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      Literature & Fiction Books > Poetry Books
      Hardcover Jelly Roll: A Blues Book
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      ISBN: 0375414606

      ISBN13: 9780375414602

      Jelly Roll: A Blues

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      Format: Hardcover

      Condition: Good

      $5.09
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      Book Overview

      In this jaunty and intimate collection, Kevin Young invents a language as shimmying and comic, as low-down and high-hearted, as the music from which he draws inspiration. With titles such as "Stride Piano," "Gutbucket," and "Can-Can," these poems have the sharp completeness of vocalized songs and follow a classic blues trajectory: praising and professing undying devotion ("To watch you walk / cross the room in your black / corduroys is to see / civilization start"), only to end up lamenting the loss of love ("No use driving / like rain, past / where you at"). As Young conquers the sorrow left on his doorstep, the poems broaden to embrace not just the wisdom that comes with heartbreak but the bittersweet wonder of triumphing over adversity at all. Sexy and tart, playfully blending an African American idiom with traditional lyric diction, Young's voice is pure American: joyous in its individualism and singing of the self at its strongest. This description may be from another edition of this product.

      Related Subjects

      Arts, Music & Photography Music Poetry

      Customer Reviews

      4 customer ratings | 4 reviews
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      Rated 5 stars
      amazing

      By Thriftbooks.com User,

      I read this book in one sitting on an airplane and I was mesmerized. I kept looking to my right to see if the woman next to me was peeking over my shoulder. The poems were so good I thought she should have been able to feel it and want to read, too.

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      Rated 5 stars
      great collection

      By Thriftbooks.com User,

      another fine book by one of most talented poets

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      Rated 5 stars
      if you know poetry, you'll love this

      By Thriftbooks.com User,

      Sorry one of the previous "reviewers" apparently hasn't ever read good poetry before, but Jelly Roll is the real deal: smart, savvy, really original yet totally accesible. Young here solidifies his reputation as one of America's hottest poets to check for. And it's a gorgeous, gorgeous book to boot!

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      Rated 4 stars
      Keep It Rolling...

      By Thriftbooks.com User,

      Put this book next to his previous "To Repel Ghost" & readers have a solid sense of the aesthetic range Kevin Young aspires to. These poems sing, they signify, cry & dance with a Morrisonian spectrum of emotion, tuning into the full complexity of Blues. The book, its form, are as informed as they are playful & experimental--the voice confident yet not afraid to examine itself, and chuckle.

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