Screamin' Jay Hawkins' All-Time Greatest Hits

A Novel

Fiction & Literature, African American, Literary
Cover of the book Screamin' Jay Hawkins' All-Time Greatest Hits by Mark Binelli, Henry Holt and Co.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Mark Binelli ISBN: 9781627795364
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. Publication: May 3, 2016
Imprint: Metropolitan Books Language: English
Author: Mark Binelli
ISBN: 9781627795364
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication: May 3, 2016
Imprint: Metropolitan Books
Language: English

Mark Binelli turns his sharp, forceful prose to fiction, in an inventive retelling of the outrageous life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, a bluesman with one hit and a string of inflammatory guises

He came on stage in a coffin, carried by pallbearers, drunk enough to climb into his casket every night. Onstage he wore a cape, clamped a bone to his nose, and carried a staff topped with a human skull. Offstage, he insisted he'd been raised by a tribe of Blackfoot Indians, that he'd joined the army at fourteen, that he'd defeated the middleweight boxing champion of Alaska, that he'd fathered seventy-five illegitimate children.

The R&B wildman Screamin' Jay Hawkins only had a single hit, the classic "I Put a Spell On You," and was often written off as a clownish novelty act -- or worse, an offense to his race -- but his myth-making was legendary. In his second novel, Mark Binelli embraces the man and the legend to create a hilarious, tragic, fantastical portrait of this unlikeliest of protagonists. Hawkins saw his life story as a wild picaresque, and Binelli's novel follows suit, tackling the subject in a dazzling collage-like style.

At Rolling Stone, Binelli has profiled some of the greatest musicians of our time, and this novel deftly plays with the inordinate focus on "authenticity" in so much music writing about African-Americans. An entire novel built around a musician as deliberately inauthentic as Screamin' Jay Hawkins thus becomes a sort of subversive act, as well as an extremely funny and surprisingly moving one.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Mark Binelli turns his sharp, forceful prose to fiction, in an inventive retelling of the outrageous life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, a bluesman with one hit and a string of inflammatory guises

He came on stage in a coffin, carried by pallbearers, drunk enough to climb into his casket every night. Onstage he wore a cape, clamped a bone to his nose, and carried a staff topped with a human skull. Offstage, he insisted he'd been raised by a tribe of Blackfoot Indians, that he'd joined the army at fourteen, that he'd defeated the middleweight boxing champion of Alaska, that he'd fathered seventy-five illegitimate children.

The R&B wildman Screamin' Jay Hawkins only had a single hit, the classic "I Put a Spell On You," and was often written off as a clownish novelty act -- or worse, an offense to his race -- but his myth-making was legendary. In his second novel, Mark Binelli embraces the man and the legend to create a hilarious, tragic, fantastical portrait of this unlikeliest of protagonists. Hawkins saw his life story as a wild picaresque, and Binelli's novel follows suit, tackling the subject in a dazzling collage-like style.

At Rolling Stone, Binelli has profiled some of the greatest musicians of our time, and this novel deftly plays with the inordinate focus on "authenticity" in so much music writing about African-Americans. An entire novel built around a musician as deliberately inauthentic as Screamin' Jay Hawkins thus becomes a sort of subversive act, as well as an extremely funny and surprisingly moving one.

More books from Henry Holt and Co.

Cover of the book The Mouse and the Moon by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book My Mother's Kitchen by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book Tenacity by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book Poppy the Pony by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book The Big Necessity by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book Reckless Endangerment by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book Kit & Kaboodle by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book Who Likes Rain? by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book Naked Airport by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book Scars of Sweet Paradise by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book The Empire of Necessity by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book The Defense by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book The Arab of the Future by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book The Great Art Caper by Mark Binelli
Cover of the book The Winter Soldiers by Mark Binelli
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy