Do You like book With Billie: A New Look At The Unforgettable Lady Day (2006)?
Une excellente biographie à découvrir pour tous les fans de Billie Holiday ainsi que tous les curieux et les amateurs de musique.Ce livre est un véritable puzzle, bâti sur les témoignages des personnes qui ont rencontré la chanteuse tout au long de sa vie. La narration n'est pas tout à fait linéaire, et le livre donne vraiment la parole aux gens, avec leurs souvenirs, leurs oublis, leurs jugements et leurs émotions.L'histoire du livre en lui-même est aussi fascinante car Julia Blackburn reprend en fait le travail commencé par Linda Kuehl dans les années 1970. Elle met ses pas dans ceux de sa consoeur, remontant le fil de l'enquête en même temps que celui de la vie de Billie Holiday.Un grand plaisir qui laisse éclater au grand jour le portrait d'une artiste tout en secrets et en contradiction, hantée par les drames de sa vie et obsédée par la musique.
—Uranie
This is a great book about Billie Holiday told mostly through personal interviews conducted in the early '70s by those who were close to her. It is interesting to see where the contradictions and parallels lie in the telling. The reader gets a sense of Harlem in the '30's with it's flop houses, reefer-filled rooms, the music joints, one after the other, back when marijuana was a legal commodity. Oh to have known Billie then! Consistently described as kind-hearted to her friends with a penchant for men who treated her badly and her love of gin and the white powder. Okay, she had a temper and who wouldn't in segregated America back then. She had a hard life and probably was a difficult relationship for those who loved her, but she had a very special gift. It is a shame that she was exploited by those she trusted. There will never be another Lady Day. Great read!
—Eileen
Basically a biography of Billie Holiday, but with an interesting structure. Someone had gone and done all these interviews with people who knew Holiday, but couldn't sell the idea of a book to a publisher. This author takes these interviews and weaves them into this book. The structure is more or less one interview per chapter. Which gives us lots of chapters, and different perspectives on some of the same events of Billie's life. It also leaves lots of holes (which is OK), and some doubt about what is really the truth (which is a little less OK). Did her last husband provide her a solid basis that kept her sane, or did he feed her addiction and sqander her money or her talent? Anyway, I learned a bit about her as a person; maybe less as an artist.
—Yofish
