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A BAD WOMAN FEELING GOOD

Name: A BAD WOMAN FEELING GOOD
Author: Buzzy Jackson
ISBN: 0-393-05936-7

BLUES AND THE WOMEN WHO SING THEM

by Buzzy Jackson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2005

A well-researched analysis of the women who created an enduring cultural phenomenon. (7 b&w photos)

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An enthusiastic, patently feminist history of women who sang or were influenced by the blues—from Mamie Desdoumes to Courtney Love.

In this revision of her doctoral dissertation from Univ. of California, Berkeley, Jackson shows a wide, easy familiarity with the history of the blues and, indeed, with the history of American popular culture. Clearly, she has listened to lots of sides, read lots of magazines and books, thought long and hard about the genesis of the blues and of its many later manifestations. She selects those women who have earned their way into the blues pantheon and offers a biographical portrait of each. She spends the most time with Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Janis Joplin, and Lucinda Williams, but along the way Jackson also offers sketches of others, including Joni Mitchell and Queen Latifah. Jackson also finds time to smudge the shiny reputations of certain singers highly popular with average Americans—Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, for example, finding both of them superficial (much artifice, little art). Jackson has found a number of similarities among the blues divas—and not only artistic ones. Drug use was common, as was a sexuality that, in Joplin’s case, is described as “voracious.” Many of the singers enjoyed lovers of both sexes and proudly proclaimed their sexual energy (sometimes even their preferences) in lyrics and in the choreography accompanying live performances. Jackson occasionally reaches a bit too far for a generalization (as in declaring that white women in the 1960s, unlike their black counterparts, were coping with the problems of suburbia—but what about Appalachian women? farm women? minimum-wage women?), but for the most part she clearly sees a dark blue thread connecting the music with the lives of the women who sang it.

A well-researched analysis of the women who created an enduring cultural phenomenon. (7 b&w photos)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2005

ISBN: 0-393-05936-7

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2004

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.