Jazz/Beat Novels

[Guest]

I've been in a book club discussion group for a few years with a small group of friends. We rotate who picks the book for that month and my turn is coming up. The group tends towards classics; Fitzgerald, Wilde, Nabukov, etc. But I ususally try to take us in a slightly different direction. Last time I picked Gil Scott-Heron's "The Vulture", which is quite excellent by the way.

Anything else in this genre that any of you can recommend to me? We've read Kerouac before and I prefer him as a poet vs an author. I'd appreciate any suggestions of something I may not know about. It has to be a novel and can't be overtly about jazz or it'll likley get vetoed.

On a side note, if anyone hasn't read Gil Scott Heron's novels, they are really great, in my opinion. I wish amost every day that he would write again. He has slipped out of the publc eye and with all going on in the world today, I would love to know what was on his mind. I think his voice would be heard right now. A facinating and talented man.

Troy

[Rosco]

On a side note, if anyone hasn't read Gil Scott Heron's novels, they are really great, in my opinion. I wish amost every day that he would write again. He has slipped out of the publc eye and with all going on in the world today, I would love to know what was on his mind. I think his voice would be heard right now. A facinating and talented man.

Troy

Indeed. The last few years haven't been good for Gil. For him to have been silent (on record at least) for large parts of the last 23 years is a great pity. One can only wish him the strength to overcome his personal difficulties.

I haven't read any of Gil's novels but I've always been intrigued. What's available? I'm understand 'The Vulture' and 'Nigger Factory' have been published as a single volume.... any others?

[Chuck Nessa]

You might try The Bear Comes Home by my old friend Rafi Zabor.

[Guest]

I'm understand 'The Vulture' and 'Nigger Factory' have been published as a single volume.... any others?

Those are the only two he published, as I understand. The Nigger Factory is available individually but The Vulture is only available in a bundle unless you find an old copy, I think. I've read them both, I prefer "The Vulture" slightly just because of the time, place and imagery, but they are both excellent in my opinion. He wrote "The Vulture" in college and I think even dropped out for a semester to finish it. There's a great quote from him in the forward that spoke directly to me about my life. I loaned my copy to Peter Johnson and refuse to take it back until he's read it, so I'll paraphrase and not get it quite right. It was something like "I was trying to do 2 things with my life at the same time, which was resulting in doing neither completely well". In his case college and writing.

He is a really deep cat and he has amazing subtlety for someone with such a strong message. I know he's had some problems, but I hope is O.K. and I would love for him to speak, write or sing again. Selfish of me, I suppose. He's just a rare treasure. I wonder if he and Ron Carter have kept in touch?

Troy

[Guest]

You might try The Bear Comes Home by my old friend Rafi Zabor.

Ah yes! A friend recomended this book to me some time ago and I forgot about it. He's a trumpet player and loved it. Thank you for the reminder, I'll check it out.

[ghost of miles]

There's always John Clellon Holmes' THE HORN, which tends to get mixed reviews from jazz fans, and which might be too directly about jazz for your group. (Or Holmes' first novel GO, considered by some to be the first "beat" novel, even though it's written in much more of a straightahead style... and somewhat underrated, IMO, and also much less directly about jazz.) Re: Kerouac, you still might want to check out Larry Kart's fine essay on JK & jazz in Kart's book JAZZ IN SEARCH OF ITSELF.

[Guest]

There's always John Clellon Holmes' THE HORN, which tends to get mixed reviews from jazz fans, and which might be too directly about jazz for your group. (Or Holmes' first novel GO, considered by some to be the first "beat" novel, even though it's written in much more of a straightahead style... and somewhat underrated, IMO, and also much less directly about jazz.) Re: Kerouac, you still might want to check out Larry Kart's fine essay on JK & jazz in Kart's book JAZZ IN SEARCH OF ITSELF.

I'm still quite interested in Kerouac. I just don't think novel writing is his stongest point. I will check out that essay.

[Larry Kart]

Thanks for the plug, Ghost; I like that chapter myself. I’m in the middle of Malcolm Lowry’s terrifying "Under the Volcano" (reading it for the first time, I’m embarrassed to say), and while Lowry (1909-57) wasn’t one of the Beats -- too old, for one thing -- he was out there in the best sense, and "Volcano" has a definite but subtle jazz feel to it at times, both in the sometimes overtly musical, syncopated way it’s written and in the kind of people Lowry is writing about (one of the book’s principal characters casually refers to a "day like a good Joe Venuti record").

I'll vote for "The Bear Comes Home" too.

[DukeCity]

I'll put in another vote for The Bear Comes Home. Great book.

[Kalo]

Another vote for Zabor's The Bear Comes Home.

Beautifully written, and as much about identity and the artistic life as about jazz (oh, yeah, and bears, too...)

Your group needs to have a tolerance for explicit ursine/human sex scenes, however.

[ghost of miles]

Your group needs to have a tolerance for explicit ursine/human sex scenes, however.

Aw, hell, we're into that kinda stuff! When we're not shoveling fast food down our gullets and taking in too much TV, that is...

Seriously, I'll jump on THE BEAR COMES HOME bandwagon. Lots to chew on there, as Kalo points out.

Edited December 12, 2005 by ghost of miles

[Guest]

Your group needs to have a tolerance for explicit ursine/human sex scenes, however.

It's a pretty liberal group, but somehow that topic hasn't come up yet. Odd....

[Rob C]

I wasn't that big a fan of The Bear Comes Home, honestly. And though it wasn't the only reason the book didn't click with me, the bear/human sex scenes were strangely gratuitous. I don't think it's prudishness on my part--I just thought those scenes didn't work.

[Kalo]

Your group needs to have a tolerance for explicit ursine/human sex scenes, however.

It's a pretty liberal group, but somehow that topic hasn't come up yet. Odd....

Frankly, I'd be a bit disturbed if it had come up. Oddly enough, the only other literary ursine/human sex scene I am aware of was penned by none other than (so-called) conservative Scooter Libbey. In his case, however, it was non-consensual. Is that the conservative part?

[AllenLowe]

for Kerouac as novelist (and I think he was capable of great work here) I'd recommend Subterraneans and Vanity of Duluoz -

[Dave James]

Jack Fuller's "The Best of Jackson Payne." That's one I really enjoyed. Here's a short, descriptive blurb I pulled off the internet:

Now we can add to the list Jack Fuller's recently published novel The Best of Jackson Payne.

Fuller is the author of several novels and the president and former jazz critic of the Tribune Company in Chicago. He knows his stuff about jazz and he knows how to write.

Jackson Payne is a tenor sax player whose biography is being researched and written by the novel's first-person narrator. Payne, like so many real jazz artists, lived a life on the edge: the edge of the music, the edge of the women, the edge of the drugs. The narrator becomes obsessed with the man and his music as he searches the world for acquaintances who can recollect the details of Payne's life. The novel, then, is both the story of Jackson Payne and the story of his biographer. As the novel progresses the facts, the music,the genius of each become intertwined.

So many great jazz artists flamed out in the same trajectory of Jackson Payne. If there is meaning to be gleaned from this well- told tale it has to do with the balanced role of boundaries and freedom, harmony and cacophony, genius and ordinariness.

Up over and out.

[Guest]

To update you guys, it was my turn to pick a book yesterday and I went with "Under The Volcano". Thanks for all of the suggestions. No one had read it and I'm sure it's going to be a great choice based on what you've told me and what I've been able to read on-line.

I'm also taking some of the others away as a reading list, but was careful not to suggest a book with an overt jazz theme to it for fear of retribution. A pure beat novel would have been O.K., but I've done that to them before, so I think "Volcano" is going to be the ideal choice.

Thanks again. I'll resurrect this thread when I've read it.

[BruceH]

Your group needs to have a tolerance for explicit ursine/human sex scenes, however.

It's a pretty liberal group, but somehow that topic hasn't come up yet. Odd....

Frankly, I'd be a bit disturbed if it had come up. Oddly enough, the only other literary ursine/human sex scene I am aware of was penned by none other than (so-called) conservative Scooter Libbey. In his case, however, it was non-consensual. Is that the conservative part?

Didn't Stanley Elkin write a story that included human/usine coitus? Or is my memory completely messing up? (Wouldn't be the first time....)

[fent99]

You might try The Bear Comes Home by my old friend Rafi Zabor.

I'm going to up this topic having just read The Bear Comes Home. Interesting, with lots of good writing on the creative process. Recommend it.

How about Herbert Simmons - Man Walking on Eggshells ?