Half-Blood Blues

by Esi Edugyan
This book just won the Giller Prize for 2011.  It was one of the Booker shortlist also. I have now read 5 of the 6 shortlisted Booker titles this year.

This was an interesting book.  I am not sure I consider it brilliant or as good as some of the other books I read this year.  It's competition in the Giller included Ondaatje's Cat's Table and the Sister Brothers.  I was glad the Sister Brothers didn't win as I didn't think much of that book.  I did enjoy the Cat's Table and think that in my opinion it was a more complex book than this one.

However, having said the above I think the book was interesting.  It is about some black jazz musicians, some American, one German, who are trying to follow their passion, making music, during the start of WW II in Germany and then in Paris.  One of the characters, a young boy, a trunpet player, is considered a protege.  The narrator of the story, is a bass player, who is jealous of the talent of the young trumpet player and the affection of a woman, Delilah, for the young boy.

The book jumps between the 1930's and 1990's. In the 30's time period the group is trying to record their music but the war makes this difficult, they do manage to record some tracks and the main character is able to sneak out a copy to America where the young trumpet player is acknowledged asd a genius.  The tragedy is that the young man was arrested and sent to a concentration camp.

In the 1990's segment of the story, the bass player is returning to Germany with one of the other musicians to attend a festival tribute to Hiero, the genius.  The main character then hears that the young man may not have died in the war and he has to face his guilt for contributing to what occurred to the young trumpeter.

The book does a fabulous job of giving a sense of what life was like in Germany and Paris as there were fears of war and then when the war actually arrived in France.  She portrays the tension and hysteria very well.  She also explores racial issues.  Blacks went to Europe because they were "more accepted" there than in America but with the coming war blacks and Jews became targets, but having somewhat lighter skin could allow you to be mistaken for mediterranean.  When the band makes it to Paris, it is the fact tha Hiero is German that causes problems, not that he is black. At one point one of the men is attacked in a crowd because it is assumed he is a Sengalese solider (brought to France to fight for France) who had gone AWOL. Did the narrator sabotage the trumpeter's escape because he wanted to ensure the band was able to record, or was it his jealousy of the young man and his talent that caused his actions?  If you have passion that drives you, can you just walk away from it?  The book leaves a lot unexplained...