Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

This is a wonderfully well-balanced book.  The writing is excellent, with an interesting theme and research that is impressive without being dominating.  The time transitions are especially smooth and effortless for the reader.  I was never at a loss to know what was going on, but always tantalized about what was to come next.  Edugyan’s plot development is a model example of taking the reader right to the edge of suspension of disbelief.

We care about these men and women.  They are flawed but likeable characters when they are youngsters in their 20’s.  We love the remaining men when they are old and callous; still flawed, but humbled by their experiences.

There was a rich field of as yet untapped plot-line themes that make up this book: African-American jazz musicians and other sorts of entertainers traveling in Nazi Germany; the anomaly of racial purity as a political doctrine that can dominate a nation; the whole dangerous mystique of moving around in Nazi-held territory [She steals the departing Paris train scene from “Casablanca” where Rick and Ilsa don’t meet up as planned, {but why not – it was a great scene} ].

 

An unusual twist, for us Americans, was that, through Edugyan’s research, we learn that African-Americans were respected and welcomed into the dinner tables of Deutschland.  However, through parental-indiscretion, Hiero, is an African-German and considered a racial outcast.  That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what rich, fascinating information this book contains

The author examines the mischling situation from all angles, not just African mixtures, but Jewish as well.  She seemingly writes herself into the book as Delilah, the only real female character: mysterious and all-knowing, she dominates the action until the book shifts completely to the present.

This book appears to be the complete opposite treatment of the effects of racially-mixed blood lines as last year’s “Cane River”, which was such an intellectual treatise on the subject.  However, they both stimulated deep thoughts about this subject area