The Key West citizen., 1952-09-04
KY Books
BY A. de T. cinsrss

ho Onclalr, novel puDlSneQ Dy
.inehart PuD.iahing Co., New York
!ty, 306 pages.)
This novel begins in New Orleans
1905. The story of the begin
lgs of that city's special flavor
f American jazz is told through
The medium of one of its propon-
ents, young Negro musician and
composer, Dade Tarrant.
Born in a section called Algiers,
he has the Mississippi river almost
at his doorstep. While his widowed
mother has gone across the river
On the ferry to cook for the white
iolks, he learns all the water front
las to teach and fascinate a small
boy. He knows the banana boats
from Central America and how the
great river acts in flood. He re-
trives from the river a variety of
flotsam - a mud-soaked mule
collar from some Swamper's camp,
red cupola from a barn in Iowa,
the painless upper half of child's
high chair. Even a complete wood
en- privy drifts by a few yards
from where he stands.
His mother dies of yellow fever
and as the funeral procession
moves to the cemetery, he hears
the Algiers Bearcats, band hired
by the Daughters of Jerusalem Col
den, to play Come Ye Disconso-
late" His first meeting with the
band is described by the author -
1.-THE brass melted into sus-
tained,seventh chord and the .clari-
net flared upward from the low
register in a swiftly stabbing ar
peggio, Dade fek a shiver travel
the length of his spine. 1t was
like a dash of cold water and,
wordlessly, he recognized that,
whatever else this music might be,
it was right in and of itself. He
was to have the same experience
time without number, but this first
time, without understanding it in
the least, he experienced the shock
of recognition and forever after it
was familiar. The music enter
ed into the human entity that was
Dade Tarrant, like a seed into the
earth, and began to grow there.
Like the seed, the growth would
take time, but it had been planted
that was the important thing :. !.
the professional turned into the
small, aloof city of the dead with
its close-packed rows of tombs. -"
Dade then goes to live with an
aunt and uncle. When he is fourteen
he takes his first job as a shoe
shine boy. Carrying dope to piano
player in a brothel is his first step
in the direction of his goal. The
man teaches him to play piano the
way the Negroes play on Basin
street, and the rest of the book is
what happens from that point on.
And most of it happens right in
the brothels, night spots, pool par
lors and saloons of New Orleans.
The book is one of the finest
pictures of a part of New Orleans
life that has yet been written by
an American novelist. II ranks with
the first part of Roman Rolland's
"Jean Christophe" in its picture
of the struggles of young instru-
mentalist and composer. Some Of
the descriptive passages and dia-
logue are the finest prose that has
appeared for a long time in A.
merican fiction.
Certain technical flaws, however,
detract here and there from the
quality of the work. The excellence
of most of it makes these standout
more glaringly than they would in
a novel of less worth. Every once
in a while the author inserts pas
sages of a textbook variety which
are like blobS of unmixed flour in
a cake. A little more thought on
the authors part would have dis
solved these short dissertations and
authors monologues on the history
of New Orleans jazz and the ra-
cial question into the body of the
text.
The story speaks for itself. The
author doesn't have to intermitten-
ly climb on a soapbox and shout.
Another thing which makes the
story less effective in places is the
authors tendency to give short pre-
views Of what is to happen later.
While an aura Of threat and pro-
monition are always artistieally
justified, outright statements Of
what certain actions current in the
text viii mean in a later chapter
are not good story telling.
(MY VICTIMS by Oscar Berger,
non-fiction, 300 illustrations pub
lished by Harper and Brothers,
New York City, 12s pages.l
Caricature Is mans criticism Of
life. II is his laughter in words
or stone, in clay or drawings, in
stone or in the theatre
This how-to-do-it book by world
renowned earicaturist Of world ee-
lebrities begins by saying that any.
one with some skill in drawing and
with a sense Of humor is a poten-
tial caricaturist- He explains that
al human beings have an impish
impulse TO expose the oddities and
weaknesses Of their fellow crea-