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2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize Winner
This book is the winner of the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize. See all of the novels on the Giller shortlist. |
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Product Description
Review
“... brilliantly conceived, gorgeously executed novel.”
(Globe & Mail )“Half-Blood Blues itself represents a kind of flowering—
that of a gifted storyteller."
(Toronto Star )“...a stunning, powerful read, a compelling story
brilliantly told.”
(Quill & Quire )“Half-Blood Blues is an engrossing and unforgettable
story.”
(Austin Clarke, author of The Polished Hoe )“With Half-Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan has written a truly
beautiful novel.”
(Lawrence Hill, author of The Book Of Negroes )Review
“Edugyan’s elegiac, shimmering prose makes up for the lack of sunny skies in this impressively conceived and well-executed debut.“ ?Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Edugyan’s spare prose, visceral images, and unfussy dialogue create a suitably ominous atmosphere?. The close... is astonishingly moving. A talented writer to watch.“ ?Kirkus Reviews
“[P]acks a powerful emotional punch.... Fine writing, subtle characterisation and a convincing portrayal of place and period mark out this engaging first work, reminiscent of early VS Naipaul.“ ?The Guardian (UK)
“In this brilliantly written debut novel, Edugyan flawlessly creates and maintains a pervasive sense of hope loneliness, foreboding and futility.“ ?Black Issues Book Review (US)
“[The Second Life of Samuel Tyne] balances the brilliance and audacity of youthful enthusiasm with sage awareness. It’s an impressive debut? a beautifully written novel.“ ?Toronto Star
“An assured and insightful first novel of displacement of fractured identity....This deftly constructed tale... of one tiny, befuddled corner of the African diaspora is finally about all of us?about the hope we have of being our best selves, before it’s too late.“ ?The Globe and Mail
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Most helpful customer reviews
54 of 54 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The death of jazz at the dawn of Nazism,
By
This review is from: Half-Blood Blues (Paperback)
This is a story of the death of jazz at the dawn of Nazism in Germany. The name 'Half-Blood Blues' takes its inspiration from the book's hero and a jazz legend in the making Hieronymous 'Hiero' Falk is just nineteen when he starts playing with the 'Hot Time Swingers' alongside Charles 'Chip Jones and Sidney 'Sid' Griffiths, the narrator of the tale. The son of a German woman and a French African brought in to marshal the Rheinland after that part of Germany was ceded to France after the Treaty of Versailles. Hiero is a half-breed or 'mischling'.The story is set both in the 1940s in Berlin and Paris as the Trio try to stay one step ahead of Hitler's ever advancing army but also in the 1990s in a newly reunited Germany at a concert in Hiero's honour. At the heart of the story is the secret Sid harbours as to how Hiero's fate was sealed. I didn't expect to enjoy this book and it starts slowly but it is a tale that draws you in. Literary takes on music rarely seem to work but Edugyan is able to render the atmosphere of 1940s jazz, the language of the trio and banter between them feels authentic. The plot is a little weak to sustain the length and the potentially most interesting of the characters, Hiero, is the least well developed but by the end of the book they seem like minor complaints as is the rather random and quite pointless inclusion of Louis Armstrong who makes an appearance. A more major complaint on my behalf is that the list price for this trade paperback is $24.95 which seems like daylight robbery especially since the text is littered with typos and printing errors; if you're going to charge that much then at least earn it with some better proofreading. However I shall not hold the publisher's problems against the author.
35 of 38 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good writer, great concept, serious flaw,
By
This review is from: Half-Blood Blues (Paperback)
Ms. Egugyan's literary talent is evident in this book. She is, as the critics like to say, in control of her work. And the concept of developing a novel set among (mostly) black jazz musicians in Germany and France in the immediate pre-WWII days is brilliant. But despite these qualities, it doesn't really work.The plot has been spelled out here by other reviewers, so there is no need to replicate it. I agree that the inclusion of Louis Armstrong added little to the story, and the pivotal character, Hiero, is never really developed although he morphs into a wide icon at the end. For most of the book he is more a sullen juvenile than anyone we can care about. The major flaw is the author''s apparent lack of familiarity with jazz of any era, especially her inability to express the mood of the musicians and the impact of the music itself. This is hardly unique to her, but it seemed to me that it would be totally necessary in order to justify the personalities and actions of the characters. Jazz, after all, is the principal motivator of both the plot and characters. Nothing in the book communicates the passion they feel (or should) for their music; the author's attempts to describe their playing is embarrassing in its ineptness. As a musician I have never heard a trumpeter describe his or her possessing 'pistons'; they are always valves. And it is impossible, by his words, to believe the narrator actually played a bass fiddle (my instrument), as claimed in the story. Small points? Maybe. But verisimilitude is vital to any story, especially one as era- and culture-specific as this. I know the book has won major awards and congratulations to the author for them. But if you know as much as the author should know about one of the two primary subjects (jazz and the Nazis), it's a disappointment.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not a prize winner,
This review is from: Half-Blood Blues (Paperback)
This is a rather weak novel. The characters are virtually indistinguishable from one another and I often found myself wondering who is who. Also, there is no sense of Berlin during the war, nor of Germany or Paris. So, weak characterizations and no sense of place. It really feels like a good book by a promising writer rather than a Giller Prize winner. It's too bad, I was looking forward to it. As I finished the book, I found that the last ten pages or so, when the characters meet again in Poland, were by far the most fully realized pages in the entire piece. It made me wonder if she hadn't started with that as an exercise in creating a scene involving the three jazz musicians and decided to fill in the previous 280 some pages. This was not a satisfying read to be sure.
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