A feisty dancer from the 1920’s tells her tale
A film student, Sawyer, sits at the bed of 110 year old Honoree in her nursing home asking questions about famous filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.
Sawyer has under earthed some pictures from 1925 and he’s pretty confident that it’s Honoree in the pictures with the biggest legends, like Louis Armstrong and Micheaux.
Honoree was a dancer in jazz clubs in the 1920’s. In 1925, she was working a Black and Tan club where both black and white people came to the shows. It was absolutely groundbreaking during its time.
This is a tale of jazz, of prohibition, of mobsters, it’s a tale of love and friendship. Honoree and her friends are fighting a hard battle, they are talented and glamorous with good jobs, but their lives aren’t always safe.
As Honoree mentions in the book, no one asks questions when the person who dies is black.
I loved the timeframe this was set in, I really liked the characters too.
I felt sometimes the book was confusing. I say this even though I wasn’t surprised by the twists in the story.
I felt like Honoree’s story was so much bigger than Sawyer’s. Sometimes I felt like Sawyer was there so the story could be narrated, so I didn’t really understand the part of the story about his sister. I felt like I either needed more of that storyline or to skip it entirely.
Definitely an interesting story with a good pace to it. I had about 50% of this left one day and finished it without even expecting to have enough time. I guess we make the time, huh?
I appreciated the epilogue and the author’s note at the end.
I got to read an early ebook edition from NetGalley. Thanks!
Sawyer has under earthed some pictures from 1925 and he’s pretty confident that it’s Honoree in the pictures with the biggest legends, like Louis Armstrong and Micheaux.
Honoree was a dancer in jazz clubs in the 1920’s. In 1925, she was working a Black and Tan club where both black and white people came to the shows. It was absolutely groundbreaking during its time.
This is a tale of jazz, of prohibition, of mobsters, it’s a tale of love and friendship. Honoree and her friends are fighting a hard battle, they are talented and glamorous with good jobs, but their lives aren’t always safe.
As Honoree mentions in the book, no one asks questions when the person who dies is black.
I loved the timeframe this was set in, I really liked the characters too.
I felt sometimes the book was confusing. I say this even though I wasn’t surprised by the twists in the story.
I felt like Honoree’s story was so much bigger than Sawyer’s. Sometimes I felt like Sawyer was there so the story could be narrated, so I didn’t really understand the part of the story about his sister. I felt like I either needed more of that storyline or to skip it entirely.
Definitely an interesting story with a good pace to it. I had about 50% of this left one day and finished it without even expecting to have enough time. I guess we make the time, huh?
I appreciated the epilogue and the author’s note at the end.
I got to read an early ebook edition from NetGalley. Thanks!