Swingers, an American group performing in Europe on the eve of World War II, narrates this elegiac tale of lost love and the search for redemption. Spanning the years a 1939 to 1940, and occasionally moving to 1992 for a retrospective look backward, Edugyan sets themore
Eileen P. (Pittsford, NY)

Marvelous historical fiction
If you are at all interested in jazz, love, or how obsession can cloud your thinking, this book is for you. It is stylistically amazing. Edugyan uses a distinct voice for each of the two time periods the story is set in. And what an amazing story it is. Vivid and moving. It is like a kaleidoscope. As the story progresses little bits of information are revealed that change how the reader sees everything that has goes on before. It would be an outstanding book group selection.
Suri F. (Durham, NC)

Unique View, Wonderful Storytelling
What an outstanding book you have helped me discover! The subject of the book, jazz era musicians in Germany and Vichy France at the onset of WWII was one I had never considered before. Nor have I ever read anything before that gave me so much insight into the musical conversation that takes place in improvisation. I only want to know who will do the movie?
Power Reviewer
Portia A. (Mount Laurel, NJ)

A really good book
1939 Berlin.. Not a good time to be a Jazz band..Hitler has banned the music as degenerate; the times are getting worse. And their star trumpeter is a young black German. Out of this premise the author has written a brilliant book.
The jargon of the jazz men rings true as does the evocation of the war time. I recommend it.
Kathleen Z. (oxford, mi)

Music is a language we all understand
Casablanca comes to mind, most specifically the last paragraph:

"Turn it", Thomas said, without smiling. "Play it again."

In the book the romance, is the love of music, which Hiero and Sid share, and like the song, "As Time Goes By" from the movie - there is some jealousy involved.

And in the end Thomas says to Sid, "I see you like it was fifty years ago. Exactly like that."

Must have been a favorite movie of Esi's. The banter between the characters along with the very descriptive writing is what makes this book.

No scriptwriters needed for the movie.
Carol J. (Isle, MN)

Jazz in the time of Hitler
What an enlightening book regarding a topic that is rarely discussed. Edugyan provides an interesting insight to the world on Berlin and Paris in 1939-1940. What is one's life like if you are black and a jazz musician, both of which were verboten in that time. How does one behave when just who you are puts at risk. How do you treat your friends, who also put your life at risk?

The style of the book, with the jazz slang, deprivation during their time in Berlin and Paris, and the pervasive fear made for slow reading at times, but did succeed in putting you in the time.

This would be an interesting book club book,more
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