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Book Review
Sep. 5th, 2012 11:16 pmValaida
by Candace Allen
This gorgeous novel is a fictionalization of the life of Valaida Snow, a jazz musician and entertainer in the first half of the 20th century. In addition to singing and dancing, she was also successful as a trumpet player in an era when brass instruments were considered either inappropriate for women to play or impossible for them to play well. She was enormously talented and was very successful during the 1920s and 30s, but then became addicted to opiates and had some traumatic experiences in Europe during WWII. She never really recovered from the latter, and although she resumed career after the war, Valaida was unable to fully rebuild her career before her death in 1956.
Allen's rendering of Valaida and her life is really wonderful. The book is written in third person, but is very much from Snow's perspective so that it ends up being just this side of first-person narration. This really works - Valaida gives the reader a wonderfully vivid sense of Snow - I could hear her voice and just about smell her perfume as I was reading. The highs and lows of her life are depicted with complete clarity and compassion, too. I felt like I truly knew Valaida. Allen also evokes the era amazingly well. The world of African-American musicians and entertainers in the early 20th century is brought to life with equal attention to its darker and lighter sides, its grit and its glamour. As a result, I was entirely involved with the story from beginning to end.
ETA: I found a nice video of Valaida performing:
by Candace Allen
This gorgeous novel is a fictionalization of the life of Valaida Snow, a jazz musician and entertainer in the first half of the 20th century. In addition to singing and dancing, she was also successful as a trumpet player in an era when brass instruments were considered either inappropriate for women to play or impossible for them to play well. She was enormously talented and was very successful during the 1920s and 30s, but then became addicted to opiates and had some traumatic experiences in Europe during WWII. She never really recovered from the latter, and although she resumed career after the war, Valaida was unable to fully rebuild her career before her death in 1956.
Allen's rendering of Valaida and her life is really wonderful. The book is written in third person, but is very much from Snow's perspective so that it ends up being just this side of first-person narration. This really works - Valaida gives the reader a wonderfully vivid sense of Snow - I could hear her voice and just about smell her perfume as I was reading. The highs and lows of her life are depicted with complete clarity and compassion, too. I felt like I truly knew Valaida. Allen also evokes the era amazingly well. The world of African-American musicians and entertainers in the early 20th century is brought to life with equal attention to its darker and lighter sides, its grit and its glamour. As a result, I was entirely involved with the story from beginning to end.
ETA: I found a nice video of Valaida performing:
