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Jelly Roll: A Blues
Paperback

Jelly Roll: A Blues

$38.99
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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.

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MORE INFO
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Random House USA Inc
Country
India
Date
15 February 2005
Pages
208
ISBN
9780375709890

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.

Read More
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Random House USA Inc
Country
India
Date
15 February 2005
Pages
208
ISBN
9780375709890