Reviews with content warning for Antisemitism - Half Blood Blues

Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

6 reviews

myclutteredbookshelf's review against another edition

3.5

In their review of the novel, The New York Times compared Half-Blood Blues to the classic Humphrey Bogart film Casablanca. It's not a completely outlandish comparison, as both tales are set in World War II and have plots regarding a love triangle and the characters' struggle to obtain visas. But where Sam the piano man plays a minor role in Casablanca, Esi Edugyan brings the Black musicians to the forefront in her novel.

Half-Blood Blues follows two narratives: one set in the late '30s, following a jazz band consisting of both Black and white musicians trying to exit Berlin to record an album in Paris, and one set in the early '90s, following the only two remaining band members, Sid and his friend Chip, as they travel to Poland in search of Hiero. The novel explores the frustrations of the Black Americans, who came to Europe to escape the racism of their home country, only to be faced with it once again under Hitler's regime, and how the world of jazz continued to live even after being banned by the Third Reich. Various jazz players appear throughout the novel, from Louis Armstrong to the Goldene Sieben, but I do wish that Edugyan had considered showing more of what the jazz scene was like in Berlin before the bans, as most of story focuses on the band fleeing for their lives rather than the music they make. We don't actually get to see them perform as a group before circumstances force them apart.

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