Paradise Jazz [Paperback]

Kat Pomfret (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2005

'At Paradise Jazz, myths became legends and legends took off their coats and played the kind of blues to leave blisters on your soul.' Kat Pomfret's colourful debut novel explores what happens in a small town when big secrets collide. A novel about family, history and identity, Paradise Jazz tells the story of two women who have to confront a violent and secret past. The stories of Georgetown Easy, looking for a father last seen in Texas 1978, and Helena Jones, who wants to forget the past as much as her great aunt wants her to remember it, twist round one another in the small but complex world of the novel, in which 'life is like jambalaya, on the one hand nothing to hold it all together and on the other, Lord you try unpicking one thing from another.'

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 483 pages
• Publisher: Clearway Logistics Remainders (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1905005083
• ISBN-13: 978-1905005086
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,031,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All families have their problems, June 14, 2005

By 

a reader (Sunderland, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paradise Jazz (Paperback)

A terrifically accomplished first novel with the themes of family, history and identity - large and thought-provoking subjects,largely told through the voices of two very contemporary young women in a multicultural society where no-one can be certain what history or culture really mean. Whatever binds these characters together, perhaps life really is "like jambalaya". Perhaps those who remember the 1960s have some reason to conceal things from those to whom the 1960s are just the last pages in the history book, but for the protagonist of this story the past really is a foreign country.

Plenty of meat in this book, then, but it's a good read, not at all heavy in tone and with a rich seam of humour; it neatly avoids the worthy and predictable portentousness and political correctness of many overtly similar novels, and mildly pokes fun at political activists. I read it quite quickly, as it has that "What on Earth will happen next?" quality, but will read it again to catch the deeper threads. Buy this, everyone will be talking about it soon. After all, we all know characters like these.