Customer Reviews

If You Can't Be Free, Be A Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Griffin's opening chapter is interesting and effectively presented, and by itself would make an adequate article on Holiday's life. There's not enough content here to warrant a book, and, in fact, it reads more like a first-year graduate student's paper than a text polished for publication. It seems that Griffin favored the copy and paste method here, repeating herself, literally, at times, in subsequent chapters, word for word, from previous chapters. This was not done to lend the text a wondeful insularity or elipticalness...I think she was just confused as to what to say and where to go. That Griffin adores Holiday is clear, but her worship of this Jazz Diva doesn't translate well into postmodern theory, and the pomo buzzwords Griffin sprinkles throughout the text seem to hinder her own understanding of and relationship with Holiday and to her music...Ultimately, the author ends up sounding disingenous and uncertain and not quite cognizant of the social politics she purports to examine and explain. Still, the glimpses we do get of Holiday stand out and shine marvelously.

This book promises much but delivers little....which is a great pity since it could have been a much better book than it is. Part of the problem lies in the fact that it is not well written and is in severe need of editing. The book is repetitive in the extreme (see p. 181 for a glaring example - where we are told in two CONSECUTIVE sentences that Abbey Lincoln was under consideration to play Billie Holiday in a filmed version of Lady Sings The Blues). Other examples involve being told something, and then two or three pages later the same information is repeated. This is sloppy and shows that the author (or her editors) did not bother to proofread the manuscript in any meaningful way.

The other problem with the book is that it offers little in the way of insight. Sure the author has some ideas - but they are not enough to stretch out over the length of a book. It might have made an interesting presentation at a conference where it could have been presented as a 20 minute talk, but over the length of a book it becomes tiresome. Billie Holiday deserves better than this. Sorry to be so negative, but i bought this book with a great sense of anticipation and felt really let down by it. A real case of the critic not being up to the level of her subject.

This is a brilliant analysis, rumination, meditation, on Billie Holiday. I believe the previous reviewers who did not agree with me missed Professor Griffin's use of jazz phrasing within the prose of her work, the reworking and repetition of themes to provide new insight. It is a technique that perhaps would only be understandable to a jazz lover, but it is part of the creative wisdom of this piece. This is the best work on Billie Holiday that I have ever read and I highly recommend it. And incidentally, Dr. Griffin is one of the most respected scholars of African American and American Studies, so she should never be compared to a first year graduate student. I suggest readers check out her other work as well.

...if this were a graduate term paper. It contains very poignant analysis of the common-day misconceptions about Billie Holiday, but isn't very persuasive in "setting the record straight." Whatever Griffin's goal, the book reads much more like a college paper, repeating itself at times and the thesis is pretty worn out by the end of the book. What I actually enjoyed the most about the book were the photos of Holiday. I would have appreciated more historical insight into Billie's life, and perhaps even more of a biographical approach. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a well-rounded representation of Holiday, this book definitely delivers.

This is exactly the type of book I usually like -- a mixture of personal narrative, history, analysis, art -- but it just did not work for me this time. One learns a great deal about Billie Holiday and her place in jazz history, but that is often overshadowed by meandering commentary by Farah Jasmine Griffin (whose book on John Coltrane and Miles Davis is one of the best I have ever read). A straight biography of this mysterious singer probably would have been better.

Not what one expects from an eminent scholar of African American Literature. Revealing from the outset that Griffin is a Holiday fan, perhaps it is best to read this book from the perspective of a devoted fan, for it is neither scholarly or intellectual. It is, nevertheless, thought provoking, and a good motivator for future research on Billie Holiday and other female jazz artists of this era. Overall disappointing.

This book serves to show yet another side of Lady Day. Despite a tendancy to repeat herself, Farah Jasmine Griffith gets her point across eloquently. She peals away layers created by media, stereotypes, and the politics of her time that hide a complex, intelligent and more human Holiday. Fans of the Lady will enjoy this newest edition to the collection of writings about her.

I'm a graduate social work student and I recently wrote a paper about Billie for a class on counseling creative clients. From a strengths perspective, Billie's life was a creative success. She lived true to herself and she lived for herself. Given the enormous odds she faced, as a black woman in that time period, she overcame much. Ms. Griffin has done her justice and I highly recommend her book.

This book is spell-binding. I read it from front to back in 12 hours. Was afraid to put it down for fear I might miss something.