Monday 1 January 2001

Oh, Play That Thing - Roddy Doyle

Book Details

Country: Ireland
Language: English
Genre: Modern Fiction
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Publication Date: 2004


Fictional Artist: Louis Armstrong
Genre: Jazz
Country: USA
Real World Analogue: Louis Armstrong

Jacket Blurb
It's 1924, and New York is the centre of the universe.

Henry Smart, on the run from Dublin, falls on his feet. He is a handsome man with a sandwich board, behind which he stashes hooch for the speakeasies of the Lower East Side. He catches the attention of the mobsters who run the district and soon there are eyes on his back and men in the shadows. It is time to leave, for another America...

Chicago is wild and new, and newest of all is the music.

Furious, wild, happy music played by a man with a trumpet and bleeding lips called Louis Armstrong. His music is everywhere, coming from every open door, every phonograph. But Armstrong is a prisoner of his colour; there are places a black man cannot go, things he cannot do. Armstrong needs a man, a white man, and the man he chooses is Henry Smart.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for taking the time to comment on the blog!

To prevent spam I review all comments before publishing, and endeavour to do so within a couple of days of posting.