Blue Monday

by Harper Barnes

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0935284923
• ISBN13: 9780935284928
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Patrice Press
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great description of a time and area

I made the mistake of ownkng this book to someone who didn't retur it so will have to buy another copy.I happen to live in Kansas City and loved the descriptons of the area. It bought out the discrimation against blacks and described the effect the Mafia had on this city. The Mafia did try to take over the town but they were too late. Tom Pendergast already owned everyone in down without his permission. Need a job, trouble with the law, what ever, just go see Tom Pendengast. ALl he asked in return was your vote. All of the corruption is exactly as written in the book. Edward R. Morrow was said as far as sin was concerned forget Paris. Shaning and PeKing might be worse but he dobuted it. As afarr as one area was concerned there was no depression. There was no building going on because of the depression except in Kansas City. Mr. Pendergast owned a concrete company. The city hall was built, as well as the county court house, the Federal Court House, the Police Buiding, a Muncipal Audition. Of course, Mr. Pendergast's concrete company got the bids. An electrican only did so much work a day as did a plumber, brick layer, ect. No labor saving devices were used. This way more people had work for a longer time. A person could rent a room, have femine company, liquor and hear the best music on earth and all in the same building. If he wanted gamble he only had to go to the basemnt---presto---gambling, liquor, etc.

all that jazz

"Blue Monday" does exactly what a novel should do: break down boundaries and make us feel how it is to live in another time and place. It's an alluring one, too - the jazz scene in Kansas City in the 1930s. Racial and ethnic divisions are brutal, the politicians are corrupt, crime is casual and cruel - a perfect place for romance. And for music, which Barnes writes about so eloquently you can almost hear the pages. "Blue Monday" is a haunting evocation of a world that's gone, and an incisive look at a bitterly divided America that persists. It's one of the most ambitious books I know, and also one of the most beautiful. Absolutely unforgettable. - Judith Newmark