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A review by swingdingaling
Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul by James McBride
3.0
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A 3 might be a harsh rating for this. It's a good read, less a biography and more a series of remembrances about James Brown. The author mostly focuses on a person in James Brown's life, revealing different facets of a man who was to most, unknowable. It winds up being less about Brown the person and more about Brown as an avatar of black art in America, and how artists are often cheated by political and social forces larger than themselves.
The reason I'm not rating this higher is because it feels somewhat unfocused for that reason. Even at 220 pages, it drags in portions that repeat a story from earlier or in parts where the interview subject reiterates something we already learned. Still - for a fanatic, there's a lot of good here if you know what you're getting into.
A 3 might be a harsh rating for this. It's a good read, less a biography and more a series of remembrances about James Brown. The author mostly focuses on a person in James Brown's life, revealing different facets of a man who was to most, unknowable. It winds up being less about Brown the person and more about Brown as an avatar of black art in America, and how artists are often cheated by political and social forces larger than themselves.
The reason I'm not rating this higher is because it feels somewhat unfocused for that reason. Even at 220 pages, it drags in portions that repeat a story from earlier or in parts where the interview subject reiterates something we already learned. Still - for a fanatic, there's a lot of good here if you know what you're getting into.