Though Edugyan spends comparatively little time trying to put jazz into words, she includes lovely allusions to Falk’s assured genius on trumpet, comparing his sound to “a thicket of flowers in a bone-dry field” or, to Griffiths’ doubtful ears, “a country preacher too green to convince the flock.”Įdugyan starts the book with a taut, war-time confessional of sorts as Griffiths describes a sickly, desperate recording session in occupied Paris for the song that gives the book its name. Jones and a quiet, 20-year-old phenom named Hieronymus Falk (or “Hiero” for short, introducing a rather tasty homophone).Ī mixed-race “mischling” born in Germany with roots in Africa, Falk spends much of the book as a haunted figure, an outsider even in his own country who eventually falls under Griffith’s wing. In Griffiths’ casual, jazz-hipster patter, everyone is a “jack,” “gate” or “buck,” including his bandmates in brash drummer and childhood friend Chip C. But she tweaks the formula by splitting the book’s action between the chaos of 1939 Europe and modern times as old friends struggle to reconcile with a past that shaped them as men and as artists.Īt the center is Sidney Griffiths, an African American bassist who performed with the Swingers in Berlin during the rise of “the housepainter” - just one of the bent nicknames that pingpong through Griffith’s narration with the true echo of a snare drum’s crack.

On the surface, with its colorful scenes of playing, drinking and bickering among a mixed-race ensemble called the Hot-Time Swingers, Edugyan’s second novel could be a relatively conventional story of the jazz life. Maybe that’s because when people want to read about jazz, the characters behind the real story are rich enough to transcend any fiction - or maybe it’s just a reflection of how well-meaning writers can run into trouble once they start putting into words something as ephemeral and personal as a saxophone solo.Įnter Esi Edugyan’s “Half-Blood Blues,” a 2011 Man Booker Prize finalist making its stateside debut in paperback after first appearing in Europe and in Edugyan’s native Canada. Though the music has been gracefully spun into fiction by Roddy Doyle, Michael Ondaatje and - most distinctively - Rafi Zabor in the surreal, ursine-centric “The Bear Comes Home,” it’s a fringe topic for the most part.

Not unlike its counterpart rock ‘n’ roll, memorable jazz novels occupy a pretty slim shelf at the local bookstore.

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan