Dirty Bird Blues

Major, Clarence

ISBN 10: 1562790838 / ISBN 13: 9781562790837

Published by Mercury House, 1996

About this Item

1562790838 Dj blurbs by Toni Morrison, John A. Williams, etc. Bookseller Inventory # 008461

Bibliographic Details

Title: Dirty Bird Blues

Publisher: Mercury House

Publication Date: 1996

Binding: Hardcover

Book Condition:Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Edition: First Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

The acclaimed author of Such Was the Season and Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African American Slang tells the story of Manfred Banks, a Chicago blues musician and blue-collar worker who drifts from Chicago to Omaha in the 1950s, struggling with domestic responsibilities and a racist America that assaults him at every turn.

Review:

Clarence Major is an avant-garde novelist, short-story writer, and poet known for his bold experiments with language and style. What many don't know, however, is that Major can be a fine storyteller, capable of bringing his formidable talents to more conventional narrative forms as in this novel. This is the story of Manfred Banks, a blues musician in the early 1950s. We follow Man, as he's nicknamed, as he tries to woo his estranged wife, Cleo, as he struggles to make a living playing his music in Chicago, and then leaves for Omaha, where he finds work in a steel mill, and a weekend gig playing in a bar. When Cleo rejoins him things look as if they are finally coming together, but this is the kind of man for whom the blues line "if it wasn't for no luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all" was written. Major has written a fine, compelling novel, with language and characters as rich as the blues songs that are its inspiration.