Customer Reviews

Shadows of the Blues

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4 star:		(2)
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Whitney LeBlanc writes a richly textured and complex novel which has a tightly woven plot about family secrets, lost as well as stolen virtue, murder - in fact - more than one, a voodoo ceremony, clandestine love affairs, a blues club and madness ... set in southern Louisiana in the mid-1950s up into the 1960s which includes the advent of the Civil Rights movement. This is the second book in a planned trilogy about several fascinating families whose lives are related through marriage and just plain lust. The characters are realistic, with great depth and complexity, formed within the context of the society in which they were born and raised. This book stands alone as a complete novel, not having read the first in the series I am convinced it is superb. I would like to read all three books in this series.

The author weaves a web of unique relationships within a black family which includes a beautiful Creole woman named Martha Broussard Fergerson who despite her prejudice against dark skin color, married Philip Fergerson whose skin was much darker than she would have have preferred. Martha's ancestry dates back several generations to a wealthy white Louisiana land owner, named Antoine Broussard, Senior, who got her black mother pregnant. Color, race and religion is the trilogy which holds tight reigns on both the Fergerson and Broussard families. It ties their relationships in knots due to deep dark hidden secrets which if they were exposed would create havoc and destruction in the already complicated lives of their family members.

The current generation can not escape the sting of the racially obsessed milieu into which they were born. In the case of Martha Fergerson, a Creole who placed high value on the light color of her skin, her life was further complicated by religious upbringing in the Catholic Church. Her religious training had a strangle hold on her emotions. It created so much guilt related to secret behaviors in which she engaged (which the Church would find unacceptable) that her mind broke with reality. She was placed in a psychiatric hospital for her own safety. On one of his visits, she mistook her husband Philip to be a priest and confessed to activities that totally shocked him but which helped him view his wife and their complicated relationship with new eyes and a new heart. Personally, she could find no absolution or forgiveness for her actions but they saved her daughter from society's blame and ostracizement ... While dealing with these personal family conflicts, the music called the blues helped sustain this family and provided the healing which they desperately needed.

The author creates a brilliant novel within the milieu of Louisiana and its unique culture. With a cast of unique individuals and characters who interact within a very creative and twisted plot, the story unfolds and holds the readers interest from beginning to end. The reader is glued to every page, anticipating or awaiting a new development or unexpected event which will shed light on the depth and emotional complexity of the lives of these very special people. Philip Fergerson lived to see his family overcome past adversity. He saw some of his fondest dreams come true via the next generation who no longer bore the emotonal scars of the past. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

Coming right off of reading the first book in this series by Whitney J. LeBlanc, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed in "Shadows of the Blues". I was disappointed for two reasons. First a good part of the book repeats what was in the first book. Really didn't need 30+ pages retelling events from the first book. While storytelling is a great vehicle in families we the readers do not need to read the same stores again unless the story has changed in a significant degree. The second reason I was disappointed is that the first book let us see this family over the course of three decades but this second book is only about a decade of time. I'd really liked to have seen the Fergerson great-grandchidlren and the changes that the 70s at least brought to the South and them.

However the characters remain interesting and the overall quality of storytelling very high. If someone wanted to zoom in on a shorter period of time, this is a good read for that.

Don't let the appearance of the desktop publishing book cover, or the slow-moving first chapter, deter you from reading this compelling and enjoyable story.

Set in segregated Estilette, Louisiana during the `50s and `60s, a black family with Creole heritage is led by Phillip Fergerson, the retired principal of the "colored school." At some point in their lives, each family member young and old face the challenges, heartbreak, and bigotry of the times. Tragically the family faces the realities of losing a mother and Martha, Phillip's wife, to mental illness, which may have been secretly brought about by a family member's voodoo curse.

However, little sympathy is given to Martha, Phillip's only wife, but not his only love. It is revealed that Martha is a headstrong, bigoted and secretive matriarch. Her life choices, lies, secrets and decisions made years before ravage her with guilt. You find her now locked away in an asylum, unable to know or to cope with reality. Martha confesses her sins to an unlikely visitor, and her family is bound to deal with the truth of her unthinkable sins. The family journey is powerful, insightful, revealing, exhausting, dangerous and rewarding.

Wrapped into this intriguing story is: family, deep friendship, heritage of the blues, love, joy, pride, commitment, hatred, danger, voodoo, injustice, pain, and justice. Black history during the `50s and `60s is woven into the fabric of the story, giving it a natural and non-fictional feel.

Clearly the author believes the focus on the family's interpretation, fear and anxiety of the civil rights events, riots and personal realities of the time brings strength to his characters. It does.

Armchair Interviews says: Interesting look at those times.

This is a powerful historical novel about Creoles,Blacks and Whites going through the trials of life,love,bigotry,hope,fears,hatred,personal relations,injustices,all brought together in the lives of people in an area of Louisiana outside Baton Rouge after WWII up to and including the Civil Rights Movemment of the Sixties.
The author ,who obviously has a great depth of knowlege of this way of life has given us a personal insight into what it was to live in the South during these violent and changing times.
Although it is fiction, and supposedly the people, as well as the town of Estiette are imaginary;the author makes it all seem so real,that the reader gets the feel that it is fictional in name only. The reader feels part of what goes on and feels the emotions of all the characters involed.
I won't attempt to summarize the book as other reviewers have already done that very well.
However ;there are a few things I would like to add.
The author obviously has a deep love of American music,particularly Blues,Cajun,Zydeco,Country and even Folk,and how they all influenced one another and how they are all "the music of the people" and tell much about them and their lives.
I had a particular interest in this book because I grew up in Nova Scotia near Grand Pre the site of the Expulsion of the Acadians ,who were the French that came to Louisiana in the 1750's and who are now known as Cajuns.This piece of history was captured by Longfellow in his poem ,"Evangeline" . In Nova Scotia, the French settlers were called Acadians and their descendents are still known by that name. They are very different from the French Canadians of Quebec,having come from a different part of France. Their language is quite different,though still French,and their religion is Catholic. In the 1750's England and France were at War and the Acadians kept their loyalty with France after the victories of the English. They were encouraged to give their allegiance to the British Colony of Nova Scotia. Their refusal ,even though rather peaceful,resulted in their expulsion to Louisiana, which was governed by France at the time. After many years, many trickled back to Nova Scotia while many others remained in Louisiana ;thus becoming Cajuns,intermarried, and became Creoles...hence the descendents in this book.
As an aside,when I read a book ,I use an 8" X10 " sheet of paper to jot notes as I read. Normally ,I will fill a page and sometimes two. In this case ,there were so many details I actually filled 4 pages as well as another which was a Genealogical chart of the characters involved. I recognized the need to do this as soon as I finished the Prologue.There are so many characters and their relationships are important, and I would have had trouble keeping them sorted out without my "scorecard."
Don't let these comments make you think this book is written in a complicated or confusing manner;because it's not. It is very well thought out and written in a smooth flowing manner and holds your attention from beginning to end.
There is an an awful lot covered in this book and each reader will find something different.
I happen to be a "white guy" of Irish and Scottish descent born in Nova Scotia. We had a mixture of cultures from Scottish,Irish,French,British,German,Dutch and several others all alongside 1/3 of the black people of Canada at that time. Religions were just as varied. Somehow we all seemed to get along with a surprising little amount of injustice and hatred ,especially of the violent type.Though it didn't seem that there was racism at the time;I guess there was some of the defacto kind,but everyone took it as "just the way things were". We all worked together,went to school together,played together as kids. With the older generation ,it was somewhat different.
This was brought home to me one day. Several of us had graduated from University as engineers. We went to a company holding job interviews. One fellow who was of Chinese heritige,and very well qualified ,went in first. Later another went in.After his interview ,he said to the interviewer; I guess Ray (our Chinese friend ) got hired" ." Oh, I don't think our company is ready for a Chinese yet",the interviewer said.
"Then I guess it's not the place for us either";and none of us went with that company.
If you are fond of Southern Gothic writing such as Erskine Caldwell,Faulkner,or even the struggles of life we get from Steinbeck,you will add LeBlanc to your list after reading this excellent book.

Phillip .. "While I was listening to y'all,I thought of something that
Mr.BoBo told me before he died. He said,'Nowadays,bluesmen
play in the shaows of the blues.'"
Elvina .. "What does that mean?"
Phillip .. "It means they don't really know what it feels like to
have the blues. They have not experienced the trials and
trimulation of being hungry or going without a job.And
they've never felt the pain and suffering of a broken love
life,bad living,or unfair jail time. The early blues
people experienced all of that firsthand,and you could feel
it when when they sang about it.But they are dying out,
and nowadays the bluesmen sing what they were told about,
so they are just singing in the shadows. Mr.BoBo opened my
eyes to that. He said it just don't feel the same."
Stephen .. "Phillip,I don't think those shadows will ever go away. I
think they'll be with blusemen for years to
come."
Lightfoot .. "As long as we're black,we'll sing the shadows".

just got through reading this powerful book by Whitney J.Leblanc that covers a time period of Louisiana in the last century at the end of World War 2 through the civil rights movement and everything in between with racism about within families and also so much going on with a Battle of just dealing with everyday life. this is the kind of book that has so much tension and so many twists and turns and though it has alot of sad events it still draws you into all the characters and all the situations and you are awaiting to see how it all shall play itself out. very compelling and creative. a Must read.

This book contains a story well told. Set in Louisiana in the middle of the twentieth century, it combines elements of strong racism, both between whites and blacks but also between blacks, voodoo rites, blues music, murders, the black experience in the United States, the black struggle for education, social interactions between blacks and the nascent civil rights movement.
Martha is an old woman with a very colored and secret past, which contains many dark secrets of her family. She finally loses her mind, demonstrating it in a very vivid way, stripping down and slapping herself with a whip until her back and buttocks are bloodied. She is placed in a mental hospital and when a relative visits, she confesses too many things. Her daughter had an affair with a Catholic priest and when the daughter got pregnant; Martha forced her to have an abortion and had her sterilized. In retaliation she put ground glass in the priest's food, which killed him. Even though she is clearly insane, no one doubts her story and the validity is borne out later in the tale.
What was most impressive about the story is that despite the large number of different plot devices that are used, there is no device overload. All come together in the weaving of the plot and there was never a time when I thought that something left out would have improved the story. There is a blurb on the cover noting that this is the second installment of a planned trilogy. I certainly want to read the other two components.