Blind man with a pistol - Chester Himes, 1969. 10/20
Chester Himes's two star detectives Ed Cercueil and John Fossoyeur (french names) got themselves in a "very hard to follow" story this time. The author's clunky prose still portray every negative aspect of the Harlem community in the late 60's: mindless, crime, vice, etc. The good point of this book is that Himes managed to capture and described well this chaos: a weird riot between three factions in which two cops are trapped. But as I said, the lack of central storyline makes it difficult to read because you 've got the feeling that pieces of this novel are slapped together. Usually in a Chester Himes story, politic and the situation of the black community are better linked. Definetely not his best novel so far...
Triksta - Nik Cohn, 2005. 12/20
Nik Cohn draws a rough portray of the New Orleans rap scene. evene if he made up most of the story, this book is still interesting to read. It deals with this white journalist (himself) who progressed from a writer, writing a magazine article about bounce music, to a New Orleans rap producer including his work with Junie.B for the release of the first 12' of Choppa. Yhe interesting thing is that this book has been written between the collapse of Mo'Money Records (owned by Master P) and the big succes of Lil Wayne.Recommended for the NO rap scene fans!
Train ride- Peter Loughran, 1967. 14/20
Train ride is the story of an absurd wanabee philosopher who's "headaching" and "hangovering" in a train.During the whole trip, he accuses with vehemence society, religion and the established order. This anarchist docker easily plays martyr as soon as he happens to commit an abomination. Irritated the entire ride by few nuns and a little girl who's the definition of brat. This narrator is a sick and disconcerting character who makes this book spreading its perversity to a point of disgust.
Reading this book all the way through, we pardoned this pathetic hero with our brief sympathy and indulgence. Great book in a "nihilst" style.
The Black Dahlia - James Ellroy, 1987.15/20
The body of a girl that was brutaly tortured was found severed in half. Two cops (who are ex-boxing opponents) Lee Blanchard and Bucky Bleichert are assigned to the case... James Ellroy took real events from history and intertwines them with his own writting. The Black Dahlia obviously focuses on the murder of Elizabeth Short, one of the most unsolved enquiry in LA. The book starts with a nice descrition of a boxing match between bucky and Lee, these two characters are very well described along the story and I really like them. They're complex, faulted and their obsession in solving this crime and tracking down the murderer gets higher and higher.
Music to illustate this post:
The french moog player Jean Jacques Perrey released this track in 1970 on the obscure jazz funk label Vanguard. I've got this tune from the LP compilation of 96 called "The vanguard experience - I like it" on the label BGP.
This compilation includes various jazz/funk artists from the Vanguard records and especially this one which has been sampled by Primo on "just to get a rep". If you didn't know it, it's time too:
Jean Jacques Perrey (vanguard times)
Jean Jacques Perrey - E.V.A
Chester Himes's two star detectives Ed Cercueil and John Fossoyeur (french names) got themselves in a "very hard to follow" story this time. The author's clunky prose still portray every negative aspect of the Harlem community in the late 60's: mindless, crime, vice, etc. The good point of this book is that Himes managed to capture and described well this chaos: a weird riot between three factions in which two cops are trapped. But as I said, the lack of central storyline makes it difficult to read because you 've got the feeling that pieces of this novel are slapped together. Usually in a Chester Himes story, politic and the situation of the black community are better linked. Definetely not his best novel so far...
Triksta - Nik Cohn, 2005. 12/20
Nik Cohn draws a rough portray of the New Orleans rap scene. evene if he made up most of the story, this book is still interesting to read. It deals with this white journalist (himself) who progressed from a writer, writing a magazine article about bounce music, to a New Orleans rap producer including his work with Junie.B for the release of the first 12' of Choppa. Yhe interesting thing is that this book has been written between the collapse of Mo'Money Records (owned by Master P) and the big succes of Lil Wayne.Recommended for the NO rap scene fans!
Train ride- Peter Loughran, 1967. 14/20
Train ride is the story of an absurd wanabee philosopher who's "headaching" and "hangovering" in a train.During the whole trip, he accuses with vehemence society, religion and the established order. This anarchist docker easily plays martyr as soon as he happens to commit an abomination. Irritated the entire ride by few nuns and a little girl who's the definition of brat. This narrator is a sick and disconcerting character who makes this book spreading its perversity to a point of disgust.
Reading this book all the way through, we pardoned this pathetic hero with our brief sympathy and indulgence. Great book in a "nihilst" style.
The Black Dahlia - James Ellroy, 1987.15/20
The body of a girl that was brutaly tortured was found severed in half. Two cops (who are ex-boxing opponents) Lee Blanchard and Bucky Bleichert are assigned to the case... James Ellroy took real events from history and intertwines them with his own writting. The Black Dahlia obviously focuses on the murder of Elizabeth Short, one of the most unsolved enquiry in LA. The book starts with a nice descrition of a boxing match between bucky and Lee, these two characters are very well described along the story and I really like them. They're complex, faulted and their obsession in solving this crime and tracking down the murderer gets higher and higher.
Music to illustate this post:
The french moog player Jean Jacques Perrey released this track in 1970 on the obscure jazz funk label Vanguard. I've got this tune from the LP compilation of 96 called "The vanguard experience - I like it" on the label BGP.
This compilation includes various jazz/funk artists from the Vanguard records and especially this one which has been sampled by Primo on "just to get a rep". If you didn't know it, it's time too:
Jean Jacques Perrey (vanguard times)Jean Jacques Perrey - E.V.A
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