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emckeon1002's review against another edition
5.0
The fascination/horror with which we deal with the idea of blackface minstrelsy and slavery is the central theme of this wonderful book. It's not pedantic, however, and the theme is explored through the characters - some of who are white men playing black, and one, who is a black man who has true musical talent. I've always been interested in minstrelsy, partially because my great-grandfather was an endman long after minstrelsy was at its height. Piazza understands entertainers, music, the banjar and the struggles between doing what is right, and what is expedient.
jdintr's review against another edition
4.0
Piazza has created a fine book here, unraveling a feature of historic American culture--minstrel shows in which white performers caricatured slaves onstage--in a thoughtful and engaging way.
Yes, over 100 years before Elvis and 150 years before Justin Bieber, white entertainers were mimicking blacks and profiting from the experience--only in this case while African Americans remained enslaved on the plantations which were saccharinized by lolling images of plantation life like "Swanee River" and "Old Black Joe" (both written by Stephen Foster, a man from Pittsburgh).
Told through the eyes of James Douglass, a farm boy who runs away with the circus and later establishes a popular Philadelphia minstrel group, the story veers at key points to illumine the lives of Joseph Sterling/Henry Sims, an escaped half-caste and Tull Burton, a ruthless slave hunter.
All three converge in Philly, where Douglass sees Henry as the savior of his troupe's dwindling popularity and where Tull journeys to collect a large reward.
What I found most interesting was the way that Piazza enlivened the minstrel shows of the era. He has done his research, and he references songs both popular like "Old Dan Tucker" or "De Boatman Dance" and unknown by me prior to this reading. He takes the reader backstage where costumes are sewn and burnt cork applied to white faces (as well as Henry's "Mexican" one). One of the best scenes was the sad irony of a poem, performed by a white artist posing as "Brother Scamp." It mirrors the story of Henry Sims, who is sitting nearby, waiting for his turn.
Yes, over 100 years before Elvis and 150 years before Justin Bieber, white entertainers were mimicking blacks and profiting from the experience--only in this case while African Americans remained enslaved on the plantations which were saccharinized by lolling images of plantation life like "Swanee River" and "Old Black Joe" (both written by Stephen Foster, a man from Pittsburgh).
Told through the eyes of James Douglass, a farm boy who runs away with the circus and later establishes a popular Philadelphia minstrel group, the story veers at key points to illumine the lives of Joseph Sterling/Henry Sims, an escaped half-caste and Tull Burton, a ruthless slave hunter.
All three converge in Philly, where Douglass sees Henry as the savior of his troupe's dwindling popularity and where Tull journeys to collect a large reward.
What I found most interesting was the way that Piazza enlivened the minstrel shows of the era. He has done his research, and he references songs both popular like "Old Dan Tucker" or "De Boatman Dance" and unknown by me prior to this reading. He takes the reader backstage where costumes are sewn and burnt cork applied to white faces (as well as Henry's "Mexican" one). One of the best scenes was the sad irony of a poem, performed by a white artist posing as "Brother Scamp." It mirrors the story of Henry Sims, who is sitting nearby, waiting for his turn.
In Old Virginny, way down South
I left Old Master there,
And dear old indly Missus
In her favorite rocking char.
They were so kind and good to me
But home I would not stay.
I left the old Plantation;
I up and ran away.
raebooknerd's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
rachelleahdorn's review against another edition
3.0
I just finished this book and I'm not sure what I think. It was very much not what I expected. I thought it was going to be about the "free state" of Jones in the civil war. But that's my own fault for not reading the synopsis more carefully.
The book was well written and was mostly told from the unusual perspective--at least one I hadn't read before--of a white man in a minstrel show in the north before the civil war. Parts of the story were also told from the point of view of a runaway slave (before and after he ran), a disgustingly nasty runaway slave hunter, and, at the end, William Seward, the real-life US Senator and abolitionist.
What I liked about the book was that it illustrated an unfamiliar time and from an unfamiliar perspective. However, I had a strange feeling throughout the book because the author kept tossing in the racist/racially aware misgivings of the minstrel show performer narrator --this seemed too pat a solution to portraying a story from the perspective of a guy participating in a nasty and today almost unbelievably offensive performance. It seemed that since the author was dealing with a unpleasant subject and a distasteful profession, he tried to make it "ok" by showing us the narrator was really a good guy hanging with a bad crowd.
The characters in general were too much their archetypes. We had an above-average, heroic, intelligent, well-read, and multi-talented escaped slave, a disgusting, revolting, inhuman slave hunter guy, and the main narrator, right in the middle, kind of deciding how to behave in the world. Except no one really got to do much self-discovery in the book and the bad guys stayed bad, the good stayed good and the mediocre was also present at the end of the story.
I'm not sure stationary character types are enough of a reason for not wholly enjoying the book, but there you go. It was unpleasant reading about the slave hunter, so maybe that colors my opinion as well.
If you are curious about minstrelsy in the antebellum north and don't want non-fiction, try this book, see what you think and I'd be curious to read your review.
I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway.
The book was well written and was mostly told from the unusual perspective--at least one I hadn't read before--of a white man in a minstrel show in the north before the civil war. Parts of the story were also told from the point of view of a runaway slave (before and after he ran), a disgustingly nasty runaway slave hunter, and, at the end, William Seward, the real-life US Senator and abolitionist.
What I liked about the book was that it illustrated an unfamiliar time and from an unfamiliar perspective. However, I had a strange feeling throughout the book because the author kept tossing in the racist/racially aware misgivings of the minstrel show performer narrator --this seemed too pat a solution to portraying a story from the perspective of a guy participating in a nasty and today almost unbelievably offensive performance. It seemed that since the author was dealing with a unpleasant subject and a distasteful profession, he tried to make it "ok" by showing us the narrator was really a good guy hanging with a bad crowd.
The characters in general were too much their archetypes. We had an above-average, heroic, intelligent, well-read, and multi-talented escaped slave, a disgusting, revolting, inhuman slave hunter guy, and the main narrator, right in the middle, kind of deciding how to behave in the world. Except no one really got to do much self-discovery in the book and the bad guys stayed bad, the good stayed good and the mediocre was also present at the end of the story.
I'm not sure stationary character types are enough of a reason for not wholly enjoying the book, but there you go. It was unpleasant reading about the slave hunter, so maybe that colors my opinion as well.
If you are curious about minstrelsy in the antebellum north and don't want non-fiction, try this book, see what you think and I'd be curious to read your review.
I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway.
joshb1996's review
5.0
There are sentences, paragraphs, and chapters from this book that will continue to spin and repeat in my head for a long time. I like to measure a lot of books by the amount of notes I write in the book (usually reflected by me being forced to challenge a personal worldview or realize a belief that was solidified or clarified through the book), and I wrote a fair amount of notes in this one.
rosseroo's review against another edition
4.0
Without intending to, over the last three weeks, I've read three novels set amidst the slave trade, with plots revolving around escaped slaves. This was the third (the other two being Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad and Ben Winters Underground Airlines) and most compact of the three, but holds its own both in style and storytelling.
Set in 1855 Philadelphia, the scale is limited to a young mulatto banjo player who makes it to the city, and the equally young white man who fled his rural upbringing and now manages a popular minstrel troupe. The backdrop for their coming together is the popular minstrel theater of the time, which involves white performers applying blackface and performing comic routines and sentimental songs as stereotypically idiotic slaves. The author clearly put a lot of effort into researching the history and practices of these troupes, as the descriptions of the shows come alive.
As in the other two novels, there is a cunning and determined bounty hunter after the former slave, and as he brings the threat of discovery and recapture, the narrative tension notches higher. But just to keep the story from being too narrow, there's a subplot involving the troupe's alluring female costume designer. As a non-musician, I often find writing about music and musicians to be tedious in the extreme, but the author has accomplished the difficult feat of making music and performance leap off the page.
Definitely worth checking out if fiction about escaped slaves sounds interesting to you.
Set in 1855 Philadelphia, the scale is limited to a young mulatto banjo player who makes it to the city, and the equally young white man who fled his rural upbringing and now manages a popular minstrel troupe. The backdrop for their coming together is the popular minstrel theater of the time, which involves white performers applying blackface and performing comic routines and sentimental songs as stereotypically idiotic slaves. The author clearly put a lot of effort into researching the history and practices of these troupes, as the descriptions of the shows come alive.
As in the other two novels, there is a cunning and determined bounty hunter after the former slave, and as he brings the threat of discovery and recapture, the narrative tension notches higher. But just to keep the story from being too narrow, there's a subplot involving the troupe's alluring female costume designer. As a non-musician, I often find writing about music and musicians to be tedious in the extreme, but the author has accomplished the difficult feat of making music and performance leap off the page.
Definitely worth checking out if fiction about escaped slaves sounds interesting to you.
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