Customer Reviews

Blues Dancing: A Novel

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Diane McKinney-Whetstone has done it again... taken her readers to Philly, evoked every sensory organ, and personally introduced us to vivid characters with personality. Mrs. McKinney-Whetstone is such an excellent storyteller!

Blues Dancing is a beautifully written novel of passionate relationships between friends and family. By passionate, I'm referring to the deep and loving heartfelt emotions... and a bit of physical intimacy.

Verdi and Johnson display such strong passion for one another during a time when the major focus of the Movement was violence. During their college years, they become friends and inevitably lovers. I enjoyed reading how they were so much a part of one another that you couldn't tell where one ended and the other began... that's some DEEP love.

While swimming (and nearly drowning) in the depths of this passionate love story, I had to put the book down a few times to literally catch my breath. Blues Dancing took me back to a place I never wanted to leave... who knows, maybe I'll smell the sweetness of butter!

Yes, she has done it again ! Diane McKinney Whetstone is one of my favorite writers of the 90's. I LOVED Tumbling, was again impressed by Tempest Rising and was anxiously patting my foot waiting for another novel to be published. Blues Dancing was yet another 'love story' which featured 'tragic' female characters who ultimately find themselves and overcome their demons.

This story was simple, yet lyrical - complicated, yet easy to read and understand. You could compare her to Toni Morrison but you can leave the notepad, dictionary and hightlighter in your desk.

It is hard to trudge through this wave 'Dating Game', junk food fiction by African American writers which has marked the 1990's. But, finding Diane McKinney, Edwidge Danticat and Helen Elaine Lee has renewed my faith in real writers and makes me glad I am a reader.

The main character, Verdi, along with her male suitors Johnson and Rowe, demonstrates how easily people can give up their power to another person or substance and how finding your own self and own way are really the only ways to assure that someone elses strengths or weaknesses are not making you what you are.

While Tumbling and Tempest Rising were very good, Blues Dancing has to be the best work of Ms Whetstone. She very smoothly takes us back and forth from the 70's and 90's and the relationship of Verdi and Johnson and Verdi and Rowe. Her writing is very descriptive and you could just imagine yourself in the midst of the story. Sage, Penda and Kitt lends a very nice touch to the story. This book will keep you intrigued.

This novel came highly recommended by one of my favorite people, Brian. Thanks so much for the suggestion. This is my first novel to read by author Diane McKinney-Whetstone but it won't be my last.

The love shared between Verdi and Johnson was so deep and strong. After being apart for 20 years these two reunite. Will Verdi leave Rowe who saved her life and go back to Johnson? I won't say. At no time in the novel did I feel sorry for Rowe. He had to deal with the decision he made to leave his wife.

The many twist to the story made for a great page turner. The characters were well developed and described. I loved the authors ability to go back and forth in time without confusing me. Blues Dancing is a novel that shouldn't be missed. I look forward to reading Tumbling and Tempest Rising.

Diane, I wish you much success and look forward to adding you to my list of favorite authors. Be Blessed.

I truly loved this book and McKinney-Whetstone's very lyrical words and developed characters. This story of love, betrayal and reuniting with a lost love kept me enthralled. Some of the plot endings were predictable (Sage) and some were not (Rowe). Verdi was very dependent on men (Johnson, Rowe and Leroy), Rowe was pompous (the nerve of him) and Kit was an "around the way girl", LOL. The twins were interesting, however the relationship between and Posie and Leroy was left unresolved and the hint as to whether Verdi and Kitt were actually sisters was not complete. Hm, could another novel be in the works to resolve these issues? I say go for it! The writer took us back twenty years and beyond for the reader to understand the characters' behaviors. This will be on my list as an all time favorite! Go Diane!

Set in Philadelphia ...Blues Dancing (BD) unfolds and is told. BD is the story of Verdi and Johnson, Verdi and Rowe, Verdi and extended family poetically and lyrically told in a breathtaking manner! I finished this book in a day and was saturated with so many feelings that it was over two weeks before I was able to pick up another book. In fact, Blues Dancing is by far the best book that I've read this year and the only book that I've read twice in a VERY LONG TIME.

Blue's Dancing is vividly and lyrically written and is an unforgettable story about love, betrayal and faith. For the last twenty years, Verdi has composed a quite life with her former professor, Rowe. He takes care of her and makes her feel good albeit over time the relationship becomes increasingly stifling and controlling at times. All appears fine until Johnson returns to town. Johnson, the boy from the streets of Philadelphia who captured Verdi's heart when the two of them were in college. Johnson the boy who taught Verdi to love heroin and then wanted out of the relationship when the heroin consumed Verdi. With Johnson's reappearance, the ground beneath Verdi begins to shift, and Verdi must discover the only person who can save her-herself.

I like Ms. Whetstone's ability to tell an engrossing and provocative story. Even thought the story spanned the 70's and 90's and switched back and forth one barely noticed because of Ms. Whetstone's excellent writing skills and writing style. The characters were well developed and had depth including the youngest cast member Sage. You cheered for Posie and one wanted the best for her; Rowe was the character that everyone loved to hate.

Blues Dancing touches all of ones senses as it is alive with scent, sound, sight, taste and touch. Whetstone wraps us in emotions so acute that we can almost taste Johnson's sadness, smell Verdi's innocence, and touch Rowe's manipulation. Whetstone's descriptions are rich with imagery so vivid that one can readily visualize the scenery and the characters lives as they stand on the brink of crumbling. Once you've read Blues Dancing you'll change your mind about some of the current genre out there by AA authors and say wow...CAN WE HAVE MORE WRITING LIKE THIS...no broken English, mature and educated AAs, characters with depth, substantial storyline, plots that build and get better, excellent writing skills, and the list goes on but read it for yourself and form your own opinions. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't say that this book is for serious readers only...if you're looking for something light and mindless...this might not be the book for you.

If you're still interested, please read this poignant and memorable novel from Ms. Whetstone.

I was captivated by the descriptive words and metaphors that Diane uses in Blues Dancing. She uses lyrical, pivoting words that enhance the imagination, and stir the story around in your mind. 'Blues Dancing' is the best writing and use of words that I've read in a long time. This novel is the balance between the overly descriptive novels, and the 'tell a tale' novels. This is the first novel that I've read by Diane, and I was thoroughly impressed. Her characters were so well developed and described, that I could actually feel them, their dilemas, their pain, and their longing. Reading 'Blues Dancing' was like listening to a slow, sultry jazz song dripping with soulful love and palpatating emotions.

This book was amazing! I absolutely loved the ending where everything was still a huge emotional sore! The interwoven story of past abuse, mentor abuse, mental abuse, love, and the over all feeling that the main character was trapped into a life that most thought was perfect!

Visual! Sharp! Beautifully written! I loved this story of girl/woman Verdi Mae and her discovery of herself over the course of more than twenty years. The author easily weaves the story lines, time frames and memory in a seamless way that flows like water. Verdi meets and falls in love with Johnson but his need to sooth the pain of his upbringing and her need to explore everything that her sheltered roots have shielded her from leads them to a heroin addiction that threatens to kill all of the promise that their love brings. In what seems like a brutal betrayal, Johnson tears himself away from Verdi who is "rescued" by her college professor, Rowe. Rowe has his own issues, the least of which is his need to control situations and people, most noteably, Verdi. It takes Verdi more than twenty years to learn the truth of Johnson's departure and to come up from her own faith to save herself from the fears that keep her dependent throughout the story. Verdi's behavior is akin to the autistic child Sage who is not able to speak until a near tragedy pushes the words forth that she has not been able to verbalize in more than seven years of life. In the end, it is the special needs child who is the impetus of Verdi finding and saving herself. Read this book. It is so moving. You will love it. C.M. Miller---Author of The Audrey Wilson Mystery Series--- Taxes, Death, & Trouble--- Accrual Way To Die--- Free Throw

...to have the kind of love Verdi and Johnson shared. As a college student and preacher's kid, Verdi was naive and away from home (small-town Georgia) for the first time in the big city of Philly. But, she had the love of her first cousin, the street-wise Kitt. Kitt's mom is the twin sister of Verdi's mom. Verdi and Kitt grew up totally different but became closer than sisters. It's that love that helps Verdi get through her hard times in Philly. During her transformation in college, Verdi meets Johnson, an idealist radical who has a heart of gold, but knows not how to use his intelligence. They become an inseparable couple until drugs intervenes. The story starts off in present-day PHilly (Verdi is in her 40's) and goes back forth to her early years in college. Ms. Whetstone did a great job in keeping the past and the present separate, but was still able to find a common thread. I was never once confused.

The love that these two had for each other was unmatched and unmistakable, but they couldn't see past each others problems. True, Johnson's problems resulted in the naive Verdi's downward spiral, but towards the end we realize that it was his LOVE for her that allowed her to 'move one with her life'. All of these years she felt that he left her to wallow in her drug-addicted lifestyle. I don't want to give a way the book, but we find out later that Johnson loved her more than he loved himself. At any rate, Verdi was "rescued" by her college professor who left his wife for the young and sweet Verdi. The professor, Rowe, was domineering and felt that had it not been for him Verdi would still be an addict (that was may evident by his continued 'search' for needle tracks in her arms some 20 years later). He always felt she would fall back into her drug addict ways and he thought she "needed" him to survive. Sadly, Verdi herself felt she needed him to survive, to breathe, but that was so far from the truth.

I have loved all of Ms. Whetstone's books and this one is no exception. I LOVE the way she writes and the way she tells a story. I hated when the book ended. Speaking of the ending, I wish she could have explored what happened to Rowe the professor...I was quite disappointed with the way she ending his part of the story. There were so many different and wonderful relationships in this book I was left wondering if there will be a sequel.

Please Ms. Whetstone, can you let us know what happens to Verdi and Johnson, Kitt, her mom and Kitt's daughter (who by the way,at seven years old, had just spoken her first words towards the end of the book).

I wrote all of this to say that I LOVE THE BOOK! All of her novels are excellent! I'm waiting on the next one!!