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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
All that Jazz, September 22, 2001
Reading The Fisher King by Paule Marshall was like listening to the '56 Billie Holliday Concert at Carnegie Hall - complete with historical commentary between the music. It had the same pace and love of the music. Although this is a book about family, Ms. Marshall is at her best when she writes about the music: Jazz. I particularly loved this passage-
"Everett Payne took his time paying his respects to the tune as written, and once that was done, he hunched closer to the piano, angled his head sharply to the left, completely closed the curtain of his gaze, and with his hands commanding the length and breadth of the keyboard he unleashed a dazzling pyrotechnic of chords (you could almost see their colors), polyrhythms, seemingly unrelated harmonies, and ideas - fresh, brash, outrageous ideas. ...He continued to acknowledge the little simpleminded tune, while at the same time furiously recasting and reinventing it in an image all his own."
Although, many will find the ending somewhat unsatisfying, I found it valid. Her portraits of the five major characters, in even so slight a book, were complete and real. The two great-grandmothers were magnificent, the great Uncle serviceable, Hattie a complex and imposing presence, and the little boy Sonny - well, Sonny added his own perspective to each of them, and in so doing told us his own poignant story. Recommended.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A luminescent gem, March 23, 2001
THE FISHER KING is my first encounter with Paule Marshall. In general, her subjects have not automatically appealed to me. I was enticed by the jazz component I noted in a magazine review. As I read the book, I came to appreciate the uncomplicated, crisp writing style. It will not be my last visit to her works. This one focuses on the arrival in New York of a French born grandson, and namesake, of Sonny Rett Payne, a jazz pianist who emigrated to Paris with his wife Cherisse, decades earlier. Sonny, the younger and his guardian/surrogate mother Hattie, another expatriate, have been coaxed to the US by his grandfather's brother, Edgar, to attend a memorial concert in honor of the boy's grandfather. While Jazz and the music culture are background components, this is a story about the complexities and estrangements of family relationships where it seems the child will serve as the unifying instrument between the historically opposed branches of his family. On either side, there is first and foremost a headstrong, idiosyncratic great grandmother, each of whom wishes to subtly prevail in the competition for the boy's affections. My criticism, and it is slight, is the ultimate conclusion of the book is somewhat unsatisfying. Whereas the body of the text seems so well thoughtout and painstakingly developed, the story tends to stop without reaching an apex, or for that matter, a nadir. Nevertheless, THE FISHER KING is a pleasant reading experience while worth whatever time you have to devote to it.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Paule Marshall on the Move, Again, October 9, 2000
Paule Marshall is a careful writer, averaging a book per decade. Her current offering, "The Fisher King," is proof that something worth having is something worth waiting for. At the story's center are the expatriate African-American jazz pianist, Sonny-Rett Payne, and his namesake grandson. This extraordinary child, who lends his voice to the story as a compliment to that of his guardian, Hattie Carmichael, emerges as the most sane and sensitive character connected to a concert in Brooklyn to commemorate his grandfather. Sonny, the child, and Hattie are eking out a living in Paris when Edgar Payne, Sonny's great-uncle, a real estate magnate in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn, summons them to the celebration. As Sonny maneuvers the variegated households of his two great-grandmothers--Florence Varina, the "high-yellow" Southerner, and Ulene Payne, a demented and bitter West Indian--as well as the affluent abodes of Edgar Payne, his abilities to withstand the fallout of long-standing family feuds are tested. As the concert date draws near, Marshall skillfully draws the story toward its natural and original climax and denoument. Through it all, she masterfully makes you hear the music that is a powerfully euphonic partner to the beauty that is characteristic of her own uniquely enduring literary form.
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