Blackbird Blues by Jean K. Carney

Blackbird Blues. Jean K. Carney. Bedazzled Ink Publishing Company.  October 2019. pb, 218 pp.; ISBN: 978-1949290226.

Mary Kay O” Donnell lives a life parallel to a masterful jazz performance.  She’s an aspiring jazz singer who initially has to decide whether she will enter a convent in Chicago.  Then she has to make a decision about an unwanted pregnancy.  During this time, she is mourning the death of a nun, Sister Michaeline, who as Mary Kay’s mentor.  Sister Michaeline was a nun who always responded out of the box but who guided Mary Kay with advice that built up Mary Kay’s positive self-image.  The loss is so huge and the pain staggering.

At the same time Mary Kay’s neighbor introduces her to the literary works of James Baldwin and the other nuns to the growing civil rights movement.  Then Mary Kay finds herself wrapped up in the world of an African-American Lucius who is a jazz performer.  He also gives Mary Kay the diary of Sister Michaeline which was written during her early years as a nun.  The excerpts have a major impact on Mary Kay as do the singing lessons from Lucius.  They also make visits to local art museums and galleries and they visit jazz clubs that are popular in the African-American world.

Mary Kay’s decision about her pregnancy provides a devastating chapter, a time she will forever mourn.  During this period, she discovers things about Sister Michaeline that are shocking and which Mary Kay understands from her present feelings for Lucius.

This is remarkable historical fiction that is poignant and mind-blowing in intensity. The greatest jazz pieces are depicted as swirling bands of rising and falling notes that sometimes spin out of control and then develop into a harmonious sound that is unpredictable.  That is also Mary Kay’s life during the turbulent 1960s, a time in which change is feared, misunderstood, delighted in and held close.  Jean Carney is a talented writer who has penned an unforgettable story that reflects a time of change and emergence into new culture and form.  It holds parallels with our present age! Delightful and highly recommended read!

The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye

The Paragon Hotel. Lyndsay Faye. Penguin Publishing Group. Copyright January 2019. pb, 432 pp.; ISBN: 9780735210752.

Fasten your seatbelt and get ready for a wild ride into the times of Prohibition – from the jazz-filled clubs of Harlem to Portland, Oregon’s Paragon Hotel.  The streets of Harlem are a mix of Negro music and hoodlums vying for supremacy of territory.  When “Nobody” Alice James arrives at the Paragon Hotel, it’s with the help of the black Pullman porter, Max.  He’s practically carrying her as she’s got a very bad bullet wound in her gut.  This hotel is unique as Oregon has laws and visceral hatred for all people of color.  The KKK rules supreme although they make it sound like a genial social club. 

Slowly but surely Alice meets the residents of this African-American hotel. There’s Blossom, a dramatic young lady with a sweet, sultry voice that charms everyone in her path.  There’s a secret relationship she has with a man known as Dr. Perkins who treats Blossom for a secret condition.  Then we meet several other quirky characters who are ultra-dramatic but as endearing as the main characters.  They all are living in the Paragon Hotel in fear.  Alice James as “Nobody” spares everyone initially from the hoodlum atmosphere in Harlem and doesn’t share her total story until well into the novel.  That’s okay as there are plenty of disputes, dancing, drinking, costuming, etc. to totally rivet the reader to rapidly flipping pages while frantically reading.

Each of these characters may be said to have hearts of gold, with cords of compassion and grit that protects, defends, exalts and empathizes with each other when things get tough.  No spoilers here!

The huge question concerning everyone is “Where is Davy?”  Davy is a young African-American boy, somehow associated with Blossom DuBois, who has disappeared.  Some are frantic about finding him but if one carefully observes the passing days, one notices that not everyone is searching as if it were a matter of life and death.  The answer to these questions will provide an altogether unexpected solution to many problems – one that will move readers to tears!!!

The Paragon Hotel is a stunning historical novel that is also a mystery, romance, and thriller that involves every color, class, religion of Prohibition era.  You will revel in all of the saints and sinners herein!  This is one very talented writer that will make you want to read her former novels and hope that she will continue to create new stories that thrill the mind, heart and soul!  Highly recommended – stunning in fact!