Young Man with a Horn [Hardcover]

Dorothy Baker (Author), Dorothy Baker (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 252 pages
• Publisher: Amereon Ltd; Limited Edition edition (October 1, 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0848808770
• ISBN-13: 978-0848808778
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,908,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great novels of the Roaring Twenties., May 25, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Young Man With a Horn (Hardcover)

This is the classic story of an artist who devotes himself to his art and dies young -- only the artist is one Rick Martin, one of the best trumpet players ever, and the art is jazz music. Reading this book -- though the prose is so lyrical, you don't read it, you hear it -- you will find yourself in a world of speakeasies, big bands, and the Harlem Renaissance; but the story is universal, and Rick Martin a tragic hero on par with Jay Gatsby. Highly recommended, especially to fans of jazz music and anyone who wants to know how the "Jazz Age" got its name

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars GRADE: B-, March 15, 2000

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Young Man with a Horn (Hardcover)

Young Man with a Horn (1938)(Dorothy Baker)

This novel, loosely based on the life of jazz great Bix Biederbecke, is one of the seminal tales of the gifted but tragically self-destructive artist. Rick Martin, the young man with a horn, is consumed by music but destroyed by bad booze, evil women and by his own impossible musical ambition.

There is a school of thought, of which this novel is emblematic, that true geniuses are tormented or even driven mad because they apprehend things that are beyond the comprehension of us mere mortals and become frustrated in trying to realize them fully and/or express them in terms that we can comprehend. (I saw this theme repeated most recently in the excellent movie Pi). It makes for some entertaining fiction, but it's a load of piffle.

GRADE: B-

Check out the excellent film version of the novel: -Young Man With a Horn (1950)(directed by Michael Curtiz and starring: Kirk Douglas, Doris Day and Lauren Bacall)