IVORY JOE

by Martyn Burke ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 15, 1991

Burke's energetic but unfocused third novel is about a loving-but-divided 1950's family, all jumbled up with a Mob bid to control Tin Pan Alley, and the experience of black performers in the segregated South. The confusion starts with the title: the lead is not the eponymous Ivory Joe, black musician and cool dude stereotype, but Leo Klein, a Mob-connected garment manufacturer. It is compounded by frequent switches in time and narration (third-person alternating with Leo's little girl Christie). But the family dynamics are appealing; Leo is a hustling kid from the Bronx, who in 1941 establishes himself (with Mob help) in the rag trade. Soon after he meets and marries the love of his life, Tina, a fiery radical (who will later picket Leo's building to protest exploitation); then Leo goes off to war. Their peacetime marriage lasts barely a year, due to Leo's chronic unfaithfulness, but nine years later, in 1954 (when the main action occurs), they're still crazy in love--they just can't live together, though daughters Ruthie (13) and Christie (9) are scheming innocently to reunite them. Unfortunately, we're distracted from this meaty domestic drama by Burke's introduction of Ivory Joe's rock-and-roll group and their adventures on the chitlin' circuit (tastelessly served up as a caper). As Joe's agent, Tina is along for the ride, with her daughters; meanwhile, the Mob has decided that Joe is a goldmine, and is using Leo to acquire him. A flurry of last-minute action includes a Mob rub-out and Joe/Leo's escape from gun-toting rednecks; the Klein family drama languishes unresolved. The early going provides a pleasant enough period wallow, but then Burke's writing turns ragged in his too-strenuous effort to juggle his storylines.

Pub Date: Feb. 15, 1991

ISBN: 1587215152

Page Count: -

Publisher: Bantam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1991

Categories: FICTION